Pounding !

8.4C Started dull then got bright before lunch. Wind dropped to about 10mph. From our bedroom window I could clearly see (half a mile away) the sea moving with great power from the East towards the shore with great breakers and white tops not only on the rocks but right out at sea.

Apothecary7's day off. Dundee. Quick visit to a big Pet Shop to buy a new cushion style bed for Maeve the Deerhound. Her old one in the 'office' was becoming quite flat and worn. Maeve is a dog with three beds!

M&S. Scone for me with an indulgent hot chocolate with marshmallows and carrot cake with Earl Grey tea for Apothecary7. We went round to the docks and got a few photos of the North Carr Lightship, but it was dull.

Once we got home, and before lunch, we took Maeve for a walk. We decided to go down to Westhaven to see if everything had survived the high winds and the high tide with its accompanying storm surge. We didn't go our usual route because the fields had water clearly lying on the surface.

When we reached the car park at Westhaven we could clearly see that the tide had come right up over the beach and into the bottom of the gardens belonging to the people in Long Row. The dunes grasses were all flat. One garden has a small trickling burn running through it and where it comes through the driftwood fence to the beach there is now no fence and a 6 foot deep channel like a mini fjord. Clearly the driftwood fences held but they will need some rebuilding and the sand will have to be heaped back up to reform the dune like barrier at the bottom of the gardens. Some small boats (including Wee Peem) have been moved around but neither damaged or washed away. The creel rack stands unmoved. Where the tractors take the boats up and down to the beach through the low dunes there is flotsam and seaweed all the way up into the work area in front of the Fishermen's huts. The sea must surge right through the channel in the rocks when the tide is high and the direction of the wind is at a certain angle and the focus of the waves seems to be right at this point.

The waves were still pounding the shore as we walked along the beach. The breaking waves were as high as the channel markers. Occasionally a wave would break in the channel and the water and foam raced right up the sand to the front of the dunes and we had to skip up on to the grass. High tide was still two hours away. At least the wind had died down!

Later there will be M&S dine in for two :-)