Wow!

It has been lovely having Vytas and Sally come to visit. We packed in a full day of activities on Saturday though sadly Peter's knee stopped him from joining us after our hearty cooked breakfast.

Despite the light rain it was all smiles as we climbed up in the woods above Furnace having of course had a look around the old (1755) furnace first. (I'll post more photos in the next few days otherwise this will be a very long post.) I'd found the faint path that took us up above the dam and waterfall from where we continued on up through the woods then out to the hills above.

After the walk we drove to the nearby Osprey Centre where much was seen and photographed. I was amazed to see this grass snake swimming very quickly across one of the ponds.

When we got home the sun was more or less out so Vytas and Sally went down to do some bodyboarding. That was after having some cheesecake which turned out surprisingly well. It was very light but had set thanks to the extra gelatine. We finished off the evening with a delicious Chinese takeaway meal, no cooking but a lot of washing up afterwards. 

I think I must have done a bit too much marching around yesterday (or more likely it was due to reaching up to bring down the spare serving dishes from the top shelf in the cupboard) as I woke at 4.00 with aching ribs and ended up getting up at that early hour. After watching Sewing Bee with the sound turned right down I did the breakfast prep, wrapped up and sat outside for a couple of hours. It was warm and there weren't too many clouds to begin with but by breakfast time the sky had darkened and we could see a squall heading our way.

As we admired the colours of the sea and sky I suddenly noticed a funnel cloud forming. Then a second and a start of a third but none of them touched down to form a waterspout much to our disappointment. At the same time we could hear the rumble of thunder in the distance. The rain when it came was intense but had cleared by the time Vytas and Sally were ready to leave for their five hour drive home.

I felt too tired to go on my usual Sunday walk and instead got my study back to rights and put sheets and towels in the washing machine. The first lot of sheets are washed and ironed and I'm just about to bring in the towels from the line. As usual I had bought an abundance of cold meats and cheeses in case we had to have lunch at home on Saturday which means that we've no need to do any cooking for a while.

Sunshine this afternoon.