Dry.

Calm seas this morning with a hint of pink in the sky and some blue patches between the clouds. I could see that the clouds were being blown by a high north-westerly wind which may bring much colder temperatures soon.

As I sat outside I noticed a bird flying over the sea that resembled a goose flying. Even without being able to see details it is often possible to identify birds just by their silhouette and the way they fly. But when the bird landed on the sea I could see that it was much slimmer than a goose. It then began to dive down for fish and I thought it might be a cormorant until I enlarged the photos I had just taken. I had to check in my bird book to confirm that it was a Great Crested Grebe. Not a rare bird generally but I haven't seen one here before. Or at least don't remember doing so.

With the weather looking better by the minute I aimed to be out in the garden as soon as possible. But first I cleaned everything that was on the pine cupboard and the shelf above, wiped down the wood and then gave it a good coat of Brywax. It's a mix of paraffin wax and beeswax and has quite a strong smell so I was glad to escape to the garden.

I keep a selection of 'treasures' on the shelf from shells and stones to a piece of pottery from Petra and Chinese vases but in pride of place on the cupboard is this large modern ceramic bowl with a pair of fishes circling inside.

I left the wax to sink into the battered wood of the cupboard and went out to carry on gardening. The sun was shining right where I needed to work which was a bonus. Both robins joined me, one on either side watching for the worms that I threw back onto the soil. I'm not sure if it was the emergence of the sun or that there were two of them or simply that they weren't happy with the quality of the worms I was serving up but they sang at normal volume rather than the quiet little twitters I've been hearing up till now. I had to stop when I'd filled up all the bags which was probably enough for my knees. Peter took most of the bags down to the dump in the afternoon and the rest will go on Friday. I also piled up all the turves I'd left in the middle of the lawn when I was using the garden fork to get them up. I'd spread them out, soil side up in the hope that the cold and the wind would dry out the soil making it easier to knock off the soil before bagging up. But no, the rain far outweighed the wind and made the soil more difficult to handle. So now it's all in a pile and hopefully with have dried out a bit by the time I've cleared the rest of the old lawn. We'll see.

I spent the evening singing with the choir in Tal-y-Bont. (I'm thinking so much about the Welsh course that my mind automatically used the mutated form -  Yn Nhal-y-Bont, that must be a good sign.)