One thing about the rainy summer is that all the flowers are absolutely beautiful this year. This is a pic of the hydrangea by our pond. We got it two years ago as a very small plant and now it’s grown quite big. It started off blue but the pink is taking over. We’ll have to make the soil more acid by adding some wood chippings. Trouble is there’s a clematis plant right behind it and they like alkaline soil. So I’ll probably have to move the clematis when its growing season is over.

I’ve had another quite busy week. I did manage to get all my form tutor reports written by the Friday deadline. Yay! Weather-wise it has been awful. I'm very sorry for the Spanish girl who's staying with one of my pupils on an exchange. Compared with Spain it must feel like winter here.

The weekend wasn’t too bad and we did have some sunshine. I was able to dry my washing out on the line, doing my bit for the environment by not using the tumble dryer. I much prefer drying cottons and linens in the fresh air anyway as they smell so much nicer. Did any of you watch Live Earth? I saw some of it. Madonna was fantastic, as were Razorlight and James Blunt.

I did some gardening as well. The pond had filled up with a lot of blanket weed that needed clearing. The rain had caused weeds to sprout that looked like triffids. And it was time to dead head the roses. Yay again! I managed to reach my interim goal of 70K on the WIP yesterday in between blitzing all the floors in the house. They needed a good scrub and I was in an energetic mood.

I’ve been very careful with my diet this past week and managed to lose two pounds. Cutting carbs works for me as I'm not so hungry. I don’t eat fatty food as it helps to avoid a gallstone attack (my last attack happened when I ate a bacon, chicken and mayonnaise sandwich). My appointment with the consultant has been brought forward to this Thursday. I’m still hoping to avoid having surgery. Please keep your fingers crossed for me!

Son is still waiting to hear from the company where he sent his CV a week ago. He’s now about to contact other employers. Keep your fingers crossed again!

Tomorrow we’re having a special day in school for Year 8 (13 year olds): a Languages Day. They’ll be having taster sessions of Italian, Portuguese and Japanese plus fun activities like Welsh Folk Dancing, quizzes, singing, playing French boules, etc. all to promote the importance of learning languages in the hopes that, when they make their GCSE choices next year, they’ll continue with their French and Spanish. Welsh is compulsory up to the age of 16 here.

I’ll sign off now and leave you with some comments from the customers of a book shop:

“You had a book with a blue cover in the window when we came last summer, have you still got it?”

“My husband and I really enjoyed the television series Bleak House and were wondering if they were going to do a book of the series.” When told that Charles Dickens had already written it she replied, “Gosh, that was quick.”

“I can’t understand why these old children’s annuals are so collectable everyone I know threw them away when they were children.”

Word Count on Nine Dragons 70,000/90,000

70 / 90 (77.8%)