Rosie smiles when her nephew asks her if she’s still swimming in the sea in October.  It is, in fact, when she starts enjoying it again. July and August are all very well, but her spot behind the harbour wall fills up with holidaymakers, annexing the rock where she likes to change, having picnics and jumping into the sea with their children, as if they were swimming for fun. It’s not Cold Water Swimming if the sea feels warm, even to tourists who aren’t swimming mindfully. A few of these incomers stick it out for September but October is what separates the men from the boys. Or the women from the girls, rather. For nine months of the year, Porthemmet Beach is as empty of men as Rosie’s pottery class. 

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There is a group of ladies that go every morning throughout the year. They’re not yet an official group – with a Facebook page and a committee – mainly because they have never agreed on a name. Rosie was originally in the faction favouring........

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