607 – Walking

The skies went a bit mad this morning. It has been at least two years since I last saw this many contrails. I managed to do about 4 miles over the course of the day. I was pleased with that, but I was disappointed that I didn’t feel able to complete my normal route.

Talking of normal, I almost feel it now. It’s surprising how much even just a cold can take out of you. It has been going round though, and has been touted as a bad one.

It’s the time at the moment when the sunrises can be quite a sight;

But I’ll only get possibly a couple of weeks of that. Having had the Spring Equinox almost a month ago now the nights are really starting to shorten.

One of the things that came out of last year were the salinity checks of the Cockle Ponds. Of course we were talking about the Jelly Fish and how they were thriving. Then one of the #Breakfastclub queried whether the salinity of the Cockle Ponds was affecting life in the ponds? Salinity? I hadn’t ever thought of that and besides how do you measure it?

I did a search and it turns out that there is a device called a “Refractometer” that is used for that purpose. Searching for the Refractometer on Amazon I expected them to cost thousands or even hundreds of pounds, in fact I would be surprised if it were even listed. You can imagine my surprise that they are listed, and my delight at the cost of a mere £10 (Some were less, I went for a mid-range).

I went through a thing of making, but not recording the measurements over a period of weeks, and for the most part they did not change. It was only the fading morning light that caused me to stop the readings. That light is now returning, and I search on every walk for signs of the Jelly Fish. I know that last years occurrence was not a one off, they have been there before.

I was very sad when, last year the ponds were flushed out. It almost felt like several thousand of my pets had been let loose upon the world.

Soon, I will resume the readings, and I really hope that I will detect signs of my pets returning to their home.