Waves at Carskey Bay

16.2C with plenty of sunny sunshine then clouding over through the afternoon. Wind  SSE to 33 mph with gusts to 52 mph (such gusts forecast though to Monday afternoon). Some spots of rain late afternoon. Ferry cancelled, with almost all CalMac routes affected by the wind today.

Grocery shopping over by mid morning. We left Maeve the Deerhound at home again.

We went the ten miles or so South to Southend then followed the road round past Dunaverty beach to Carskey Bay where we had a walk with Maeve from one end of the beach to the other and back. It was lovely and bright and heavy waves were coming in from deep water then rolling and crashing on the beach and foaming with the wind driving them in from the South. Very different from last Sunday. The air was full of salt spray. Maeve had a lot of fun wandering off then running about to catch us up as we walked. Definitely no paddling today, In fact Maeve went nowhere near the water's edge. No seals popping up as we walked along to day but plenty of Gannets were soaring along in the wind then sweeping down low over the sea to accelerate and shoot up in the air before turning to plunge into the wave tops. Some gulls were flying to and fro at the shoreline and seemed very interested in the foam, perhaps checking for anything washed up.

We only saw five other people on the beach today and that was when we were almost back to the car park.

Just one seal on the rocks and one or two swimming just offshore at Kiel when we came back along past the old cemetery. I was surprised any were out of the water at all.

On the way to Southend we had checked the farm stand for Little Farm. No eggs. Two bags of curly Kale, some herbs, plenty of Courgettes, cucumber, some Chard, and some Rhubarb.

After a late lunch we went downstairs and cleared the tiny bed of soil next to our turret door, taking out the spent Calendula plants. I top dressed with compost then Apothecary7 planted it up with winter flowering Pansies which we had seen at the Supermarket this morning. We had bought two trays so there were enough to plant in the big pot near our shed door (to replace lobelia and nasturtiums that had gone over) and the trough that sits on the window sill. While all the planting was going on I mowed the lawn and was glad to take the chance while the grass was dry.

Later Apothecary7 carried on with her latest painting.

Afternoon music ...Marillion, Misplaced Childhood. Cat Stevens, Teaser and the Firecat.

DMC-LX7 f/3.5 1/2000 sec. ISO-80 5mm (35mm focal length 24mm)