Low Tide	02:39 (0.50m)
High Tide	09:22 (2.40m)
Low Tide	15:03 (0.90m)
High Tide	21:04 (2.40m)

Sea temperature: not taken

Sea conditions: exciting

Weather: a cold wind strengthening

Joined by: DK and The Pirate (natch), The LE, and Abs, The Artist briefly (TBC was playing golf at 6am and Sara and The Poet are still on spanish safari).

HUGE welcome back to Abs, who had not swum since October 14th - the day of The Incident, so it was with some trepidation that she approached the beach, only to find the wind up and the waves 'exciting'. We walked to the beach across the pastures and to the river together before joining the others at the beach and discussed The Incident at length, hoping this would help her to put the experience behind her and to get a fresh perspective. Again we mulled over whether it had made anyone more cautious and agreed that if had, then some good had come from it. That she had to make a decision to get herself to safety first had been the hardest thing for her, and something that Mertz and I had discussed only yesterday, as I swim on my own more and more regularly these days. I had been surprised that he felt I was safer on my own, but he'd explained that if there was none else to save if they got into trouble then statistically I was better off as I am, apparently, risk averse. I did reason that if I drowned on my own there'd be no one to save me and he'd never know I'd drowned but he pointed out that the pile of clothes on the beach would be a bit of a give away. Abs found the water very cold, having not been in for so long and sensibly got out quickly and patrolled up and down as we had a bit of a struggle getting out. 

It must be the first day of Summer as not only did she return, along with the swallows, who are in full mob mode on the pasture, but Mertz swam this afternoon. He was buoyed by a few beers and a belly full of paella, as well as a house full of boys to egg him on. He asked me to take a photograph as proof.

Proof

DK had a stressful morning due to the foam rolling along the beach, which is to Mabel as rabbits to Luna. As I went in for a second dip with The Pirate and jumped waves I noticed DK swimming north, faster that the tide would naturally take him, and as we got out it became apparent that he had a repeat performance of the day Mabel took off and I had to carry her back. DK went in cold pursuit - swimming a way up the beach then getting out, still in his trunks, and began zigzagging across the shingle after her. I took heed of Abs and looked after myself first, getting dressed and picking up Mabel's lead before jogging up the beach after him. By the time I reached him he had her under his arm and was clearly freezing so I full-on bullied him into giving me the dog and putting my North Face 700 on over his trunks. An elegant outfit, complete with his yellow neoprene gloves.

The LE and I discussed a plan to update the village horticultural show that she has hatched, partly due to her own garden being a dog playground at the moment. She's proposing a garden photography element to the competitive part of the show, which I've offered to host on the Village website. She is going to communicate with one of the LOTV's, who is in charge. If you were writing a script for Midsummer Murders you couldn't come up with a better name for the head of the Horticultural Show Committee: Betsy Lemon.