Thursday 19th March 2026 - Labour Intensive, Gone Quiet and Coastal Community Transition Plan

The sun, blue skies and warmth have spurred me on into some more spring cleaning, including cleaning the windows inside.  They didn’t look dirty but the water in the bucket, which I had to change a couple of times, told a different story!  Spring cleaning then continued outside.  Our north facing patio doesn’t get much sun and over the winter months slippery black algae builds up.  I was looking online for an easy way of cleaning this, instead of getting down on my hands and knees with a bucket of soapy water scrubbing the slabs before hosing off.  A YouTube video showed soda crystals being sprinkled on the patio before squirting over washing up liquid and working these evenly over the slabs with a broom.  Left for forty-eight hours before hosing, the result was impressive.  I mentioned this to Peter, who queried whether the soda would kill the grass our patio borders onto.  A quick check on the internet and yes, it does kill grass.  So that knocked that idea on the head!  Nothing for it, I’ve been down on my hands and knees doing it the labour-intensive way.  This morning, the patio has dried and the surface is no longer slippery – a result. You may wonder why Peter was not involved in the patio scrubbing. The simple answer is; his knees are not good. Therefore any kneeling activities are best left for working on the vegetable plot.

Noticeable, when out in the garden, all has gone quiet in the pond.  I guess all the frogs have left the waters and dispersed into the garden (hopefully eating slugs).  They left behind masses of spawn and I can just see changes in the first mass; a sign the tadpoles are developing.  There are also, what I presume are nymphs, below the surface of the water; these may well end up as food for the emerging tadpoles.

The following has been taken from a NNDC post on Facebook ‘OVERSTRAND: Coastwise and JBA are hosting a Coastal Community Transition Plan Launch Event on Thursday, 26 March, at Overstrand Parish Hall, between 4pm and 6pm.

The event will provide an opportunity to review the Overstrand Coastal Community Transition Plan and to hear more about the Overstrand Coastal Transition Action Group, with a chance to express interest in joining.’  Since seeing this, I spotted a poster outside the Methodist Church on Cliff Road.  This provides, as can be seen in the photo below, the times of the presentations.