Well, this time last year, we were all agog at the exploits of Swampy - a new breed of hero. This year we have...
The Sundance Pig, a Tamworth boar on the run from the abattoir.
He and his partner, Butch (an unfortunate name since the pig was a sow), made their bid for freedom as the trailer in which they were being carried to certain death was opened at the slaughterhouse. The two porkers ran for it, evaded staff, wriggled under the perimeter fence, raced over a field and swam across the swollen river Avon. And all because the lady loves mashed swede.
Butch (swiftly re-named Tammy) was captured first but Sundance made a good fist of it
and went AWOL for over a week until he was flushed out at last by a spaniel named Pepsi
(you couldn't make it up). 
Finally, he scampered across a field to a copse before being brought down by a
tranquiliser gun. And even then the anaesthetic-laden darts bounced off his tough
hide on two occasions.
Oh, bliss.
Elsewhere, members of the Ulster Volunteer Force are reportedly distressed about scenes in a forthcoming film The Resurrection Man which chronicle their tortures and murders in 1970s Belfast whilst suggesting that they were cocaine-snorting, repressed homosexuals.
Now, please remember whilst you read some of the following quotes that these people are shown in the film as committing appalling atrocities against members of their own community who just happen to genuflect to a different God.
There was no messing around. They were all personal friends and I know they liked women. Some were very happily married and would've come down very heavy on homosexuality. I'm not condoning anything I or the butcher boys did but I know this will upset them.
There's no way we had cocaine. A feed of drink and a party but that's it. Anyone taking drugs would have been taken out and shot, at least in the legs.
It's a grave slur against them. They were married men. This would be very damaging and hurtful to the families.
So, you can murder and maim and still hold your head up in society. Just, for God's sake, don't ever let anyone know that shirts may have been lifted. Sheesh!!
Weather news has been rain, rain and more rain. This must be the most consistently
wet period I can remember almost since my youth. Except that then it would normally
come during the summer.
I just hope we're storing this away because there'll be real trouble if we get drought
warnings again this year.
Plants in the garden are still coming on but, at last, there's news of cold weather
brewing which should clear some of the bugs from our back door. I'm quite worried
about the daffodils, mind you. Anna, the neurotic Collie cross-breed from next door,
keeps jumping the fence into our garden and during her scampering around is quite
capable of trampling the new shoots. Her owner, Michael, certainly has been guilty
of trampling on the couple of times he's been over in our garden chasing her back.
With the reasonable weather, there's been more signs of the sun's return. Twilight lasts til well after 5pm and the pink of dawn is creeping nearer to 7am. The sun continues to rise higher in the skies and, at the noontime hour, is well over the rooftops opposite now. Direct from Portland, Oregon, I have a glass rainbow in my front window from which a prism is suspended. When the light catches it, it casts reflected rainbows throughout the room. These days, when the light comes slanting in, a multitude of rainbows dance about the walls and floor. Out back, the house's shadow continues to shorten and soon the actual ground in the garden will begin to be warmed by direct sunlight.
Ross and I have had a quiet weekend. Apart from a trip to Tesco's, I've hardly been out of the house as I've been feeling flaky and Ross has been feeling weary too. Maybe we're both having our first proper bout of feeling unwell for this winter period. We managed a lengthy bout of love-making on Friday night but that's really been the most vigorous activity of the past few days.
We cancelled a trip to the cinema to see Starship Troupers and spread out on the sofa. We taped Mission Impossible off Sky Movies on Saturday night and made a Sunday afternoon of it together. It was funny cuddling up and watching something that we'd seen in the cinema together back in early August 1996. I suppose that confirms my sense that we've been together for quite some time now.