Saturday 11 February 2012


High Tide00:16 (2.70m)
Low Tide06:41 (0.30m)
High Tide12:50 (2.40m)
Low Tide18:39 (0.70m)
Sea temperature: 1.5 degrees
Sea conditions: calm, smooth, small waves
Weather: cold and clear
Joined by: no-one
Topics of conversation:
The Lives of Others - not village gossip but a film DK had seen and raved about, it won the Oscar for best foreign film and he's lent me the DVD, which I'm looking forward to. One of the tag lines for the movie is "Nothing is private, nothing is sacred" (actually it does sound a bit like living next door to your mother).
Various reports of severe frost and cold. The met office app said it was "- 9/feels like - 11" degrees here this morning which was corroborated by the boy who does the papers at the village shop whose car thermometer read - 9, but the postman had the lowest reading of - 11 when he got up. He joked that it had risen to - 6 so he was going home to put his shorts on. The sea had frozen where the tide had left a trench and there was ice floating in the shallows as the tide rose towards us. It's the first time we've had to wade through ice in the sea, but it was beautifully calm and the sun was bursting through the clouds. We didn't stay in for long through fear of feet not ever working again, this is a hazard of cold water and low tides - your feet have so much longer in the water than the more padded parts of your body.
The approach



The Pirate has company

Whether we should be locked up - the distinguished son of one of the LOTVs is up for the weekend and he walked along the beach as we came out, he didn't respond to our greetings of "good morning" he simply stated that we ought to be locked up and walked on, unfortunately taking Mabel with him, whether he wanted to or not. His response may have had something to do with The Pirate's loud whooping as we came out. If I didn't know better I'd have suspected he'd been on the brandy to prepare him for the swim, now there's a thought...

As I was leaving the beach I bumped into The Shaman, who has been away for weeks and although I've missed her terribly and wanted to catch up she insisted that I keep going so that I could get home and get warm - I think my teeth may have been chattering. In fact there were a few people on their way down to the sea as I cycled home, mostly wanting to see if it had frozen.

Guests - I have a dear friend coming to stay for the weekend, she will not be joining us for a swim, having a heart condition, but I hope to drag her out of bed in the morning to see the sunrise if it is as beautiful as it was this morning. I'd also like her to meet Mabel. Her arrival has been delayed by the weather - her gearbox was frozen this morning and she rang a while ago to tell me she was still stomping around the garage "in a right old bait", I haven't heard that expression since I was at school.

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