MollyDog.

This is our wee Molly-dog. 9 years ago I chose her from a large empty Space Raiders crisp box, she was one of 12 wiggly black and white puppies that still looked like tiny guinea pigs in a small house in Carlisle. We were on our way up to Scotland for a family holiday in Dunbeath, Caithness, and the rest of the holiday was taken up with excitedly planning dog names. She was an absolutely nightmare puppy; naughty and full of beans. She once ran away from me across the fields behind the house and I ran after her for an hour before eventually cornering her and dragging her home in floods of tears, just relieved she hadn't managed to reach the main road. A month later she ran away from Dad in the forest and only turned up 2 hours later, covered in bracken and burrs. These days Molly is a little old lady who has become increasingly vocal as age as deafness creeps up on her. She constantly moans and groans, seeming unable to hear herself, she watches carefully as I drink a cup of coffee with lots of milk and one sweetener (her favourite) and wags her tail like mad when I save her a bit and give her my cup when I'm finished. She also likes merlot, and you leave your wine glass on the floor (or the low coffee table) at your own risk. She still steals socks and herds them like puppies into her bed.

At the moment, she has a sore tail and keeps chewing it and licking off the cream Mum applies every day... Hence the rubber ring. It's getting better, but the poor little lady looks a bit undignified at the moment!

Lovely day at home today; we went into Harrogate and I did a bit of clothes-shopping and took advantage of having Mum to give me advice. I also picked up some ingredients for Mum's Mother's Day lunch that I'll cook tomorrow (aubergine stuffed with butternut squash, feta and herbs followed by pear and blackberry cake).

Mum made a lovely chicken curry for tea and we had home-made crème brulee for pudding. Just relaxing in the armchair catching up on my Blips now while Mum does her Saturday Times crossword.