Beach Day.

Although yesterday was the hottest day of the year (33C) in the south-east it was cooler here with rain in the afternoon and a little thunder in the evening. (Hence no Internet as everything was unplugged.) There were reports of strange tidal surges all around the south west including up some rivers. This is being put down to a mini tsunami caused not by an earthquake but by an undersea landslide off the continental shelf.

Today we were back to sunny weather, perfect for our whole school trip to the beach. It was sunny but with a cooling breeze and we had a wonderful time. All except for a very unpleasant couple who own/rent the line of beach huts. We had put all our stuff down not close to but in front of these huts. First the man and then his partner came and very rudely demanded that we move away from the huts as we were costing them business. I tried to explain that we hadn't wanted to go much further down the beach as we had to walk back to the car park for the toilets, which children always need, we couldn't have gone in the other direction because the cliffs and rocks were a safety hazard and that we would be going down onto the wet sand for all sorts of activities anyway. They were rude to the parents, to me and then to the head teacher while only having 2 beach huts occupied as there were very few other people on the beach and it is a public beach over which they had no juristriction. We did move along so that we weren't directly in front of the huts but I think that some of the parents will be writing to the local paper about how local school children were rudely ordered off that part of the beach. We took plenty of activities for the children to do but they had the most fun simply building sandcastles and jumping off sand dunes. This time we even went into the water, only to paddle but it was still fun.

And this is from yesterday, the latest addition to our menagerie. As yet unnamed cat, was taken in as a stray by a work mate of Pete's but needed a new home. Peter overcame his usual (or supposed) aversion to cats and asked me if I wanted him as an early birthday present. Ever the softie I sad yes and he arrived here yesterday. He's young, very friendly with people but scared of cats (& hens). He's booked in at the vets on Thursday that is if he is old enough so my 'present' is going to cost me money but I don't mind.