Low Tide 04:37 (0.50m)
High Tide 10:52 (2.60m)
Low Tide 16:51 (0.60m)
High Tide 23:04 (2.70m)
Sea temperature: 7.1
Sea conditions: Surfable - see pictures
Weather: glorious
Joined by The Poet and The LE
Topics of conversation:

We were joined by a surfer this morning, that's not a good sign. If the waves are good enough for surfing they are not great for swimming, but as neither The Pirate or I had been in for a while I decided to try it out, as did DK and The Poet. It was 'doable' but not safe and we talked about becoming more cautious in the last year. The Pirate seemed to be intimating that this was a bad thing, it is not. The problem today was not actually the strength of the waves as much as the trough, which has developed just at the point where we go in. There was talk about moving further north, where it is shallow and where Heather swims, sometimes for up to an hour. She swims everyday too, in the afternoon and is often mistaken for a seal by visitors. She has autism and the water brings her a level of release from her struggles, which is beyond anything we experience, even The Pirate. Perhaps we will take a leaf from her book and try the shallows tomorrow, as the forecast is ghastly.
The LE sent me this yesterday, from her diary, suggesting that it could be our winter sea anthem:
Come gather 'round people 
Wherever you roam 
And admit that the waters 
Around you have grown 
And accept it that soon 
You'll be drenched to the bone 
If your time to you 
Is worth savin' 
Then you better start swimmin' 
Or you'll sink like a stone 
For the times they are a-changin'. 

But then, whilst I was trying to film the surfer getting up on his board they all seemed to be singing show tunes, I just can't keep up once DK and The LE are in 'theatre mode'!
We stood and contemplated the water for longer than usual today, having moved us to the late winter swim time of 8am DK was basking in the glory of the sunrise again. Being 'The Sunrise Coast' (according to Lattitude Festival PR types) we do get the rays before most, but according to my tide app we won't have the sun above the horizon before 8am for a while. We are hoping that those of us who have to be at our desks by a certain time once the holiday period is over will still manage to make this doable, otherwise we've agreed to take it back to the 7.45 slot. It's amazing how much difference it can make. We will make sure TBC is kept in the loop, she's been poorly recently (get well soon, and make sure you are proper better before you get wet again!) and sometimes forget to let everyone know, now that there are so many of us. 
DK and I usually take our 20mins to meditate after the swim, he's later than me and I might try changing my timing so that I am not in such a rush afterwards. He's reading David Lynch's Catching the Big Fish at the moment and thoroughly enjoying it, I discovered that it is on You Tube as a full audio book so here's a link for The Artist, who has not be up to coming down to the beach recently and wouldn't even need to turn the pages to feel inspired: Audio Book and some more photos of this morning for her and TBC.

The Poet keeping watch over DK

One for The Cloud Appreciation Society

Sea spray - very effective at coating camera lenses

The Swimmers contemplate the sunrise

High Tide	00:52 (2.50m)
Low Tide	06:41 (0.70m)
High Tide	13:00 (2.70m)
Low Tide	19:14 (0.50m)

Sea temperature: not taken - therefore 19.1
Sea conditions: good
Weather: Stunning clouds, warmish
Joined by: The Usual Suspects, The Torpedo, A LOTV and @Redsnapper
Topics of conversation:
We were late... @Redsnapper was staying with me this weekend, and she has 3 lurchers at the moment, although one, Alice, is a foster dog so she went to stay with people from the rescue group up the road for the night. Comet, the boy, thought he'd go to look for her this morning and snuck out whilst we were having our coffee/tea, so when we went to leave he was nowhere to be found. After much searching he was spotted in a neighbouring disused tennis court, which has a 12 ft fence round it. How he got in is still a mystery. @Redsnapper fosters dogs for Southern Lurcher Rescue, a spectacularly worthy group who look after the increasingly large number of abandoned and mistreated dogs, found in terrible states. The group is made up of volunteers, many of whom take the dogs into their own homes until their 'forever home' can be found, hence Alice. Alice has found her way into everyone's hearts, but as yet hasn't found her forever home. She's beautiful, kind, gentle but vocal, so we've been doing some training this weekend and she responded very well so @Redsnapper has taken one of my spare water pistols home with her (yes, I have a stash).

L - R Willow, Comet, Daisy, Alice, Socks, Luna and Paddy

Comet relaxing after his stressful morning

Daisy 

DK couldn't get his head around out 24 Hour Menu, so I tried to explain that when we get together we like to cook and eat, but not as one big meal, so we just graze all day, which we find more civilised as we both like to cook, eat, drink, walk the dogs and chat at our leisure, this weekend menu was:
3pm    Gazpacho with wild garlic pesto and Bigod Brie
6pm    Mulberry cocktails
7pm    Silver pearl corn (first pickings of the year)
8pm    Roasted Aubergine Napoleons with mozzarella and tomato with pesto
          Black Dog Deli salads (giant couscous, pea, bean and feta, coleslaw)
9am    Porridge with Munchie Honey Seeds
1pm    Gazpacho cocktail, Roast Portobello Mushrooms with parmesan, blue cheese and chilli jelly fresh from the harvest (Black Dog Deli salad leftovers)
          Beetroot and orange cake with mulberry and cream cheese topping with mulberry ripple ice cream
2pm    Tea and more cake
The LE had very kindly brought a wonderful book on clouds down to the beach for @Redsnapper to look at as she has a mild obsession with photographing them (she's promised to send me some of her images, which I hope to share), The Cloudspotter's Guide by Gavin Prector-Pinney. If you are reading this LE, it may have to live here for a week or so - wonderful book, very inspiring.
Having a late start this morning was a contrast to yesterday, when I'd watched the sunrise at 5.30am and spent a couple of hours at the hut before the swim. I'd been joined by a bouncy Poet at 6.30am. He arrived at the hut saying 'Aren't you swimming this morning? Everyone is late!" This was not the case; he had resurrected an old watch, which he'd managed to set an hour early, so we sat and drank coffee and watched the clouds. I had my camera this time so wasn't a very good hostess and kept dashing off to photograph the sky, but the dogs weren't moving from the sleeping bag...

Sky dog running