Tree cheers

Here's an exciting one for you - we've had some trees chopped back in our garden (before and after pictures above). Yup, we know how to spoil ourselves.

To cut a long story short (although not as short as the trees in question), we didn't have a sunny weekend like everyone else the weekend before last because two of our trees blocked the sun out. So action had to be taken. And not being particularly gifted in the chopping trees back department (although I did lop a few twigs off the side of our hedge yesterday afternoon), we got a (very reasonable) man in.

It's all very exciting. Needless to say we're not expecting to see the sun again this side of September (when we go on holiday).

Two other quick matters. First, today I was delighted to see the Omagh families achieve successful civil prosecutions against four of the bastards who blew up their town and many of their relatives in August 1998. I met many of these very brave people when I worked at Westminster and had the privilege of attending the press conference which launched the public appeal to fund this action several years ago. Others present that day included Bob Geldof, Barry McGuigan, Peter Mandelson and David Trimble. Also there was Mariella Frostrup whose husband was one of the lead lawyers involved in the case and remains a friend of mine. I was delighted to pass on my huge congratulations to him this afternoon. It's just a shame it's taken so long for the families to achieve some small comfort.

And ending on a lighter note, earlier today, for the first time, Jamie pooed a whole sweetcorn. Congratulations to him too.