Mr and Mrs Golden Delicious

John's already filled you in on the events of the last few weeks. The wedding of Aisling and Charlie has to be the highlight, especially as we can now officially call Aisling by Sue Durcan's favourite nickname of Golden Delicious. The happy couple weren't the only delicious offering at Glin Castle, as the accompanying picture of the reservoir pups (Simon, Olly, Thomas, Carl and John) shows. What a handsome bunch.

The girls didn't scrub up badly either though Gemma and I rather let the side down after a little bit too much liquid refreshment. Even though Aisling and Charlie are not likely to have seen their wedding video yet I might as well start apologising now.

Egged on by Gemma I made a right fool of myself with the most idiotic message imaginable but I still haven't got over being denied the opportunity to sing in church. I always do my best and loudest ex-choir girl effort to drown out John's dreadful droning. It's even worse at the carol concert with Dawn and Carolynn in attendance, too. Three more awful singers it would be hard to imagine.

However much apologising I do though is unlikely to match the amount Gemma had to do on Saturday night as glass after glass of red wine was tipped over whichever poor unsuspecting individual happened to be trying to hold a conversation with her. Val was first, I know Sharon, Aisling's sister, had her orange dress turned red in patches, and my cream shoes took a bit of bashing (not to mention Gemma's own white skirt). Sexy Simon The Vet got off lightly but he was too busy auditioning to be the next Bond (mover over Daniel Craig, you're so last year) to be worried by such trivialities.

It was a lovely few days away after a fairly stressful week at Tattersalls and it's not over yet as part two of the October sale is due to start any minute now. To be honest, the weeks since Alice died have been a right old drag. Despite the fact that this place is stuffed full of lovely animals it just feels so hideously lonely without her. Every corner of the house and yard prompts a memory of her. Stan has at last got some canine company in the form of fellow greyhound Sarah, who returned here yesterday for a second chance. It's lovely to have her back. She has bags of personality and is easy to spot on the heath with her uneven gait following a broken hip as a puppy.