Hardys Varietyl Chardonnay £3.78 Tesco

Colour: Golden wheat.
Smell: Peach
Taste: Sparkles of fruit and vanilla and smooth.
Verdict: An excellent bottle of easy drinking Chardonnay without that old wooded flavour that seems to sit on the top of your palate. I did review this wine back in June and it is remarkable how similar the reviews are. See old review below.

On the bottle: This lively Chardonnay has rich varietal melon and peach flavour and a crisp, dry finish.
In my mouth: Loads of grapes, a hint of wood, vanilla oak and gratefully smooth.

Middle Earth is on holiday, for the children anyway. 9 weeks of sun, fun and a little boredom. Time for children to clean out cluttered bedrooms and find all those useless extras bought as a must have and forgotten immediately. 32 g Memory stick for the Xbox, Ipod covers with ear phones that are not as cool as they looked on his mate. This is a time of discovery and a lesson to be learnt, many things we think we wanted, but did not really…

Gary of Middle Smiths is in Germany, drinking their beer and introducing the world of illusion to some top players. Hope it all went well and you have the A1, A6 and are A OK with the whole pilsner, bruckwurst and mustard fare.

The Cookydales are enjoying some of the finest French Cuisine, now somewhere in the south of France, the freedom of a motor home, bringing new challenges around every French corner, ever wary of French drivers who govern the road and are kings, be it that they are French kings, do not look kindly on a humble English tourist in a huge motor home taking over his piece of tarmac. My advise to the Cookydales, drink loads of French wine and let the spirits lead you to happy times.

Talking of happy times, the Cookydales have a female, black Labrador, Saffie (It's a Cookydales dog sort of name), which we are looking after for 3 weeks. The Cookydales have a very sound philosophy, a dog is not just for Christmas but for life, except for holidays. Lovely little madam that she is, being a typical labby, our kitchen floor has never been cleaner and Sam has learnt to eat up or lose out. She has settled in so well she now sleeps on the couch, but is equally happy to sleep on the floor when thrown off the couch, also enjoys sleeping next to Sam. Sam's regular garden patrol, checking for unauthorised intruders, is now more invigorating, smell the odd fox scent, wee on it, she smells the 'fox wee scented' patch and they move on, job done. It is a synchronised dance of smelling and peeing. The black and white dog patrol.

The other interesting development from this friendship is that Sam has become more competitive. Previously at the beach he would swim out to fetch the ball, then drop it in search of more interesting pursuits. Leaving us to get our feet wet waiting for the waves to bring the ball back. Now it is a race to the ball and if he wins, he will actually brings it back. All good exercise for two happy dogs. The exchange of knowledge does not stop there, between Sam and Susan, Saffie has learnt not to go running off without the occasional look back to see if we are still there.

Cricket at Poole park tomorrow, Poole play Weymouth and a Grand Prix in an ex Soviet Block country where they now allow television and newspapers.