Him Indoors returned from his little jaunt to Spain looking tanned and relaxed.

This was despite having to fly home on the same day the war in Iraq started.

He finally got home very late, some hours after we had gone to bed but that was all right because Sam the dog woke me.

He probably woke the whole street up too by giving him a rapturous welcome home.

Daughter slept like a log throughout but then, like most teenagers, she is notoriously difficult to wake up, even in the mornings after she has been asleep all night, never mind when she has only been asleep a few hours.

She was glad to see him the next morning though, particularly as he had brought her a present, although I am sure that wasn't the only reason.

She had also been worried the war would affect his flight home but of course it didn't, although he said security at the airport had obviously been stepped up.

We have been reading about the various demonstrations against the war.

Daughter's school has not been one of the ones where the pupils have staged any anti-war walk outs, which I am glad about.

I'm all in favour of people's right to protest and teenagers' opinions are as valid as anyone else's but I don't see why it is necessary to leave the school grounds and perhaps put yourself at risk, to do so.

The punishments handed out to some of those involved in such demonstrations do seem a bit harsh though.

If you don't have over-the-top youthful idealism in your teens you won't become a rational adult later in life.

Surely the job of schools is to channel this into discussion and debate rather than outlaw such actions and expel those who carry them out.

The weather has been so lovely over the past week it is hard to accept that such awful goings-on are happening so far away and are affecting other teenagers' lives so much.

This war is not directly affecting daughter's life at all at the moment and I hope it never will.

While Him Indoors was still away, daughter and I spent last weekend making one of our first forays of the year to the garden centre.

I did of course spend more than I meant to on new hanging baskets and some ornamental grasses to replace the ones that had died over the winter.

I think they died because we didn't look after them properly and wrap them up in bubble wrap in the greenhouse like you are supposed to.

Like anything else in our garden we always end up keeping the plants that thrive on neglect rather than stuff that requires careful handling.

If it doesn't survive the first winter it gets replaced with something that will.

I also did lots of sweeping pathways and digging flower beds in preparation for putting in the new plants.

Hopefully we will have peace by the summer and will be able to enjoy it.