A beach hut in the rain

September 19, 2016 by Ray Morgan

I rented a beach hut for the weekend. September, for a beach hut, you may say. That's a bit risky, weather wise, eh? But you saw the weather last week. It was glorious. It was slap-the-suncream on, get your pins out hashtag #heatwave glorious. Until literally the second I picked up the beach hut keys. Wind howled through gardens, knocking over plants. Clouds rolled in apocalyptically. The BBC weather app had a little yellow triangle 'weather warning' for rain in SS9. Oh, FFS, I thought. I have spent the summer sweltering in an office, and for some reason, now I'm being punished.

Jo and I packed up our stuff gloomily (she's spent the summer sweltering in a kitchen) loading things into bags for life, saying things like "Oh well," packing brandy for hot chocolates and blankets, rugs and hoodies.

On Friday morning, oh it *hacked* it down. Rain hammered on the little wooden roof, and the glass window inside rattled dramatically. Boats bobbed on a rolling sea pocked with pins of sheeting rain. Even the seagulls looked pissed off. We officially Made The Best Of It, swathed in layers (and socks for the first time in months) with cups of tea made from the whistling kettle on the little Calor stove, and read books in the shelter. I must admit, it was very cosy. We popped home to change into warmer things, but by the afternoon, the sun had come out and it was officially NOT freezing! Hooray!

We barbecued on the beach, drinking box wine (Waitrose I'll have you know) and I searched for lucky stones with holes in, my favourite beach pastime. Our friend popped down around sunset, and we sat in jumpers, amid strings of fairy lights in the beach hut, looking out to sea. It felt impossibly lovely and we didn't care one jot about it not being hot.

Over the course of the weekend, the weather got better and better. It improved so much that on Sunday I had TWO swims guys, two! The first with Jo, icy and breath-taking, the second much warmer when my dad and sister joined me and we realised we hadn't all been in the sea together for 20 years, not since we went on our last family holiday to Greece. It was joyous.

We were able to sit in full sun, slapping on the suncream again, socks discarded in our bags; it was almost laughable to think that we'd been wearing socks, jeans, scarves just the day before.

I love the changes of the seasons. The combo of rain and sun for my hut weekend meant that I could have some amazing, cosy, relaxy time with enamel mugs of tea* while it rained (we actually caught up with all our weekend newspaper supplements) - but also fun on the beach, swimming and sunbathing.

I wax lyrical constantly about our town (this was in Thorpe Bay) but it's because there's so much fun to be had in our little nook of the UK. I have watched the tides go in and out for 4 days, and I feel much more relaxed, settled and contented because of it. Rain or shine, where we live is a gift.

*so hipster but I do love them

To read of @RayMorgan's previous blog's, please click the link https://www.leigh-on-sea.com/blog/tag/ray-morgan-.html