All set for foul weather!

I'd been loyal to my aqua-coloured hooded jacket for too long. I mean this one. Here I am, wearing it at Bosham on Chichester Harbour, with Fiona behind. It was September 2011, and the jacket was still new.

The next two pictures show me wearing it in March 2012 at Lyme Regis, and in October 2019 at Newhaven.

Seven years apart. A couple of washes during that time haven't changed the colour much, nor has it become tatty, and it's still very serviceable as a windproof jacket. I wish I had worn so well! My neck has become crinkly with age.

I bought this jacket in August 2011, within minutes of having very good news from the auctioneers who had been selling Ouse Cottage in Piddinghoe, the property that was jointly bought as an investment in September 2007 - as it happened, just before the property market faltered, but we didn't see that coming. It was held in my name, so the responsibility for the expenses of running it fell to me. It caused me a lot of grief in the four long years it took to sell it. In fact, not selling it threatened to make me bankrupt by the end of 2012, because from May 2009 I'd had two properties on my hands, and the Cottage was twice as expensive to own as the smaller retirement home I had inherited from my parents. I had almost run out of money.

You can easily see why I was intensely relieved when the auctioneers told me it had gone - not at the auction itself, but as the result of a post-auction enquiry. Auction rules still applied: the bargain had to be concluded within 30 days. Meanwhile contracts had been exchanged, and I was off the hook.

Well, I was in the Ocean View Café at Wroes in Bude, and after the first rush of emotion - sheer relief, then pure elation - I decided that I had to mark the occasion with a purchase (Wroes is a surprisingly good department store for its isolated North Cornwall location). I considered various things, but (being practical) settled on that aqua-coloured jacket. And it has given me excellent service ever since.

However, it isn't an all-weather jacket. While it will shrug off a short shower, sustained rain will soak in; and in any case the jacket is too short to keep my legs dry. So for some time now I have felt the need to buy a longer hooded garment for wet weather, one that is properly waterproof. And in a nice colour too - certainly not the drab colours that Burberry use, and preferably not dark blue or yellow either.

Well, I found what I wanted in Seasalt. A green knee-length hooded raincoat. I saw it first in Hereford, in late September, and hesitated. Last week (on the 16th October) I saw it again in Canterbury, and this time I had my cousin Rosemary with me. She liked it on me, and I trust her judgement. The cost was £140, though. That's what you have to pay in shops like Seasalt (Joules, say) for a raincoat like this. But this time, I didn't hestitate. Autumn had arrived, and Winter was approaching. Both promised to be wet. I took the plunge.

This was me at home that very night.

And this is me at Sidmouth and Lyme Regis yesterday.

I'd gone into Lyme Regis to catch the sunset on the Cobb, and it was a chilly evening. My new Seasalt raincoat has however a fleece lining to the hood, and across the chest, with quilting below that. So I was snug in the breeze.

The sunset turned out to be very good. The gathering clouds added drama to it.

I love this part of the world!