Wind and Rain.

Yesterday I caught a whiff of an unpleasant smell in the kitchen. Not an unusual occurrence in a house with 3 sons but this definitely had the pong of dead animal. The reason we don't have a cat flap is to prevent the cats bringing in their small (or large) victims. I couldn't bear the thought of a corpse rotting away in my kitchen so we sniffed high and low, in cupboards, behind drawers, down the plug holes and I even climbed up and looked on top of the cupboards but we couldn't pin point the smell. It seemed to be located about 5ft up near the sink. Very strange. A few hours later I found the source of the whiff - my pitcher plant which hangs in the kitchen window. After being fairly dormant all winter it has produced 3 big pitchers and I do remember that insectivorous plant produce the smell of rotting flesh to attract flies. The smell is not too strong and now that I know there isn't something nasty behind the cupboard I'll leave the plant to do its job of getting rid of the flies. Unless the smell gets stronger in which case it may have to go and live in the conservatory.

It has been very wet today, typical holiday weather. I had to take Peter into town to catch a train to Exeter for a work meeting and in the hour I was away the drive started to wash away once more. I ran up in the rain and cleared the gutter and rebuilt the wood and mud dams that divert the water flowing down the road, into the fields.

The tops of the hills were right in the clouds.

Peter got some good news this morning. He spoke to the consultant this morning and FINALLY he has got a diagnosis. As he thought all along it's psoriatic arthritis which when it flares up is treatable with targeted injections. I'm so cross that he has spent 3 months in a lot of pain in his joints waiting for this diagnosis and it will be another 2 -4 weeks before he gets the injections. I'm even crosser about the fact that p-arthritis was mentioned but not followed up when he had an emergency hospital admission several years ago. It was 'We don't know what was wrong with you but you seem better now so go home.'

I didn't think the weather conditions would give me any good photos down at Velator this afternoon so I drove right out to the cliffs at Saunton to enjoy the wild waves.

This house stands all alone out on the headland. I'd love to live there but in the long term I'd worry about cliff erosion.


I took the path down to the cliff edge to watch the waves.





Looking back towards Saunton Sands. It wasn't cold but there was a strong wind.

The waves were racing into Croyde Bay. I don't think anyone was out surfing today.


I suggest you turn the sound of for this very noisy (it was windy) video of the waves panning round from Croyde bay to Saunton Sands. I did put my finger over one set of the sound pick up hole but couldn't cover the other set. Perhaps I can get some foam tabs to put over the holes to cut out the dreadful wind noise. (No pun intended.)