Low Tide 04:49 (0.70m)
High Tide 11:11 (2.40m)
Low Tide 16:52 (0.80m)
High Tide 23:13 (2.60m)
Sea temperature: 7.7
Sea conditions: dark, high
Weather: dark with a cold wind
Joined by: TBC, The Poet and Sara and The LE as support.

Rock lobster dance

The Ellies are back from their travels - they have been gone for such a long time that Jagger the puppy is now Jagger the great big dog. She very kindly brought me a birthday present back from Bondi beach, where they think they swim in cold water at 16 degrees - a warm swimming costume. So today I wore it and The Pirate thought I was in a bikini, it's quite skimpy... a summer suit I think, even though it has 'Bondi Icebergs' written on the arse, so cool! We discussed a twinning between the various wild swimming areas they'd been to with our little part of the east coast and at some point she's promised me access to their photos and a travelogue which we can share here. Welcome Back to The LE, it's great to see your smiling face, even if you are not quite up for a swim yet. 
The swimming today was pretty good though, it's still remarkably warm for December, compared with recent years. The Pirate's 'twice Christmas' temperature is based on it being around 4 degrees this time last year, but this evening I went out for a late walk as it was getting dark and there seemed to be a very sudden drop in the air temperature as the wind increased in speed and swung around. It is forecast to plummet tomorrow, but then warm up again. TBC and I have taken to running up and down the beach after our swim, but today the tide had brought shingle with large stones, making it hard to run in comfort so we just jogged about a bit.
The moon - I'd met up with one of the Elders yesterday who'd been in raptures over the moonset, which I'd just missed as I came over the dunes. He's a man of the world, but even he had been knocked sideways by the sight of it on the horizon, huge and tinted orange by the sunrise opposite. This morning we agreed to meet on the river just before 7 to watch it again. As it was so much later I didn't see the final set, and it had hidden itself before it hit the horizon, but it was still pretty impressive. I didn't have my camera with me and the phone can't cope with moonlight, but I thought I'd share this compilation someone sent me from Nefeli Aggellou.
Nefeli Aggelou
This month's moon has been spectacular worldwide.
TBC and I wandered back as we'd got bored of hanging around waiting for the boys to go in so were ready to go home for a warm shower, and as were made our way to the car park we mused on the beauty of the village - regardless of it's current state of post-flood chaos and destruction. The beach huts and harbour buildings are all being dried out or taken away, depending on the state of repair and all the public car parks and paths are thick with sticky mud and reed piles. As the reeds have washed across from the marsh they have built up levels of rotting vegetation and dead creatures, caught out by the water. The saddest sight was the starlings, who didn't stand a chance. The night before I'd watched them murmur to roost in their seemingly secure spot, away from the marsh harriers, warm in their thousands. How many are lost I have no idea, but I've been searching for the survivors since and have seen a traces of them drifting off towards Dunwich, looking for a safer place, and flying higher than I've ever seen before. The Pirate saw another snake in the dunes too, the disorientation of nature will continue for some time yet and there is another super high tide predicted for January 4th.

High Tide 02:30 (2.60m)
Low Tide 09:07 (0.60m)
High Tide15:43 (2.30m)
Low Tide 21:05 (1.00m)
Sea temperature: 6.9/7
Sea conditions: calm
Weather:freaky
Joined by: The Poet and TBC with Sara on the shore
Topics of conversation:
The last few says have been eventful and we are still feeling the impact of the floods.The village was well prepared and we are counting our lucky stars and thanking the forethought of the agencies involved in creating our sea defence structures from the 1960's onwards. The surge hit before the high tide, and the wind speed dropped before the surge itself, meaning that although the water reached just below the top of the concrete defences we didn't have the force which was predicted. 

The river banks were breached and all of the low lying land was flooded. One of two houses were reached, but they all had time to prepare and put in their flood boards. All the wooden buildings on the harbour were below water on and off for 36 hours and the north side of the river was almost as badly hit as it was in 1953. The Harbour Inn landlord brought in a lorry and emptied the building, which ended up 5 ft deep in filthy water, but he's aiming to be open again by the end of the week. The owners of the wooden buildings here have already started their clearing up process. On a personal note we were extremely lucky with our beach hut, 75% were either flooded, damaged or even uprooted and moved into the fields, ours may be tiny and a bit tatty, but it is on the highest ground on the shore and was left on a dry island, with the sea rising in front and the flood waters from the river and marsh rising behind. http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/region_rallies_around_flood_hit_coastal_communities_as_edp_launches_norfolk_and_north_suffolk_flood_appeal_1_3089499

Reeds washed down from the marsh caught on the bridge 

Dunes devastated

Disorientated adders

The disruption to normal life was not sufficient to deter me from party plans this weekend though and on Friday friends started arriving for birthday celebrations, which lasted till Sunday afternoon. Although it's not actually my birthday till Wednesday I'm away on a course this week so Saturday was my 'official birthday'. I've had the most wonderful time with all my girlfriends here, I feel blessed, privileged, tired, hungover and emotionally drained - in a good way! My BGF excelled herself, collecting together  songs and messages from important people from my life so far and we listened to them all on Friday night so that I could get the crying out of the way before the party proper. DK compose a special birthday song for me a Beth pulled out all the stops, her voice silenced the entire group - no mean feat. There were gifts galore, including these amazing wellies all the way from Legs, in the US and Phillips baked me the most delicious cake, with home made crystallised rose petals and lavender. 

My present from Mertz was that he picked up the bill and shipped out for the weekend, he returned to a house full of hungover and happy women, to make us brunch, a brave move, especially as he'd spent the weekend with one of his oldest friends and was probably more hungover than the rest of us put together. The other brave person was DK's Son, now known as Il Faccino, who worked as butler, waiter, DJ and cleaner upper for the evening - he was magnificent, and even agreed to pose with the team.

His look says it all...

When I get a moment I'll do a little clip reel and post it here, in the meantime if any of you are reading this, THANK YOU!!! This morning I woke up and realised that the only way the weekend could have been any better would have been if I'd been born in the summer and then we would have been able to be on the beach and everyone could have felt the benefits of Dr Sea the morning after the night before, as I did.