Grey.

It was horrible this morning, cold and wet, so while Peter went off to row at 7.00 I buried myself under the duvet. I had a long lie-in but unfortunately my various aches and pains mean that lying in bed is basically ..... painful and after a while I'm forced to get up. That's why I'm chasing up the doctors in order to try and get at least some of them cured. Otherwise I hate to think what life would be like if I became less mobile. I made up for my lazy morning by working outside in the garden all afternoon. Although I planned the garden as 'low maintenance' after 15 years the golden marjoram in one bed was being overtaken by grasses. I tried pulling out the grass last year but this year I'm digging everything up, clearing out all the weeds and replanting the marjoram. As a reward for this hard work I finished the day with a mug of tea sitting up by the scree garden. With the wind roaring in the trees and breezes gusting across my face, when I shut my eyes it was easy to imagine myself back by the sea once more.

I.O.S. Sunday.

Sunday was taken up with 2 sprint races each for the men and the ladies' crews. Plenty of trudging across the sand to wish Peter good luck and then back to find a spot on the end of the quay to watch the gigs crossing the finish line. 

A lot of the time I was transported back to my very early days in St Ives. The architecture and the narrow winding lanes could have been 'downalong' where even as very small children we were free to roam. The smells of the sea, the occasional coal fire and the washed up seaweed took me straight back to my childhood. Even the sand on the beach was the same. Having a lot of granite in it the sand is slightly gritty but has a magical sparkle when the sun shines. 

There was an influx of older visitors from a cruise liner that was moored out in the bay. They were on a round Britain cruise and apparently had a rather rough time when they were up in the Hebrides. 

After the final sprints the gigs rafted up in the centre of the harbour to welcome in the overall winners. I do believe a lot of port and other alcohol is drunk at this time. When I looked through my photos of the men's rafting up there was one chap wearing no clothes at all!

Here Peter and the rest of the men's B crew are off for their final sprint. They were happy enough to have moved up one group from last year. The A crew moved from 71st last year (out of 120) to 46th this year (or something like that) so there was much celebration overall. 

More tomorrow.