Sunny.

The sun was with us again and the wind had dropped to almost nothing. A perfect day for another cliff walk. This time we chose a longer route walking along the track to Bull Point then swinging back onto the coast path. There were a lot of planning application notices up saying that the path is going to be re-routed. It's not surprising as there is a lot of erosion of the coast path with the edges being more and more trodden down as people try to avoid the slippery rocks in the path. But it does look as if the path is going to be a bit further inland. Today the going was good as the ground was so dry. With no significant rain for the past month and the cold temperatures everywhere looks brown and drought stricken.

As I in particular have done very little exercise in the past 2 months we are building up our walks. It's mainly the knees that suffer going up those never ending stairs but I have to admit to doing my usual beetroot impression and puffing and panting at the tops of the steps. (Must start walking up the drive every day.) Peter had packed a picnic and we took a welcome lunch break at Rockham Bay. 

There were only half a dozen other people on the beach and we were able to enjoy the warmth of the sun and the calm sound of the waves. It was so nice that I took off my fleece and was wishing I had worn shorts.

The beach is a mixture of sand, pebbles of myriad colours and flat discs of slate which are ideal for skipping on the waves. I'm not very good but I enjoyed this simple pleasure and as we left I noticed that the other people had taken up my idea. As we stood at the top of the very steep stairs up from the beach we watched a family group down on the beach. The 2 young children were happily playing with Mum while Dad set up his beach casting fishing rod. What a lovely way to spend an afternoon and what a contrast to those miserable children I see trailing around town 'shopping' with their parents.

There is a possibility that we may have rain soon so once we got home we put up our tent so that I could give it a good spray with waterproofer. It's a good make but we bought it second hand and camping on the IOS would not be the best time to find out that it leaks. It looks rubbish in the photo but that's because it needs all the guy ropes pegged down and all the clips fastened to give it it's proper shape. Despite no rain the back lawn, as I discovered in my sock clad feet, is very wet so we kept the tent on the paving. When I took it down I discovered that because it has a sewn in groundsheet you need to start rolling from the bedroom end otherwise you end up with a big air bubble.

I'm now waiting for supper, a chicken curry made by Peter. My contribution was to cook the rice. Not much cooking there as I use easy-cook brown rice. All I  have to do is put rice, water and a chopped up onion into a saucepan and cook. The onion gives it enough flavour so I don't add any salt, there is enough in the curry sauce. We hardly add any salt to our cooking but use lots of other spices. Black pepper is my favourite.