After another few days of work at The Cottage, we downed tools at the end of the day and sped over to the beach to catch the end of what’s been a beautiful summers day here in North Wales.

We’d gone prepared with a full picnic dinner and blanket and had hoped to stay out until dark, but a strong wind picked up as we arrived, giving us some classic British summer time beach conditions – looks lovely, but actually a bit too cold to want to sit in it! We were hungry from all the work, so put jackets on and enjoyed the meal.

As we ate, we could see a bank of high level cloud heading our way, which soon blocked out the sun, reducing the enticement of the water further! We’d almost decided to give the swim a miss, when Clare suggested ‘dipping a toe in’ to check the temperature. Astonishingly, it felt quite warm! We needed no further convincing. In fact, it was much warmer to be in the water, than exposed to the wind, so we dived right through the first waves and enjoyed a great swim. The only people left on the beach!

Without the alpine warmth, on exiting the water, we had to wrap up quickly to prevent too much shivering! We were certainly revived from the days toils though.

It wasn’t warm enough to stick around, so we extended our evening by stopping for a quick drink at the pub by the Straits on the way home. No glorious sunset this evening, but this one was from a few nights ago in Bethesda! Beauty!