High Tide	01:18 (2.60m)
Low Tide	07:44 (0.60m)
High Tide	14:16 (2.40m)
Low Tide	19:42 (1.00m)

HURRAH, HURRAH!! Back to normal, the original team all present and correct again, for the first time in weeks. The sea was perfect, the temperature was 10.2 degrees and even though it was a long way out we all managed a goodly swim. The topics of conversation were predominantly HURRAH and isn't it great to be together in the sea again. The sun rose above us and there was a single sun dog, shining larger than I've ever seen before. I couldn't quite capture it on the phone camera but I did get the geese as they flew over. Which reminded me of this, which I shared with The Pirate:

Sense of a Goose

Next Autumn, when you see geese heading south for the winter, flying in a “V” formation, you might consider what science has discovered as to why they fly that way. As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird immediately following. By flying in a “V” formation, the whole flock adds at least 71 percent greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own.

People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going more quickly and easily, because they are travelling on the thrust of one another.

When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go it alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird in front.

If we have the sense of a goose, we will stay in formation with those people who are heading the same way we are.

When the head goose gets tired, it rotates back in the wing and another goose flies point.

It is sensible to take turns doing demanding jobs, whether with people or with geese flying south.

Geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.

What message do we give when we honk from behind?

Finally – and this is important – when a goose gets sick or is wounded by gunshot, and falls out of the formation, two other geese fall out with that goose and follow it down to lend help and protection. They stay with the fallen goose until it is able to fly or until it dies; and only then do they launch out on their own, or with another formation to catch up with their own group.

If we have the sense of a goose, we will stand by each other like that.

(Roger Darlington)

A lonely swim this evening - although The Pirate did appear on the horizon. I start work too early to swim with the team in the morning at the moment, but on Thursdays I get home early and can be on the beach by 4pm. Today was magical, but no company so no conversation to report. I took my camera for a dip though.

High Tide	04:32 (2.40m)
Low Tide	11:25 (0.80m)
High Tide	18:20 (2.30m)
Low Tide	23:46 (1.30m)

Sea conditions: ROUGH and full of flotsam and jetsam
Sea temperature: 36 degrees, DK's thermometer had jammed.... the new one has arrived but it was too rough to take it in
Weather: Very warm for November but blowing a very strong wind and raining hard
Topics of conversation from the last couple of days:
Mainly Mabel - she has quite an impact on the group as she is so very entertaining. She has decided that Bosco is her very own play thing and tries to climb onto his back, whilst fighting him for the ball. He is probably 50 times bigger than her, her entire body is just bigger than his head - which is a good thing as you're not supposed to eat anything bigger than your head. Willow is terrified of her and is slowly edging closer, she even sniffed her tail, hopefully they'll find their level soon and Mabel will learn that dogs stay on the beach then Legs won't have to accompany her every morning. It's a bit scary to think that she could just follow DK into the sea.

Being back - I'm not quite sure how to describe the joy of immersing yourself in the cold sea, in November, having been landlocked for 5 days. There is coming home and then there's this. Even though the walk was a long one on my first day back, wading through thigh high water to get to enough depth to swim, I wasn't in any rush to dive in. Allowing the sea to take you into it's waves at its pace is part of the pleasure. The Pirate was making the most of his last swim for a few days as he's off, but he was sensible about not going in too far. He's hoping to swim in a river where he is going.
Potatoes and their hallucinogenic powers. The Pirate said that Walter Raleigh would not have been able to get them past health and safety committees if he had tried to introduce them in this century. The Viking had a very nasty experience with an uncooked one at college, when he thought his belly was a VW Beetle.

Westonbirt Arboretum, which Mertz and I had visited the previous week. The trees were spectacular and fiery, and we'd had a great experience as the weather had been perfect too. DK and legs know New England well (Legs being from that part of the world originally) and we discussed the 'fall' there, I've made Legs promise to help me plan a trip. We decided it could be a John Irving themed journey although I'd hope not to have too many Irvingesque experiences of my own.

The state of the sea. This morning it was particularly bad, although it's been getting worse all week. The tides have been high and the current strong, which has brought all the long seaweed up to the shore and we were swimming in amongst it. Some clumps were thick and floated about like monsters with very long arms wrapping themselves around our knees, not pleasant. We do have to be slightly vigilant for larger bits of crap floating about too. This morning there was a large boot washed up - that could have given us quite a surprise if it had been carried by a wave in the water.

An evening with DK - last night we all went to see DK perform at a theatre nearby. It was wonderful. DK is a consummate pro and has some wonderful tales to tell of his life and work, I knew this already but the format was great and I had such fun. Think Parkinson in the old days, with a piano and a host who could sing too. Mark Stratton is an old friend of DK's and with his broad experience of film, TV and theatre he and DK kept the audience in thrall with stories of showbiz and the characters involved. I haven't laughed that much on a damp Thursday evening for ages!
My pathetic, but crafty dogs were really unimpressed by the weather, they hate rain and wind. Just as I was about to get into the sea today I looked round and they had gone. DK whistled his loud whistle but they didn't come so I trudged up to the dunes and there they were, hiding in a dip, sheltered from the wind and rain by marron grass. We need a beach hut...

