High Tide 00:22 (2.50m)
Low Tide 06:31 (0.50m)
High Tide 12:45 (2.50m)
Low Tide 18:49 (0.50m)
Sea temperature: not taken
Sea conditions: glassy calm, very low
Weather: sun burning through the mist, heavy dew
Joined by: No one
Topics of conversation: None - see above
Yesterday The LE and I had discussed a book, Dip: Wild Swims from the Borderlands which was published today and now sits patiently waiting on my Kindle. She'd seen the author interviewed on TV and passed on an article about Andrew Fusek Peters's battle with depression and the importance of swimming in his recovery:

The idea of escaping what wild swimmers describe as ‘chlorinated captivity’ is not new – the Swallows and Amazons did it before breakfast, the Bloomsbury set did it after tea and Andrew has been doing it since childhood. Some of his happiest memories in an often troubled upbringing are centred on the days when he and his elder brother Marc leapt into a river, lake or hidden pool. ‘We didn’t call it wild swimming back then – to us it was just swimming,’ he says. ‘But wild water has often been balm to my overloaded mind.’

‘Swimming is about feeling alive – whatever fear is in my head, as soon as I am in the water, it has gone, slam-splash-dunked. So my children got to see me very ill, but they’ve also seen me get better. I didn’t do what my dad did. I broke the pattern.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-2611489/I-saved-wild-water.html#ixzz30Sc9LCsq 

My Guardian Angel on the shore (far right)

As it is the first of May I reminded TBC, as we passed on the car park, that washing your face in the dew is essential to maintain one's youth, I hope she passed this on to the other swimmers. The dew was hanging off the webs, waiting for them.

Here's a question for the Swimmers who read this - what's this?

In other news I have just received an update from The LE, it sounds as if they were on form this morning:

ON THE BEACH

Very, very lovely this morn and sorry we missed you. As TBC said, you told her it was warmer further out and so it proved.

The Pirate and I ventured out and wallowed. TBC and DK swam in the rapidly rising shallows. 

Jagger nearly got caught like The Artist, by lolloping into what he thought was shallow water and then finding it up to his chest. Fortunately The Poet isn't here. Can imagine his reaction to a request to carry Jagger on his shoulders.

 Jagger got out on his own. Largely because I walked off.

Talk on the beach was of Cliff Richard's height. 

TBC said she met him at an airport and wasn't he short?

DK insisted that he was at least 5'10'.

'Everybody looks tall to you', didn't go down too well.

DK insisted he knew him because of course he had met him and also 'I met him after Jackie Irving went out with him.. 

The Pirate (on form) said 'I didn't know you went out with Cliff Richard.'

And if so, (I queried) surely you could measure him, when he was lying down....'

And on and on....

Low Tide	02:51 (0.60m)
High Tide	09:24 (2.40m)
Low Tide	15:18 (0.80m)
High Tide	21:33 (2.40m)

Sea temperature: 14.8
Sea conditions: calm
Weather: grey, wet, un-solstice-like
Joined by: Back down to DK and The Pirate and The Poet (due to inclement weather and social engagements)
Topics of conversation:
The Solstice - I'd been on the beach early to do my sun salutations and not a soul was around. This was probably because it was raining, grey and miserable, with no sign of the sun but the yogi and I had arranged to be there in spirit for each other as we completed the sequence on either side of the river. She had a busy morning as she then hotfooted it up to the local radio station Blythe Valley to do her slot. This involves guiding the audience through a yoga asana live, she has a perfect voice for radio and if I wasn't in the sea at that time it would be a great way to start the day. This morning she also played out Beth's CD and I just managed to get home in time to hear it. Hopefully she'll be live next time, but she's been poorly as a result of a nasty reaction to antibiotics, which put her in hospital so it was a real boost for her to be on the radio. This was the first track played out. Thanks Yogi.

Punchdrunk Theatre - Sara and The Poet had been to see the performance of The Borough, based on Peter Grimes, last night and he regaled us with part of the storyline, it sounds amazing - immersive theatre at its best.
Stand curious in a dream and hear those voices that will not be drowned…

Punchdrunk’s The Borough is a liminal beast. It lies somewhere between George Crabbe’s poem The Borough and Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes and is formed on the threshold of the imagined and the real, existing at the interstice of the fictional and the everyday world of Aldeburgh. Aldeburgh is the original inspiration and setting for Crabbe’s The Borough and Britten’s Peter Grimes and it is Aldeburgh that will serve to ignite the imaginative curiosity of each individual visitor to this experience.

(There may still be tickets for tonight, going to check now...)

Hands - The Pirate has been noticing the difference in temperatures between our hands as we come out of the water and has decided that mine are much warmer than his. I've always felt that my circulation was particularly bad and certain it was my fingers that suffered minor cold injuries on my first Arctic trip when is was -42 and the dogs needed feeding (hard to do with thick mittens on) but I have noticed that they have been better recently - maybe this is due to the swimming routine, who knows? The Pirate certainly had much colder hands this morning and, despite the warmer water, had white patches on his palms as we left the beach. It's something to keep an eye on.

