Wandering Ruth: I do like to be beside the seaside

May has been an excellent month for seeing the sea. It started strong with the Cardiff weekend and a jog around the Bay, then a week later I had a conference in Weston-super-Mare.

Tues-Thurs, 12-14 May 2026

The conference was on the pier, which is the best spot for experiencing the huge tidal range of the Severn Estuary (second largest range in the world). The gently sloping beach of WsM means it seems the tide is out far longer than it is in.

I presented at the conference which went well, in particular I could hear the questions off the floor during the subsequent panel session which was wonderful. This was so much more positive than the awful experience I had at a panel session in March where I nearly left the stage because the sound quality was so terrible.

I was there with a couple of my team so were able to split up and network voraciously bearing in mind how many people we needed to catch up on.

I also had time to play the tuppence push game. Even better that I was supplied a pot of free 2ps to start with :-)

On the Thursday we had field visits to Steart Marshes, where they are restoring agricultural land to less intensive farming/floodable areas. This helps reduce the risk of high flood events for local properties. Although it was dry when we were there, it is obvious from the water level gauge that it is not always so.

We also saw the site of the Bridgwater Barrier. It is a far more complex scheme than you'd think, including downtime caused by archeological finds and a nesting hen harrier. Got to love a decent site geodetic point.

That weekend Riona popped down. It was lovely to show her our new home.

We trotted off down to Sidmouth for a winning combination of lunch out, seeing the sea and traipsing around every charity shop there.

I also took her up to see my local you-know-what. How very cool to have one in 10 mins walk from the house. Despite appearance, we do have a pair of sunglasses each and aren't sharing a pair.

Last Sunday, 24 May, I met with an acquaintance who had moved to the SW a couple of years ago. We both wanted to see the sea, so met at Dawlish station and walked along the frontage to Dawlish Warren. It was the beginning of the heat wave, a Bank Holiday weekend and the start of half term so pretty rammed. Well, chocka for the first 4 groynes, then the crowds faded and we had a lovely walk around the Warren wildlife area pretty much to ourselves.

Afterwards, I met JC for sofa shopping in John Lewis. It was beautifully empty as everyone was at the beach. Then we walked down to the Quayside for a pleasant 5 km walk around the River Exe and Exeter Canal.

We found the Ermine moth caterpillar webs in Belle Isle Park. Looks like they have pretty much decimated the tree.