Having been turned away from the beach yesterday, we were there this morning as the gate opened at 8am, so were able to enjoy it relatively empty at the beginning of the day, including a swim in the cold Irish sea:-

I sometimes feel that perhaps I am unduly pessimistic about the current political order – the taint of corruption, the fact that nobody apparently wants to be Cabinet Secretary because they know that it is now a job in which they will be blamed for the mistakes of ministers and abused by the press, elements of which are now on the payroll of government, the contracts which are given out without competitive tender to special advisors, the ripping up of planning rules; and then I read something which puts it better than I could:-

https://amp.economist.com/britain/2020/08/08/boris-johnsons-horrible-house-of-lords-list?__twitter_impression=true

Each summer I waste a lot of time and energy photographing the local bird life, which is not really practical with a mobile phone which renders geese as a distant blur. But today by a fluke I was standing in a field and the geese wheeled overhead in beautiful formation:-

It was a peach of a morning – clear blue sky, unusually clear and sun. By ten o’clock, they had closed the road to the beach and the local village was over-run. The phenomenon of the staycation is real in Anglesey, with three times as many people as usual everywhere, the campsite full, the single street full of cars, what is normally a quiet small village chock full of people.

We sloped off to the mud flats of Malltraeth Estuary instead:-

I stopped off at Castell Bryn-Gwyn, a wonderfully nondescript neolithic fort reached down a long muddy track from a lay-by just outside Brynsiencyn: nothing but cows and fields, in the middle of nowhere, thought to have been a religious sanctuary:-

After two days of bad weather, it’s looking better:-

The local tea shop is doing takeaway cream teas – two scones per box and two small punnets of jam and clotted cream, a wooden knife and paper napkin:-

We took the buggy down to the beach today:-

It was surprisingly empty and very beautiful:-

I keep reading about the problems independent cheesemakers have been having as a result of Covid-19 – small independent producers who are dependent on restaurants taking their wares. All I can say is that I have enjoyed cheese and eaten more of it with more pleasure than at any time: the fridge is packed with parcels from Neal’s Yard who can pack up a box and deliver, as they have been throughout the epidemic. So, I want to thank them for, as far as possible, stocking the wares of small independent producers and supporting their work as far as they can.