Maths and music - DK and I are hoping to help his son through a maths exam shortly and we discussed the link between the two kinds of magic. It's my opinion that no person who is naturally musical can be 'bad at maths', it's just about seeing it from the right angle (and perhaps being taught from the right angle too). Working with The Inventor on his musical interval project certainly proved this point, having had no musical education I came to it from the other direction, and my interest in maths was what made it accessible. The Pirate claims he is struggling with his harp tuition and has now decided that this is down to his lack of interest in maths - I shouldn't have opened that can of worms...

The Vicar's Wife's beach hut needs work - it's sinking - and she has very kindly allowed us to use it for the last 18 months, so we all agreed to make a contribution to any work needed. Even though we now have our little one, there are so many swimmers now that we take up both on a cold, wet day.

Low Tide	02:14 (0.70m)
High Tide	08:54 (2.30m)
Low Tide	14:41 (0.90m)
High Tide	20:46 (2.30m)

Sea temperature: 3.4
Sea conditions: very high tide calm sea
Weather: sunny, crisp, frost on the ground and the sand was frozen solid
Joined by: The Poet
Topics of conversation:
The tide, one of our high ones today, I'd had to walk the long way around as the bridge was underwater at each end and the waves were making strange pools on the shoreline. This meant that the swimming was good though, nice and deep straight away, a bonus in this icy weather as the cold doesn't creep slowly up your body.

No sand!

Waterlog: A Swimmer's Journey Through Britain by Roger Deakin. Deakin was a nature writer and filmmaker who also taught English and co-founded Common Ground, the arts/environment organisation, his writing has always been close to me - especially Waterlog and so I was intrigued by an event this weekend:

Taking the Waters

18-19 February
A Weekend Navigation
Aldeburgh Music’s new cross-arts winter weekend takes to the waters this year with a wide-ranging and fascinating exploration of the meanings of the marine, the estuarine and the waterway in film, art, literature and thought.

Starting from Roger Deakin’s modern classic on swimming, Waterlog, acclaimed writers, artists, film-makers and thinkers will reflect on the paramount importance of the fluid spaces of the planet, in this unique location shaped so profoundly by the tide and its impacts.

A day-long enquiry into the cultural meanings of water, featuring exclusive presentations from prize-winning author Robert Macfarlane on the late Roger Deakin and folk songs of the Waterways performed by Olivia Chaney.

Acclaimed writer Jay Griffiths (Wild, an Elemental Journey, described in The Observer as ‘a profound and extraordinary work’) will speak on the sea and its mysteries, while, alongside the photography of Jason Orton, writers Jules Pretty (The Luminous Coast) and Ken Worpole (350 Miles) will trace the  Eastern Coast.

Noel Burch will introduce the UK theatrical premiere screening of his pioneering documentary essay film The Forgotten Space (2010). Made with Allan Sekula, it follows the high seas global supply chain our consumer lives so depend, and the lives left in its wake. 

Roger Deakin

Roger Deakin

I hadn't had the courage to go on my own, fearing all sorts of potential for disaster after last week's destruction of a classic, but discovered that The Poet and his wife had spent Saturday there so I was intrigued to hear about it. The Poet felt that the presentations from the writers were overworked and rather turgid, perhaps not as relevant to Deakin's work as he had hoped. He summed it up nicely by saying that he just wished Roger Deakin himself (who died in 2006) could have popped in to tell them to get on with it! DK is also a fan of his writing and we all mused that as he didn't suffer fools gladly it would have made him weary - his writing has a beautiful simplicity about it. I'm not feeling so bad about missing it now but am resolving to re-read Waterlog. I loved Wildwood - A Journey Through Trees and my copy is falling apart from re-readings whilst travelling through Asia on a train and loosing my thread but I still have Notes From Walnut Tree Farm in my Amazon wish list so perhaps that is next on my growing list of must reads. I drove past Walnut Tree Farm on my way to work for about 8 years and many of those who were involved with my school knew him well - I suspect that is why I haven't actually read it yet.
The Noisy Neighbours - Following a very cordial meeting with the aforementioned neighbours it sounds as if DK has had a result, the trampoline is going! We can all sigh a breath of relief and hope that they also forget about fireworks next year. The Poet hadn't been aware of the dispute and we discussed how dreadful such things can become. I remember someone saying "it's always the wives with the knives" and I suspect it was The Poet, but as he then told this joke he may be forgiven:
At the height of the Intifada the Israelis and Arabs realised that, if they carried on as they were, they would end up destroying each other so they decided to settle the matter with a dogfight. Whoever won would earn the right to rule the world.
The Arabs found the biggest, meanest Rottweiler they could find and crossed it with a wolf, fed it steroids and then trained it to be a perfect killing machine. Only its trainers could handle it.
When the day arrived the Israelis turned up with a strange little creature with short legs that looked like a dachshund. Everyone felt sorry for the Israelis but placed their bets on the huge creature winning. The cages were opened and the two dogs faced each other. Within seconds the little dog had not only killed the beast, but had eaten it all up.
The Arabs, shaking their heads in disbelief, approached the Israelis "We don't understand. Our dog was developed and trained to be a killing machine! How could this happen, what kind of dog is that?" "Ah well.." replied the Israelis "Before the nose job, he used to be an alligator."