There were quite a few people on the beach, but the tide was right out, and it the beach looked almost deserted! It makes for a huge expanse of sand. You can just see the pier in the distance.
In the soft dry sand at the top of the beach there were so many prints from the black-headed gulls who scurry around seeing what they can find.
Walking along by the canoe lake, we spied an interesting 'visitor' among the usual Mute Swans, Canada Geese and gulls -
We seem to have a visitor from Australia - a Black Swan. Clearly not a native of these shores, even though it's been very hot recently ;). We believe this swan has escaped from one of the local bird-parks and has decided to drop in to see some distant relatives!
We had a lovely walk, nothing too energetic (bit too hot) but just taking our time and enjoying our surroundings. We sometimes take for granted what we have on our doorstep, and it's good for us to take time out to appreciate where we live.
On our way back home we bumped into another ex-colleague who took early-retirement just a couple of weeks ago. He said he didn't really feel like he had left work permanently yet, it still felt like he was on leave, but he was kind enough to say that retirement clearly suited N and I because we looked so well and relaxed! We told him we've just slowed down, we take our time and have cut our cloth according to our changed financial situation. We've chilled - it's taken time and didn't happen overnight, but it has worked for us and neither of us regret leaving work when we did. We are fortunate to have been in a position to do that, but we have both been careful with money and over the years we have learned the lesson of living within our means and not living with debt. I am grateful every day that we are now able to reap the benefits of that mindset.
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