The new CF memory card for my camera arrived this morning, by recorded delivery no less -- and there was no charge for postage. It's a 128Mb card, only £47, a real bargain. With everything set to minimum I can squeeze more than 1,400 photos on it. Stunning or what. I immediately became a clicking fool, and the battery ran out. Must. Get. Spare. Battery...

Mother and John, if you're reading this, thanks so much for the gardening gloves, which also arrived this morning. I've given one pair to Chad, the chap I work with who has an allotment, I hope that's ok. They're great gloves because the fabric is so thin. I've got a pair of clunky leather ones for pruning blackberries and so on, but they're too thick for weeding. The ones you sent are perfect.

The gloves I'm mainly wearing these days are the slink-skin and possum fur ones Jenny and Trevor gave me last year; it's sooooo cold! But a thaw is on its way. They've been having mountains of snow up north, with blizzards too. Some of the main roads were closed. Not a skerrick of snow here though.