Cloudy.

After monsoon-like rain in the night today has been a mixture of clouds and sun.

I was out before breakfast as we both had a hankering for some croissants to go with our Sunday pot of coffee. They didn't have any fresh croissants in the shop so I made do with a bag of the 'long-life' croissants. The ones that come individually wrapped. Generally for a village shop they have a surprisingly good range of items including what I would call luxury or high-end foods. I guess people like to splash out when they are on holiday plus there are some very expensive homes here too.

After breakfast I hung some washing on the line and then began work in the back garden. My first job was to use a bolster and lump hammer to clear away some old concrete that was intruding into one of my post holes and would have meant I coldn't get the post just where I wanted it. Then I went on to dig up the first of the ivy roots. At the beginning this was easy with the dry soil crumbling away as I hacked at it with the hand hoe but then the soil was a solid block of clay. Not so easy to dig out up to 3 feet of finger thick roots. I got a fair amount done by which time the sweat was pouring off me. Time to stop and go have a shower.

Freshened up I headed off to the other end of the village to have a look at the chalk paintings. They were part of this year's carnival festivities though there won't be an actual carnival because of social distancing rules in Wales. I'd seen lots of photos of the pictures that were chalked yesterday and felt very sad when I heard the pounding rain at 2.00 this morning. The pictures survived remarkably well especially the ones by local artists. It was mostly the ones drawn by children that got washed away. 

The back of the sea defence wall makes a good place for the chalk pictures. (On top of the sea wall is a walkway with the beach below on the other side.)

This is Dean with his dragon which was designed to have a 3-D effect if you stood on a pair of footprints painted on the road. He is a chalk artist and has a mural business and is one of the organisers of the chalk exhibition/activity. He is also one of the zoo owners and we had a chat before I carried on with my photo walk.

The waves on these sea horses got quite washed out last night.

On my way back I stopped at a little gift shop and found myself the type of ranger hat I've been looking for and in my size. I then stopped at the good chip shop for a portion of fish and chips for us to share for our supper at Peter's request. I'm having mine with cauliflower and peas while Peter will have peas with the chips.

An illustration of how safe people feel here - On my way down to the beach I passed a motorbike parked up at the side of the road next to the cars. The rider's motorcycle helmet was placed carefully on the ground beside it and clearly visible inside were the bike keys. Obviously the rider was in the sea and trusted that no one would steal his bike. I found that quite amazing.