Sunny.

I looked out of the window at 2.30 am and the garden was covered with snow but it had all disappeared by the time morning came. The wind was still icy cold but with the sun shining what else could we do but head out for a stroll on the beach.

With the wind blowing straight in from the sea there weren't too many people around and the surf was too messy for even the most hardy of surfers. 

Down on the beach the surface had changed again, instead of mainly sand with some bands of broken shells it was all broken shells (around about 1cm across). I'm not sure if the sand layer has been washed off or if the shells have covered the sand. Last winter the storms washed most of the sand off so that the beach was much lower and many of the underlying stones were exposed. 

We found a sheltered corner to drink our coffee but didn't stay too long. It's so good even to spend a little while out in the sea air. 

The coastguard helicopter was hovering over Baggy Point. That was most likely a training session though we have witnessed a couple of real rescues while walking out on the cliffs.

We called in at Tesco's on the way home so that I had the ingredients to do a little baking. I wanted to bake some banana (and chocolate chunk - Peter's suggestion) muffins. That was because Larry, a friend who works with Peter took all day to get through one of my biscuits on Friday due to having had 3 wisdom teeth out at the beginning of the week. So I'm sending one in specially for him tomorrow. The rest of the team will have to wait until Friday for my usual baking treat. I had to test a couple as I got them out of the oven, (how else can you check they are baked?) and they were rather nice.

Speedy had to have a bath today. He came in this morning with black mud on his face, tummy, back legs and side. I should have taken a photo but I was concerned about the mess getting everywhere as at that point I wasn't sure if it was mud, oil or something nastier so I wrapped him in an old towel and got the worst off. I left him to dry off in the warmer oven of the rayburn (he took himself in there) but but he was still looking muddy so bath time it was. He wasn't too keen on being placed in several inches of warm water in the bath but he didn't struggle and I was able to gently wash all the mud off from everywhere apart from his face. It's not often I have to wash a cat but all my cats have been calm enough to be washed without claws coming out.