Grey.

The pillow of cloud that had been sitting on top of the mountains yesterday arrived here overnight giving a very wet and grey outlook to the morning. Eventually the cloud lifted a little but not enough to let much light through.

With the weather being quite dreary I decided that it would be better to spend the day painting rather than going to Pontrhydygroes (the place with the waterwheel and the diy tea room) to walk through the woods with the walking group. So the painting continued. Today I was braver and painted with the edging brush plus a damp cloth to wipe off the inevitable incursions onto the blue walls. That went a lot faster than yesterday but anyway yesterday's primer was oil based so I couldn't have used the edging brush. I've found that you need such a lot of white spirits to clean brushes after using oil based paints that it's cheaper to throw them away and buy new ones. The door and loft hatch also got painted today. I know that you're supposed to take doors off their hinges and paint them flat after removing handles and things but I've gone for the easy option and painted in situ. As I was painting I reflected on how my decorating concerns are such first world problems. Does the colour of the wall or a few blobs even matter when we have a bathroom with running hot and cold water and a toilet, things that so many of the world's population can only dream of?

I finished painting for the day by mid afternoon and took myself off for a walk along the beach. (I took photos with the phone camera but can't work out how to upload them. I could before but now even with the help of the internet and Peter it's all gone very odd.) There wasn't much to photograph apart from a tiny patch of blue in the sky. I was keeping my eyes open for Portuguese Man of War as following an official warning from the environmental agency or some such body a week ago saying they had been found all along the coast including Ynyslas several people had posted photos of them on the beach here. I didn't see any but sadly there were a dead seal and a dead sheep washed up on shore. I watched a chap, the same one who had been doing his tractor driving test, set up his bright orange kite surfer and zip about on the water providing a spot of colour to the seascape. Wrapped up in waterproofs it was fun battling against the wind.

Now for a quiet evening watching Strictly.