Guillemots.

 

'The Fonts' new cabin is a great success. The views out from the  windows onto the North Sea are stunning. It is the perfect place to write or watch the flocks of birds heading south along the coast.  Some thought will need to be given to keeping the inside cool ...or at least cooler . It has been built with a clever ventilation system that catches the coastal breezes but this struggles when the air is still and the temperatures hover in the high 20's for days on end. A Velux opening window in the roof might be the best solution. The architect points out that for nine months of the year 'cooling' is going to be the least of our concerns.

We have parted ways with the landscape gardener. He arrived for the meeting on Thursday morning with grandiose ideas but no hint of their cost. It seems he wishes to go through life untainted by such mundanities. We have now parted ways.  In the interim we shall have the ground turfed over for the winter and revisit things in the Spring.

On a morning like this it's easy to envy the students who live in the hall of residence down on the coast. Surfers can get from bed and onto the shore in two minutes.  The town is again approaching peak student. All 10,000 of them are due to be here this weekend. The first years continue to wander round looking lost. The bad news for them is that the student night club has been closed. The building surveyors have discovered that the concrete it was built from in the early-70's  has become brittle and prone to collapse.

A sick Guillemot down on the beach and another on the harbour slipway. Heartbreaking. Avian flu does not kill these most gentle and graceful birds quickly. 

 

As we head back to the car I count three carcasses on the tideline. A man from the Oceanographic Institute wanders over and confirms that they are Guillemots. ' They often live to 25 years ' he says , and then adds ' or they used to'.