Where the boats come in

11.7C and breezy with heavy rain through the night and continuing until early afternoon (32mm rainfall recorded locally).

It was so wet this morning when Maeve the Deerhound and I went out for her early walk that I decided it was a day for Maeve to wear her coat. It kept a lot of the rain off her but she didn't want to go far. I didn't complain!

Maeve and I went for our usual walk at 3 o'clock when it seemed there might be a spell without rain. We just headed straight down the road to the shore and then along to the road bridge over the railway line and down to the car park at Westhaven. Today's blip is a simple wide shot of the boat channel from the grass area between the car park and the beach. Although the sky was grey and the day generally not at all pleasant it felt good to be out and on the shore in the breeze and this wide open view made me feel much better.

We had a little wander on the hard sand on the beach near the boat channel. The tide was out a fair bit but we could see quite active breakers on the outer rocks. 'Valhalla VI' was on her trailer on the beach in front of the Fishermen's huts, and we could see the owner's of 'Shamara II' working on storing their gear and making everything secure for the winter. It seems they still have things to do even though their creel rack looks well packed. Maeve and I got round our shortened route dry :-)

The Radio Scotland news and travel reports today have been all about rain, surface water, flooding, and problems with road and rail travel. The fields here all have standing water, but thankfully the new drains in the road which runs past the side of our house have carried away the water that always pours off the field on the higher ground and sometimes flooded the road near the junction leading to the old school and church. There has been no ploughing today!

Later there might be some more light rain, but it is to quote the forecasters 'an improving picture'.