Sunny.

Another bright day, still with a touch of mist and a cold wind.

I was up early and felt energetic enough to be out of the door by 7.20 for a walk up to The Monument.

It's a great cardio workout just getting up to the top of the hill but of course once there the temptation is to carry on heading south along the coast.

The tide was out so it was be a good opportunity to explore the beach below but I thought I might climb up the other side to the next headland. However the easy mown path ended at a stile with a notice saying 'Residents Only'. The alternative barely discernible path was steep and went very close to the cliff edge so I beat a retreat. Looking at the photo I can see there is a safer path further from the edge but it wasn't easy to find. When I'm ready to try that again I'll go along the side of the fence. This is part of the Welsh coastal footpath so should be a safe route but I recall that there was a landslide last autumn and the path was closed off for a while.

Instead I went down to the beach and was began walking back the way I'd come. I didn't know if the tide was still going out (I've checked and it had just turned) so I kept a wary eye out. Having watched too many lifeboat rescues on tv where foolish people have been cut off by the tide I didn't want to find myself in the same position. I walked to the first headland knowing there was plenty of beach behind me to beat a retreat if needed then the next section had a similar amount of beach. I decided to make a final decision at the second headland but when I got there I could see the way back to Borth beach so carried on and got home safely.

We had to postpone our plan to go and chose the terrace slabs because I'd had an email saying the second roll of fabric would be delivered today by 6.00. It's 5.15 and I'm still waiting. We did get another delivery, of the four short trellis panels. They'd tried to phone when we must have been outside but luckily they came anyway. We'd been busy working in the garden. Me at the back emptying out any broken plastic planters into the patch of poor soil I'd dug over. I removed any weeds and then combined the compost with the dry clay lumps which I crumbled up. The result is not bad. All the broken containers can now be taken to the dump. Peter, in the meantime was in the front garden breaking up a small planter putting the concrete 'stone' blocks to one side to be reused later. He was then able to cut down the stump of a bush that had been growing in the planter so that I can take it to the dump too. His final job was to release the bar on the gate which was actually bent at the bottom. No wonder I couldn't shift it. Peter had to use impact technology ie a lump hammer, to free the gate which now swings free. My final job in the back garden which being out of the wind was nice and hot, was to weed the patch of rough ground to the left. Some of the weeds were already flowering and the buttercups were looking too healthy for my liking. 

The sea has been quite empty today, just a couple of lads learning how to paddleboard. I saw one fall in a few times and he wasn't wearing a wetsuit! One new sighting earlier was of two Canada geese on the water between the rocks and the beach. There's a large wetland area along the river so I guess they came from there.