DK is quite mad

Low Tide	02:20 (1.10m)
High Tide	08:33 (2.50m)
Low Tide	14:56 (0.60m)
High Tide	21:35 (2.50m)

Sea temperature: not taken, didn't feel we should get the human cork floating again
Sea conditions: rough
Weather: very windy, 30 MPH winds forecast
Joined by: Mertz, Abs and Boo Bob, her next door neighbour and his dog Blake, Legs and Mabel
Topics of conversation:
Introductions were clearly needed with such a crowd on the beach. Abs' neighbour had come to photograph the sunrise and I hope I may be able to put some of the results up here at some point. Legs has to rise early now that Mabel is able to join us because she is too curious to be left alone on the beach whilst we swim, especially in this weather. Mabel had joined us for the first time yesterday and spent the first few moments huddled in Legs's coat shaking, but after watching Boo chasing a stick for a bit she fond her own legs. It was a bit of a baptism by fire, wind, sea and dogs for the tiny thing, but she did brilliantly, even remembering to sit for a biscuit.

It was very rough this morning and so we did hem and haw about whether to go in. The Pirate, Mertz and I had gone in after lunch yesterday, when it was windy enough for the kite surfers, but the tide was low so we could swim. The beach was heaving again as it's half term now, but no one else seemed mad enough to swim. I was actually mad to swim, having been to my Mother's for Sunday lunch drinks, at which I'd consumed far too much alcohol on an empty stomach as usual and then we'd had a curry for lunch, but The Pirate says it's an old wives' tale that you shouldn't swim after eating so I went for it and didn't get cramp, throw up or any of those things you tell children.

Th Pirate didn't go in at all this morning, which was very sensible, Abs and I had a go but she fell over and I felt my legs go so we got out but off went DK, the human cork, bobbing south down the shore. I felt very nervous, especially with Legs and Mabel there! It's an optical illusion as it looks OK till you get in:

The Killing - it's coming back, that will change this blog as all we will talk about on a Sunday morning will be the last episode. It's how we all bonded in the first place - our mutual obsession with the series. Sarah Lund (sorry Sofie Grabol) was on The Culture show this week talking about it and it has just been announced that it is back on 12th November, thank goodness for Facebook in these circs. We may not be able to wait that long...

PS

We're hoping that the famous Mabel will be joining us tomorrow as she's had all her jabs, I went to see her today and she is very excited:

High Tide	06:27 (2.30m)
Low Tide	13:07 (0.80m)
High Tide	19:57 (2.30m)

Sea temperature: 12.4 yesterday
Sea conditions: rough, huge swell, big waves - scary
Weather: glorious
Joined by: Abs
Topics of conversation:
The sunrise, it was magical - we were stopped in our tracks by the sun appearing over the horizon and stood watching till it pulled itself away from the sea and that thin strip of sky snuck underneath it, separating it from the water and throwing its colours across the waves towards us. We all agreed that if we were to paint the sky exactly as it was this morning, we'd be accused of romanticism, no one would believe the tiny fluffy blue clouds, positioned exactly the same distance apart, the slate grey of the sea as the red sun changed it purely by contrast and the green glow above it all. I didn't have my phone or my camera this morning though, so you'll just have to take my word for it. There's a great passage in The Art of Travel where Alain de Botton talks about taking photos of places you visit and how the process removes you from the experience as you don't feel the need to remember what you see, I'll remember this sky for ever.
There was a great deal of discussion about the sea conditions. We couldn't really decide if it was do-able. In the end Abs and I had a go, got in up to our waists/head/waist/head (as the waves crashed at us)  and got swept north. The Pirate sensibly stayed on the shore and DK did his human cork impersonation for about 3 and a half minutes. It was exhilarating but I certainly wouldn't even have tried on my own. I got hit in the shin by a stone again and have a massive bruise - shame I'm having my legs waxed on Monday... ouchy.
Tracksuits - The Pirate's son has bought him one, it's not pink unfortunately and he's praying that it isn't covered in logos. It's hard to find ones that aren't - mine has DADA written on it for some reason, which led to the whole "DADA wouldn't buy me a Bauhaus" conversation, The Pirate took it to the next level and almost issued a challenge by saying that "Dada wouldn't buy me a Bauhaus because it might create the wrong Impression". Any further contributions gratefully received.
NIMBY's (not in my back yard) who complain about things in the village - one has really excelled himself by not only objecting to every single planning application but now he's complained about a fruit and veg stall on the street, which is run by 2 young boys who are home educated and the stall is part of their education and also about a Greek flag, which is flown in a garden on the green by way of tribute to the widow's deceased husband, who passed away in Greece. You really couldn't make it up. I'm afraid I was rather rude about him - even The Pirate raised his eyebrows.
Log splitting - Abs had an unfortunate experience with an axe, which resulted in loss of vision and loose teeth - we talked about the merits of axe vs splitters but now that I am typing this in the afternoon I can say that I really am erring on the side of the Logmatic - it's changed the way I look at the log pile. Matthew has leant us the full kit: splitter, basket, gloves, and we are trying it out it this weekend to see if we want to invest. So far so good. I managed to split a very large elm slice and a number of smaller logs in half the time I would normally take, but more importantly, nothing got stuck, I didn't jar my weakened back and was able to split logs on the 'not splittable' pile. And no, I'm not sponsored by Logmatic - but I could be...!

logmatic.co.uk