What it is to be a responsible dog owner! I took the dogs out this morning and as we were getting out of the car it pelted with rain and blew a gale I was soaked before we even set off. Needless to say they both enjoyed it. We walked for about two hours and had intermittent sunshine and blue sky and heavy showers and rainbows, very typical Highland weather.

My Son and family finally arrived in Devon 26 hours after they set off and are all exhausted! I'm missing them already and have to get used to them not being close at hand. It has been a very stressful week for me so when I got home yesterday and  my husband had bought a huge bouquet of flowers and arranged to take me out tonight I thought he was trying to cheer me up. But no it was our wedding anniversary and I had completely forgotten. He went off to work this morning and there was a card for me on the table and that was my first inkling. Oh dear, the worst of it is that had the boot been on the other foot I would have been quite angry and upset. I think its humble pie for me!

As the dreadful story of Baby P has emerged this week I read a very thought provoking piece in The Times from Janice Turner entitled The pornography of child violence I am unable to read graphic details of what happened to this poor little child and sickened that anybody could do such things to a helpless infant. I have received quite a number of invitations to join Facebook groups on this subject but do not feel that this is the way forward. It is completely natural to feel upset and angry that such a thing could happen but 'lynch mob' frenzy is not helpful in my opinion. Neither is villifying Social Services who do a very difficult job and can only work with what information they have at the time. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, so lets wait until a full investigation of their practice is undertaken before we judge them.

Linda