Cold.

I set the alarm extra early in hopes of seeing the lunar eclipse this morning but when I struggled out of bed at 6.00 clouds covered the sky and hid the moon. It's been sometimes sunny but more often total cloud cover today. It was lovely and warm when the sun shone but under the cloud it was bitterly cold.

This morning as I sat outside the sea was as calm as a pond and my first thoughts were that it wasn't that interesting. However as I sat there letting my thoughts wander I realised that the regular whooshing sound of the small waves moving the shingle was causing my breathing to slow right down in a very calming way. I often hear, in Pilates and elsewhere, that we should relax using 'square breathing' (inhale for 4 seconds, hold for 2 seconds, exhale for 4 seconds, hold for 2 seconds and repeat) but I struggle with this and feel I soon get out of breath. (I blame my sinuses.) So this morning was good.

Later I got to watch the antics of a pair of oystercatchers on the beach. Their courtship seems to involve much calling and marching around in unison.

There were just five of us in the riding lesson this morning and that included Katie, one of the stable staff who is training for her next exam. For a change I rode Margaret. She's smaller than Hazel and her trot is a lot more tippety (my word for short and bouncy.) I had her going really well for the first half, nicely on the bit with the right amount of bend and some fairly good leg yielding. It all went a bit wrong when Katie began cantering and I could feel Margaret thinking 'Me next, me next.' She got faster and more skippy at times trying to swing her hindquarters inwards. I wasn't watching the other riders but we all got told that our horses were reacting to us, the riders, anticipating cantering and letting the horses get unsettled. But I suspect that most of my difficulties were down to Margaret being young. Unsurprisingly I wasn't asked to canter. That was much to my relief as I don't think either Margaret or myself were in the right frame of mind for a sensible canter.

Afterwards I left the stables in the warmth only to freeze in town. I found a small bag of glass pebbles in one of the charity shops, pale green and iridescent this time. I'm also keeping my eyes open for fabric to use for our Viking costumes. I did find a suitable long, leather man's coat but I baulked at paying £9 for a coat for cutting up to make vambraces and a jerkin.

Peter was out rowing when I got home so I had to put the shopping away unaided. Once that was done I  loaded the washing machine, did my exercises and had a well-deserved rest with a mug of tea, one eye on the tv and the other on the sea. All I've done since then is cut out two more shields for the boat. And the last set of exercises.