Peter's Birthday.

The day began with a quiet, silvery white world as a sea mist filled the air and deadened most of the sound. (I took the photo below a couple of hours later when the mist had begun to clear.) For the rest of the day it felt like a battle between blistering hot moments when the sun broke through the clouds and a sharp chill when the clouds got in the way or the invisible but cold sea mist swooshed in from the sea. 

Today is a special day as it is Peter's birthday, 72 years young and doing very well. So well that yesterday he got himself a job! Only part-time or at least paid for part-time though he reckons there'll be more to do at the start. He wasn't looking for work but when the community hub put out a call for somebody to set up a men's shed, he felt it's something we need in the village. In my mind it's like a pub with tea instead of booze where men can chat and do stuff with tools too.

Before he went to the hub to get through paperwork he opened his presents, he liked the fun rook description that I bought at the craft fair now that he doesn't have to listen to the cacophony from the rookeries at Dingles. Having a bacon sandwich for breakfast was a birthday treat too. The bara brith was also a hit. We had some later in the day, with butter of course but there's only 50gm (1 teaspoon) of butter in the cake itself. In my opinion it's as nice as or even nicer than most of the Christmas cakes I've baked being full of dried fruit, tasty and moist. Peter had to be out for the afternoon but we ended the day with an excellent supper of baked salmon in mushrooms with new potatoes and peas.

In the afternoon I got on with painting the front. It may not look as if I did much but it took me nearly three hours to cut in under the roof and around the doors and work my way up the side. I took a break when I finished the paint in the paint kettle by which time it was 4.00. I thought about doing another hour's painting but then decided to pace myself and carry on tomorrow.

A closer view of the new render and a couple of spectators, a spider and a some kind of bug. I'm wondering if the rough texture is to help the paint stick to the wall? Still don't like it though.

I caught the best of the warmth as I sat out before making supper. I could see several large mixed flocks of sea birds on the water indicating that there were shoals of fish below. The arctic terns were up above doing their dramatic plunges into the sea which sent up great plumes of water as they arrowed their way in. I failed to see any dolphins going after the fish and was disappointed to read on FB that the dolphins were seen just as I was cooking. However as we were about to eat we saw two dolphins swimming side by side, possibly a mother and calf, by the reefs.