A whirlwind few days

An action packed weekend that kicked off with my mother arriving on Friday night. This coincided with me returning from walking Moll, while Himself “warmed the place up” for my mother. Bearing in mind it's hardly cold, and we're trying to economise at the moment, I got back to find the woodburner pumping out heat, the central heating on as well and my mother growing pinker by the second. I opened all the windows, turned the heating off, opened the front door and gradually the flat returned to an ambient temperature. Credit crunch? You wouldn't think so down here...

Anyway, on Saturday we went to see the house that was my mother's home – she was born and lived there till she was married from there. It's now a restaurant and you can imagine her mixed feelings as she looked at the summerhouse where she'd had lessons, at the playroom that was now a dining room, at the fireplace where her wedding pictures had been taken. I hovered by like an anxious mother hen (daughter hen?), anticipating her mixed emotional response. We couldn't see the room she'd been born in which might have been a good thing, but we had a look in the garden and at what had been the old garages, and mum had a bucket full of memories to take home with her.

Next stop was lunch at a dog friendly pub in Gwithian – the Red River pub. I'm writing a feature on 10 of the best Dog Friendly pubs in Cornwall, so naturally we had to sample some. This place was great – nothing special inside but so friendly and the owner and bar staff adore dogs which is a bonus. Food was great – lovely bowlfuls of carrot and sweet potato soup – and then we took Mollie for a good long run along Godrevy Beach. Mum's favourite childhood beach.

Last stop of the afternoon was the National Animal Welfare Trust rescue centre where I interviewed the manager a month ago. They've just moved into larger premises so I was keen to see how they were getting on. The new kennels are fabulous and Louise and her staff have worked so hard to ensure that the dogs and cats are happy and well looked after. It was agonising though, to see two very special little terriers that I longed to take home.....

We returned home (minus extra animals, to the cat's relief: he swore he'd leave home otherwise) and then had our cousins from Penzance for a musical evening which was a wonderful end to the day.

Sunday I did a walk for the magazine at Chapel Porth with my photographer friend and her partner and Moll, and yesterday was spent frantically writing that up. Got another rejection for the novel but then a request to see first three chapters, so it just goes to prove how subjective the whole process is...