If you have to be working on your birthday, it might as well be fun work! I’ve been celebrating my youth today guiding a group of students down, up, across and off some of the dramatic cliffs of Anglesey.

It’s been an un-usual cold spell of weather, with temperatures plummeting down in to single figures and some enormous storm clouds passing over, depositing torrential bursts of rain and hail! Thankfully, we managed to drive through all this and find both shelter from the cold winds and some sunshine too.

But first there was a Birthday Breakfast at The Cottage. I had time to open a few cards, but took a ‘coffee to go’ and left the rest of the pile for later…

I wasn’t back at The Cottage until quite late, so it was around 7pm, by the time we went down to the river for the traditional ‘birthday swim’! (Ordinarily, it would be a birth surf, but with no swell and an onshore gale at the beach, we decided to head to the sheltered river instead).

A swing has appeared at the side of one of the pools and as the river levels were quite high and the water temperature quite cold, I decided this might be the best way to enter the water as there would be no turning back once I’d let go!

Having said that, on my first swing, I hung on tight and returned to the bank!

After a few ‘warm up’ swings I went for ‘full commitment’!

It was a shock being plunged in, but not as cold as anticipated. Quite energising actually. Until I started to get cold.

Once dried off, we enjoyed a final blast of warming sunshine by the oak trees before heading back for a hot shower.

Cards, pressies and some birthday treats rounded off a super day. Thanks for all the messages!