Not Wet.

The sun has been shining all day, sometimes it's been warm and sometimes a little chilly. Hardly any wind so the sea has been covered in gentle ripples with only a hint of waves.

As the air cools the visibility gets better. Out on the horizon I could just make out the hills of the Llyn and at their end (centre of the photo) Bardsey island. 

A bird was flying towards me that looked a bit like a seagull but the wing movement was different. It's funny how each species flies slightly differently. As it passed over me I saw that indeed it was not a seagull but a heron. Something different every day.

As I sat there enjoying my coffee with Speedy on my lap it was interesting to see the garden in its late summer colours. Gone are the subtle purples, blues, pinks and whites of the main colour scheme. Most of the flowering plants only have seed heads and the hydrangeas, no matter what their summer colours were - blue, purple, pink or white, are now a muted red like faded theatre curtains. Red too are the ice plant flowers, the low growing sedum and the leaves of pennisetum fireworks. The seed heads of the pheasant grass create a red haze next to the bright orange stems of the carex by the pond. Eventually most of the flower heads will change to gentle sandy colour echoing the yellows of the shingle. And I expect, making me all the more determined to change those old red slabs for the same buff coloured ones that I used for the path.

Today I rode Cadno as the girl who part loans Margaret rode her in the lesson. It wasn't a terribly exciting lesson as we did a lot of leg yielding something Cadno does very well. We did do it in sitting trot and if I had been more on the ball I could have asked to work without stirrups for a while to challenge myself  or rather those hard to find core muscles. But good news - the day ride next Tuesday is definitely on and I shall be riding Cadno. Something I shall look forward to whatever the weather.

After riding I did the usual round of shopping though I didn't bother walking into town. At home, once I'd thrown the washing in the machine and had a cuppa I gave the back door/gate another coat of blue paint. Now all I have to do is wait for it to dry, clean the paint off the glass panels and fit the door handle. Lastly I put away some stuff in the loft, a job I'd been meaning to do for a while. I did manage to take a small chunk out of my thumb below the nail when I caught it on the loft ladder. That was after I took some skin off my finger when I scraped it on the little door that goes over the car's petrol cap when I went to fill it up.

At that point I gave up and went to do some more sitting outside. I had to laugh at the story unfolding in front of me. There were two men fishing from kayaks out by the reefs. What they couldn't see but I from my higher vantage point could was that just behind them was a large shoal of fish stirring up the surface of the water. Something was chasing the fish because I could see lots of splashes as they jumped out of the water in panic. I hoped for dolphins as I haven't seen many this summer but there were none to be seen. I assumed the fish were being chased by larger predatory fish until ....... a little while later I saw a seal looking out of the water. It was so near to the beach that at first I thought it was a person swimming until I looked more closely.

Sunset last night.