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.

Bakery treat

Clare went into school early this morning to have a covid-19 test, as this is on offer to staff and visiting teachers, She hasn't resumed her weekly kindergarten eurythmy sessions yet, but would like to. Her test was negative, which means there's no evidence that she's had it or has it. If she ever did it would be over six months ago, so fragments of covid DNA would by now be undetectable by means of the simple test. By inference, it means I'm unlikely also to have had it previously, as neither of us did any social mixing before I went to Ibiza. We're both still in the higher risk of infection category, but hopefully our present lifestyle and precautions help to minimise the possibilitty of catching it.

There were eight of us for the St Catherine's Eucharist this morning, four clergy, four laity. On impulse, I walked home via 'The Hot Pantry' bakery and bought one of their superb 'Donka' rye loaves, and to eat with our morning coffee, a croissant, a pain au raisin and a Chelsea bun. It's decades since I've eaten one of these. There were sitting there, looking good and fresh, not plastic wrapped, so I yielded to temptation to try once more this childhood favourite, enjoyed long before pains au raisin came on the scene. And it didn't disappoint! We're fortunate to have an independent bakery in our neighbourhood, and don't use it enough because it's not on our habitual shopping route. We need to change that!

I made a contactless card payment, as I have done habitually over the past two months, and no longer carry cash about. I'm not sure about the wisdom of this, as I don't want to see real money disappear. The lady who served me said that the majority of people since lock-down are paying contactless, but over the past few weeks she'd seen an increase in cash payments again, so maybe others share my misgivings.

I cooked a pasta lunch, with different sugos for us. chicken in mine and a veegan soya mince for Clare, enough for two days meals for both of us. Then I walked into town, to visit Camerland and take a photo of a specialist camera bag to show Clare. I asked about the second hand Olympus OM-D E-M5 they had on their website, and learned that it had been sold, but they do have others occasionally. It's a pity there's no way I could hire or borrow one to try out. 

I'm curious about Micro Four Thirds cameras as they are much praised by enthusiastic users. But I'd rather not pay the full price, but buy a used one at a reasonable price to satisfy my curiosity. Above all, the thought of its lighter weight that appeals. I'm thinking about a proper padded camera bag for my DSLR kit because carry around a one or more changes of lens is always a packing hassle with a normal rucksack.

After supper and a little telly, I hunted for a piece of writing about St Paul's at the time of the riot, which I started before going to Ibiza but didn't finish off. It took me ages to find it as it wasn't file with other similar pieces, but once tracked down and re-read, I completed the edit. It's still not as satisfactory as other pieces I wrote about St Paul's, not as driven by the vividness of the narrative. Is it still a work in progress or not? I wonder.