Icy.

Not icy on the ground but the light wind was bitterly cold.

This morning we were surprised to see a heron perched by the rock pools though according to my book it's quite common for them to come to the coast in the winter. Didn't know that. After breakfast I went out and did some gardening. I don't dare dig any brambles yet so instead I began brushing the paving and digging out the weeds growing between the slabs. The best tool for this is an old table knife. If anything tries to grow later on I'll get the weed killer out.

Being the weekend there were a lot more people around and that included swimmers. I don't know how much went on in the past here but 'wild' or 'open water' swimming seems to be very much the in thing at the moment. Maybe because swimming pools are closed and also down to the reports that cold water swimming has beneficial health effects - " Cold water swimming may protect the brain from degenerative diseases like dementia, researchers from Cambridge university have discovered." (BBC) This group above were out in the morning while I spotted the chap below when I set off for my walk.

I think he was over ambitious as even the swimmers above had shortie wet suits. I kept an eye on him and he never got round to actual swimming before he left the water. I think the swimmers below may be on some sort of training schedule as we've seen them before as they swim towing floats behind them.

Yesterday my photos of the honeycomb worm colonies weren't too good so I had another try today. (I checked out a couple of videos but they aren't very exciting, just little thread type worms.) They can only be seen when the tide is low. I found a few sea anemones but so far the rock pools are quite sparsely occupied. Maybe because of the amount of stones that get dragged back and forth by the sea.

I had a pleasant walk along the beach. More groups out walking despite the cold. A medium sized dog came racing over to me and I braced myself for impact but he managed to skid to a halt by my knee. He tried to jump up but as soon as I said 'Down' he sat down so I could give him a stroke. I noticed that when he went back to his people they put him on the lead which wasn't necessary but I was too far away to say he hadn't been a nuisance.

I called in at the shop to get some apples as Peter was going to make coleslaw. He makes a large amount at the time and usually I find carrot gratings all over the kitchen so I don't look forward coleslaw days. He's now watching rugby so I took the chance to start putting more crockery in the corner cupboard that got its doors yesterday.