Thames, Dover, Wight

Thames, Dover, Wight; South-West 5 to 6 becoming variable 3 to 4, occasional rain, occasionally poor. Those are lovely sea conditions to bring 2CV Llew and his mate home from Boulougne to collect young Boris, so we are assuming he goes home tonight. They are out in a 40 foot yacht which sleeps 8, (jammy gets, says Dad) so it should be able to cope with a nice stiff breeze and Llew will almost certainly phone soon to let us know what's going on.

Not that we haven't loved having Boris (who also gets called Basil by mistake by both Mum and Dad for some reason - they just seem to have locked onto that name!) He is good company, excellent for a romp and a chase about, invigourating for the H-man and not too pushy for Dad's affections. As you know he also gets us a reprieve on the 'dogs sleep downstairs' rule and (get this) even though he wins us permission to be with Mum and Dad, he doesn't actually sleep on the bed, preferring to be on the bedroom floor or landing.

Not too much on today so there's a bit of coming and going but Dad's mainly here. He does, though, start this year's little burst of judging wildlife gardens for the Kent Wildlife Trust, this first one being a community volunteer garden wedged in between some houses on a former allotment site in Whitstable, called "stream walk"; all very new, immature and tidy but showing obvious signs of plenty of hard work by the volunteers. All the best, you guys.

All the best

Deefs