The Spoons That Are My Ears!

We have been blessed at last with an Indian summer! I often complain about the Welsh weather. It's entirely proper to do this; and yet I'm perfectly willing to acknowledge those rare times when the weather in Wales is just fine. No one can fairly say that I ever exaggerate on this particular topic. The last Indian Summer in Wales was 254,576 years ago, approximately.


For most of my life I assumed that the 'Indian' part of the phrase Indian Summer referred to India, the country; but in fact it's an allusion to Native Americans. I don't know if that alters the phenomenon in any way. Almost certainly it doesn't. Whatever the etymology, we made the most of this opportunity to go on an expedition to the Gower and bivouac on the beach at Oxwich. It was a spring tide and the waves were enormous. Swimming at sunrise is a pleasure I recommend: a seal poked his head out of the water and looked at me in amazement as if to say, "Bit early for this lark, isn't it?"

At the end of this trip I retired my hiking boots after 15 years service, which included treks through Sardinia, Morocco, Greece, Poland, Spain, Portugal and Albania. I left them on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea and within five minutes a spider had started to spin a web inside one of them; so I'm confident they will have a happy retirement!