Monday 17 August:

Something of a surprise this morning to see reasonably bright skies at dawn - no magical sunrise, but a rather lovely, albeit misty, start to the day.

I sketched a little after my breakfast.

We had coffee (+Moira had her breakfast) outside, which was very good.

Then we went for a lovely walk over the railway bridge and down through the woods, past the allotments and St Werburgh’s Farm and then back home via the footpath beside the ‘climbing church’. A really beautiful walk… and in bright sunshine too! Like us having the harbour so close at home, H+F are very fortunate to have such a diverse and lovely landscape on their doorstep.

We had more coffee under the garden canopy after lunch and then both enjoyed a rather gentle afternoon (Moira reading and me reading a starting to draft an email to David Shorey and playing with photographs).  Good to be able to sit inside with the doors opening on to the garden.

The government finally succumbed to public pressure and carried out a U-turn on last week’s A-Level results (and the imminent GCSE results) in England. Students will be given grades estimated by their TEACHERS, rather than by an algorithm. It follows uproar after about 40% of A-level results were downgraded by exams regulator Ofqual, which used a formula based on schools' prior grades. What an utter farce.

Moira and I sat outside and drank wine after supper… and then watched a couple of episodes of “Staged” (David Tennant and Michael Sheen).

Image: Misty early morning view from the bedroom (a bit like a painting by one of those Japanese old masters?).