Coastal questions

The cloud cover is thinning and the sun shining more brightly today. It's comfortably warm, and when I hear the UK news and weather forecast, I realise how much cooler it still is back in Cardiff - ten degrees as opposed to eighteen, but a similar mix of clouds and sunshine as it is here. After breakfast and Morning Prayer, I drove to church early and was fortunate to get a parking place quite close to Iglesia San Miguel. 

With several regulars away we were only eighteen this morning, including a couple enquiring about a wedding blessing in October. John and I met them for a briefing in Bar Atalaya after the service. Among today's absentees was our organist so we sang hymns and the Mass setting unaccompanied. Quite well too. When we came to sing the metrical version of the Gloria in Excelsis, the tune went right out of my head and I had to ask for a reminder from the servers. Laughter ensued!

It was nearly three by the time I got back, and four be the time I'd cooked and eaten lunch. Then I went for a long walk in the Torrox direction. On my way down Tamango Hill, an open topped BMW sports car drove past slowly with a Swiss number plate from Thurgau. The person who wasn't driving was talking pictures on her phone of a couple of properties with noticeboards outside, advertising that they are for sale - one with a Swedish estate agent and the other with a Finnish estate agent. Hoping to invest in a luxury holiday home in a coastal beauty spot, I wonder? Or buying to invest in the holiday rental market? Who knows. It's a long way to have driven by car from the north eastern corner of Switzerland.

This afternoon, I walked past Playa Calaceite further than when I cam in this direction twelve days ago. There's an amazing variety of wild flowers in bloom along the verges of the road and on the side of the footpath. There was little wind but the waves breaking were big and unusually noisy like thunder, perhaps because the sea bed shelves steeply. 

Much work has been done to build sea defences to protect the N340 which is 4-5 metres above sea level. When the wind is up, water spills over on to the footpath leaving big salty puddles which dry out and leave their mark behind in the mud and gravel. I wonder how long it'll be until the rising sea level makes coastal erosion impossible to stop with a seriously expensive impact on the road. Although there are cliffs on the inland side of the road, their geological composition won't spare them from the impact of the sea in the long term.

Clare and I chatted for forty minutes after I returned. Then I uploaded the photos I took with the new Olympus PEN. Despite not having a viewfinder, only a screen, it's nice to handle and takes good photos. Its operating menu is the same as on the OMD-E-M10.1, which means no new learning curve. Though it was a leisurely paced day, earlier bed will be most welcome now.