Sunny.

Sunny and warm today.

I spent the morning chipping cement from the big blocks in the front garden and got quite a few done. As I worked I heard some voices shouting for help. Looking at the bay I saw that the shouts were coming from two people in the water just off the the sandbank that runs between the first two breakwaters. The lifeguard on his board soon reached them and had them resting on his board while he radioed for another lifeguard to come and take the second person back to shore. Both the rescued men walked up the beach with the lifeguards so my guess is that they were non-swimmers who had stepped into the deeper water (there were no signs of them being caught in a rip tide) and panicked. Well done to the beach lifeguards.

Later on I cycled down to the railway station for a talk on the submerged forest by Dr Martin Bates. He is a geological archeologist and in his excellent talk which was mostly on the beach, he took us from 30,000 years ago when glaciers covered the area through the melting of the glaciers, the silting up of the rivers, reed beds and then the forest which grew 7,000 years ago but only lasted for 1,500 years before reverting to grasslands and then bogs before the sea level gradually rose covering the land. Interesting fact, at the end of the last ice age the sea was 125m lower than it is now.

I don't walk on the beach so much in the summer, too many people and too much to do at home so I hadn't realised that the tree stumps of the forest turn green as the seaweed grows on it.

Back home there was just time to sit out for a while after an early shower before heading off to a party at a neighbour's. When we checked the invitation this morning I realised that we weren't being asked to bring food along and I needn't have gone to all that bother making the hummus. Hmph. I called in at the shop on the way back from the talk and bought some fancy apple & rhubarb and apple & ginger juices to take along as I rarely drink alcohol. It was a lovely party, quite a few people we already knew, amazing vegetarian food and much music making and singing including lively fiddle music. Even I was persuaded to play the digital piano and I've agreed to join a second small choir. Life is getting busy.