Grey Start.

The morning could only be described as asleep with a calm grey sea under soft grey rain that hid the view and almost blotted out the houses along the beach. I think the moisture in the air contributed to muffling out any sounds and even the garden birds had fallen silent. Though the rain eventually stopped it wasn't until the afternoon that the sun began to break through and the sea began to take on hues of green which had me saying 'Wow.' but I didn't succeed in capturing the brightest greens.

Due to the wet morning two of the builders turned up and have spent the day building door frames and painting. They nailed up an old curtain across the hall to stop the dust spreading which I was very happy about as I planned to wash the floors. I washed the sitting room and front hall floors before breakfast and the other floors afterwards in an effort to spread the pain which sort of worked. I really can't be washing floors on my hands and knees. One problem is that I'm loathe to mop the laminate flooring even though it is waterproof. I looked on line for hints on the best sort of mop to use and I think I'll get something small that takes a microfibre cloth that I could even wring out each time. Or maybe one of those that sprays a little water down the handle.

Floors done it was time to hang curtains in the sitting room. Not too successful, for a start the tub of white curtains contained not the ones I'd been using in Broadgate but the rest of the Dingles sitting room curtains ie. from the windows rather than the patio doors. No idea where the patio door curtains are at the moment. As to the length - forget floating, these ones are positively levitating and need another 6 inches. I think I might be making new curtains for the big windows and just use the old curtains on the small window and the dinning area. Possibly over the front door too. I've hung the short curtains up anyway as they will at least provide some privacy in the evenings when the sitting room can feel a little goldfish bowl like.

It was such a bright afternoon that we headed out for a short walk along the beach.

Lots of seaweed washed up on the sand and the remains of a couple of barrel jellyfish. The one below was about 12 inches x 18 inches.

The photos below are from the web showing a complete barrel jellyfish found on a Welsh beach. They can grow up to 3 ft across and weigh 35kg. There have been cases where large numbers, up to hundreds have washed ashore on local beaches. The short tentacles will only give you a mild sting though Peter says he doesn't want any stings thank-you. The bottom photo came from a BBC site.