Handing over

It was cloudy before dawn, and humid at 25C. Little was seen of the sun until late morning and when clouds turned into banket of haze and the temperature went up to 30C. At seven I uploaded the YouTube link to this week's Morning Prayer and dozed for an hour before getting up.

Traipsing along the beach path yesterday made my trousers very dusty, so I decided to wash them after breakfast. I gave my other pair to the church shop, as they're 3-4 inches too big at the waistband, wearable if I was still the same girth was was five years ago. I stayed in pyjama shorts until the trousers were dry. It took longer than it would have done yesterday when it was very hot all morning, Two hours outdoors was enough anyway.

I was too late organising myself to take the Line 3 bus, and went in by car parked in the 'dust bowl' instead and then walked to the Church Shop. I chatted with John and Judy who were on duty and helped close up at the end. On my way back to the car I bought a jar of local orange blossom honey to take back with me. I may need another, if this doesn't make my cabin bag too heavy. 

I called at Aldi's on the drive back to Church House to get extra stocks of water and a few other items for the incoming locum Chaplain. I was told it may be some time before there is a regular locum occupying the house. Peter who replaces me, has a place of his own not too far away, and may only need to use the church office printer while he's here. I suspect some jobs that need to be done in the house escape attention if the house is empty and not in continuous occupation.

Lunch was a second instalment of yesterday's with a few slices of chorizo for added flavour, a couple of ripening peaches washed down the glasses of Airen vino blanco. A nice combination. At tea time, I had an hour long video chat with Peter the incoming locum. A rare but interesting experience for me to be able to do a person to person handover briefing.

By the evening the temperature started to drop. I took a bag of organic waste down to the bin and walked for a while on the senda litoral, watching large waves driven by a south wind across the Alboran Sea from Morocco, pounding on the shore. The 40 metre high cliffs here are composed of a harder kind of rock dark grey if not black in colour whose strata have been contorted and crushed over centuries by shifting pressure from tectonic plates at the boundary of African and European continents. 

The rock faces look sharp edged and harsh. In some areas they are fragmented, and erode due to wind and waves. In others places horizontal surfaces project from the cliff like platforms. Over time, coastal erosion will inevitably increase with rising sea levels and harsher weather, but maybe in a haphazard way due to the random pattern of fragmented and twisted strata. I imagine geologists are already able to work out how this will play out with computer modelling ability now available. Let's hope their predictions are shared with those who plan and build future coastal roads.

Just as I climbed up to the level of our terrace of ten houses, the street lights came on, just as the last vestiges of sunlight drained from the sky, today's haze dispersed, the blackbird sang its greeting to dusk and the chorus of tree frogs began. The heat seems to have brought out a great crowd of them tonight. On impulse, before I went to bed, I cooked the remainder of the chicken breast pieces to keep in the fridge for making weekend meals with, and using up the remainder of the veg. When Peter arrives he'll stay in his own house during his three weeks of locum duty, so the house will be empty apart from a barbecue planned during his stay. Best to leave the fridge clean, and the beds too.