To give the new appointed chaplain on his confirmatory visit free time to inspect the house, I went out to the beach nearby after breakfast, and spent a pleasant morning meditating, listening to the waves sucking cascades of sharp bright noises from the pebbles along the shore. It wasn't fiercely hot, and there were a few spots of shade beneath the cliff at the south end of the cove. For a while, half a dozen back cap gulls patrolled the inshore waters, occasionally pausing to hover, then dropping like a stone about forty feet, wings folding in perfect time to make an almost splashless entry into the water, emerging seconds later to climb rapidly, small silver fish in beak.
More astonishing still were the occasions when a bird would drop like a stone, then pull sharply out of the dive a few feet above the water, like a marionette jerked by its puppeteer - an acrobat with wings. No photograph I took did justice to this spectacle. I'll need to practice with telephoto lens, if I ever get the chance again. I've never enjoyed lazing about on beaches since buckets and spades went out of the holiday luggage, being no big fan of swimming where I can get scorched. But here's a compelling enough reason to spend more time down at the waters' edge, if I find that little patch of shade...
After the beach, I popped into town on the bus to get some fish and drink a caña in the cool of the main covered market. Currently there's an exhibition of carnival costume art, and it's expanded since I was in here last, with some decorated set display back drops that'd be mounted on a trailer towed in procession in the real event.
After lunch at home, I headed for town to the Portico for an early evening Bridge tournament. Waiting at the bus stop, Anthea came by in her car on her way there, recognised me and stopped to give me a lift. There were a dozen of us altogether, eight Brits, two Hungarians and two of their neighbours who are Romanian. I think that makes it 'international Bridge'. Despite it only being my second playing attempt, I carefully got into the swing of it without making too much of a fool of myself. Other players, and Brenda my Bridge Partner were all most kind and tolerant. When we were done, we all sat at one long table and ate an excellent supper together.
When I got home, there was a good news message from Rachel to say that she's installed in Cornville Arizona, having made the three day journey safely from Columbia Lake BC, with Jasmine and Biba the puss to make their new home there in the forty degree desert heat. Another one of those days that keeps the smile on my face.
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