What a scorcher!

I am, I must confess, not a big fan of hot weather.

I much prefer something around 20 degrees to the 28 degrees plus we have had in the South East for some time now.

Saturday morning’s U10s football training was a real challenge, but we gave the players plenty of water breaks to ensure they remained well.

I am also not a big fan of sitting on a beach. But yesterday I have to say that’s what we did.

As a family, we drove to a little place called Rustington on the South Coast (between Worthing and Littlehampton).

Pleasingly, the beach was not crowded, and there must have been at least 50 metres between our family group and anyone else who was there, so no problem with social distancing.

Also pleasing was the relative absence of litter; it must be a better class of visitor to this beach.

It’s a pebble beach with a reasonable incline, and so some of us did the little dance you do when walking down the beach trying to avoid the sharper stones. The sensible amongst us (not me!) kept their trainers on!

The water was, as the water around our coastline tends to be, quite cold. Or at least it was until you fully immersed and started swimming and after a short time, it became almost Mediterranean-like.

Swimming and splashing with my three grandsons was a delight; we all had great fun.

We stayed on the beach until late evening and would have stayed later had we not had to get the young ones home for their supper.

As the sun dipped and we packed up, it was also a delight to see a group of Turnstones fly by followed not long after by a couple of Oystercatchers with their high pitched whistle and striking plumage.

I am looking forward to a return trip sometime soon.