Low Tide	02:44 (1.00m)
High Tide	09:17 (2.30m)
Low Tide	15:18 (0.90m)
High Tide	22:00 (2.20m)

Sea temperature: 19.4
Sea conditions: choppy - with jellyfish 
Weather: sunny and blustery
Joined by: The Usual Suspects

Oh, SUMMERhouse, I thought you said DOGhouse

Topics of conversation: today the chat went on for longer than usual as it was the grand summerhouse warming, or it could be the grand summer housewarming I suppose, but ostensibly it was to toast the new and magnificent edifice now taking up a few square feet of The L.E.'s garden. It's a thing of beauty, cedar tiled roof, lead light windows and a comfy sofa spread across the back, which very quickly had a lurcher spread across it. She can find a sofa in any house and worm her way onto it without anyone noticing, then feign sleep so that no one has the heart to move her. 
The Ellies (plural of L.E. of course) have almost finished their house, which has been completely and lovingly remodelled in a contemporary Arts and Crafts style, bringing the influences from their previous life, living on the river, to mingle with the sea here on the Suffolk Coast. If this were a blog about interiors I'd be happy rabbiting on about the perfect proportions of the rooms, sensitive colour palette, practical kitchen/dining/living space and the quirky elements which hint at their lives in Light Entertainment. The most delightful of these is an enormous interior stained glass window, which throws coloured light into the main living space and has been modelled on Thalia, the muse of Comedy. It could not be more perfect for the space, and indeed the family. We had gallons of coffee and The Ellies had pre-ordered the gourmet bacon rolls from The Black Dog Deli, complete with ketchup and brown sauce in separate pots. It's back to bog standard bacon butties at the beach hut tomorrow though.
Juicing - as a result of a juicing fiasco yesterday I was starving, so the bacon roll was much needed. Mertz and I had decided to start the day with a healthy juice, something we do regularly but never in these proportions. We had foolishly had a decent sized glass each of beetroot and swiss chard, juiced straight from the garden on empty stomachs and had been knocked out by it, and not in a good way. Nausea, dizziness and even slight hallucinations for Mertz had left us incapacitated for about 2 hours. I had to lie down and close my eyes for fear of falling over. Apparently, we later discovered from this site: Juicing book, you have to work yourself up to such a high dose of oxalic acid and one blogger even reported having a celebration on the first day after a week of swiss chard juice when she didn't throw up. All I'd eaten for the rest of the day was toast and chocolate chip cookies.
The chocolate chip cookies were supposed to be for today. I'd baked a few batches for a fundraising event, in aid of a dog rescue centre Scruples: http://www.scrupleswhippetrescue.com. At the same time I'd baked dog treats, which were tested by all the dogs on the beach this morning; liver muffins and chewy liver leather seemed to get the seal of approval, I'd had to remember to keep the bowls and mixers separate during the cooking process and had been watched, throughout, by the aforementioned lurcher. 

Liver muffin mix on the right - eeuw

Mertz has lost his sense of smell again, poor thing, and he came into the kitchen just as I was taking the second batch of muffins out of the oven - he went to grab one, but I just got to him in time. They wouldn't have done him any harm, but as they don't have an chilli in them he probably wouldn't have liked them much.
Pride in your children - there was much pride this week as Miss Lush is featuring in the local glossie: Suffolk Magazine, whilst she's not new to the circuit, being a successful writer and journalist, it's lovely that's she's currently on most of the coffee tables in the village, actually sorry Miss Lush, that came out all wrong...!  Also Sara and the Poet's son 'Murmur' is with Wara - a band whose album had been reviewed in The Guardian yesterday: London has become one of the great centres for global fusion bands, as was shown by Family Atlantica's rousing clash of Venezuelan and West African styles at Womad. Wara have a similar approach, though the emphasis here is more on Cuban dance music, given a London remix with a dash of hip-hop, jazz and reggae added in. This nine-piece band are Londoners who come from Cuba, South America, Ghana, Congo, Spain and the UK, and their songs switch between balladry and bursts of Cuban timba. There are cool, drifting vocals from Congolese-Argentinean singer Juanita Euka and rapping from Josh "Murmur" Solnick, with lyrics about the realities of immigrant London life. Then they suddenly change the mood and pace mid-song, the brass kicks in, and they head out for the dancefloor.

Beards - The Pirate's is magnificent and, we informed him, currently very much the fashion. This wonderful photographic blog is attempting to capture the moment and now that it's a year old and has a cult following the book is available: 100 beards, 100 days 
The Pirate's beard should have featured.