Oh I do like to be beside the seaside...

Let me begin by saying that I am currently hacked off. I'm DNS (Did Not Start) for the cyclocross race tomorrow at Bo'ness - a flare up of an old problem, a viral thing that inflames the membrane around the ribs making breathing painful. Joy. Not as bad as 8 odd years ago, when the Doc referred to it as "Devil's Grab", and had me sleeping upright on the sofa for a couple of nights - unable to lie in comfort. But. Enough to give me that discretion versus valour argument. I'm still hoping to trundle along with the camera, but when you can't breathe without pain, an hour on a bike hammering round a CX course isn't really going to help.

Oh, and Newcastle got beaten by Brighton in the cup (again).

But rock-pooling at Cove was fun. Picking up tiny Hermit Crabs (and seeing others arguing over a shell); and spotting weird Green Leaf Worms. But the show stealer was this Beadlet Anenome (Actinia Equina). Folded up they look like little domes of jelly; then you watch them unfurl up to 192 tentacles and all of a sudden they are killing machines. Tap the tentacles as something bigger than a wee fish and the anenome will start to close, as well as delivering a small 'sting', the poison for which is contained in those blue flashes (called acrorhagi) - they're related to jellyfish it turns out.

Hermit