Constant laughter and softer hearts.

London at the weekend like a completely different city. Tourists and out of towners giving it a mellower, less frenetic , pace . Manhattan's like that too.

An exhibition of dog paintings at a gallery in St.James's provides welcome shelter fom the rain . A nineteenth century picture of a black labrador stands out. The dog positioned squarely at the centre of the canvas, nothing in the background to distract the eye . Paw forward, the hint of a smile on his face and the feeling that this was a very loved dog .

In the book store Rebecca Wests Black Lamb and Grey Falcon . At long last reprinted . The twentieth centurys greatest novel by a female author ? Certainly the greatest of the 1940's. Possibly the greatest travelogue ever. Good to see it rediscovered .

The New Zealand shop sells bars of imported Cadburys Dairy Milk . Can New Zealand produced chocolate taste any different fom the UK version ? Why pay three times the price ? Why ship it across the world ?The vagueries of marketing .

Wilf is in fine form . A weekend of Swedish cuisine . Lots of mackerel and air dried fish . The stock from moules mariniere poured over his kibbles . This morning Kelly , the hover dog, rushes past us chasing a black cat . The cat leaps over the churchyard wall and disappears . Kelly barks in frustration. Wilf ambles along unaware . Life with an old dog is time of constant laughter , patience and softer hearts.

Shy ?

Wilf is at the airport waiting . He's upside down, under the cafe table, snoring gently . Shortly after his arrival a waitress, unbidden **, brings him a bowl of water and the major part of a whole wheat croissant . Proof , as far as an old PON is concerned that " life is too short to be shy " .

** On the way home in the car ' the font ' explains that Wilfs idea of unbidden is to sit rock still , facing the gateaux counter , with his nose at a thirty degree angle. After five minutes of sphinx like behaviour any dog loving member of staff gets the message .

Rescheduled.

A mad dash to the airport. Angus is heading off for a golf weekend . It's one of those blind panic mornings . British Airways changed their flight schedule when the clocks changed . The London flight now leaves an hour earlier . This change in scheduling is only discovered when the boarding pass is printed out .

Wilf is in fine form. He gets toast for breakfast and a quick walk around the village green before being lifted into the back of the car. A good laugh and a long sleep the best cures in the vets book .

Canine imponderable of the day . Why is it that when I blow in Wilfs face he gets all huffy. Yet when he gets in the car the first thing he wants to do is stick his nose out of the window ?

The most affectionate creature in the world.

It rains all day . Wilf is in one of his ' let's ignore the weather ' moods . In a break in the downpour we head along the lane, down into the valley and back up the curving road that passes alongside the field of ten day old calves . The new mothers glance at us nervously . Every bush, road sign and tuft of grass sniffed and , when needed , christened . By the end of our walk both dog and owner are drenched .

When we get home a sodden Wilf barges through the door and rushes straight into the kitchen . There is roast chicken in the oven . Angus follows along behind with a pile of towels. Faced with 18 kilos of enthusiastic dripping PON ' the font ' wonders out loud why it is that the most affectionate creature in the world is a wet dog ?

The PON golden rule .

The hottest place in France yesterday . 24 degrees . With the light cloud cover felt more like 30 . Wilf spends his day listening to Angus stacking wood in the barn . Mid-morning , Aude , the decaratrice , arrives with a box of supermarket dog biscuits . A gift from the womens cooperative . A very rare accolade indeed. ' Bonjour Wilfee ' . The family fellow gently takes an orange coloured biscuit from Audes outstreched hand and saunters over to the middle of the courtyard to devour it in peace . The family fellow a strict adherent to the PON golden rule: Sleep til you're hungry, eat til you're sleepy.

Black Sabbath meets Dire Straits .

Early evening . A man comes to the gate to sell tickets for a concert in the Village Hall. '' It's a Franco-Dutch rock band. Half Black Sabbath , half Dire Straits " he says by way of explanation . He adds , perhaps a little too enthusiastically , " It'll be great fun " . Angus buys two tickets but with the caveat that he can't be absolutely sure we're free the night of the 19th.

Over dinner 'the font ' suddenly looks up and asks " Weren't Dire Straits glam rock ? "

Aude arrives early to replaster the upstairs bedrooms . Madame Bay turns up in her voiturette shortly afterwards. It's a Cat Stevens morning on Radio Nostalgie . Madame Bay doesn't speak English but this doesn't prevent her from singing along , lustily , with each track . In search of peace and quiet Wilf and Angus head off into town .

Wilf gets a small corner of croissant from the lady at the bakers . The family fellow receives it gratefully . Old dogs know that " the winds of grace are always blowing , all you have to do is raise the sail " .

Alpacas

Air France are on strike . Again . A sure sign that today's a national holiday here in France .

Upstairs Aude is replastering the walls in the bedrooms facing the war memorial . She's working over the holiday to earn money for a new hand loom that's being delivered from Dijon on Friday. It seems that the womens cooperative has recently become the proud owners of a herd of extremely bad tempered alpacas . Their goal is to produce their own clothes . For a moment Angus wonders how a group that wears dungarees and t-shirts can ever hope to clothe themselves. However, ever the politician , he keeps this thought to himself .

Wilf has had a haircut. This has removed most of the honey that had become entangled in his muzzle and ears . The whole procedure took two minutes and was accompanied by a high pitched grumbling . This morning he will be heading off with me in the car to the local supermarket to stock up on Carrs Water Biscuits . For some reason Wilf finds these to be quite irresistible .