It was sunny and I was on a beach. That’s the short version. When you go to the beach and it’s sunny, you have fun. That never changes. Continue reading “Seaside fun: Battle on the Beach 2015”
Seaside fun: Battle on the Beach 2015
Lily’s Gone to the Dogs
It’s normal for a ten year old to have a bit of love for animals. Lily’s always been very enthusiastic about dogs, big cats, and horses in particular. They’re definitely her thing. You can feel the enthusiasm glowing from her when near animals, and it demonstrates itself quite a lot when you try and chat to her about them (and generally get corrected on your inaccuracies – quite disturbing at times)
For her Christmas present (2012!) her treat was to go on a husky ‘sledding’ trip. It was the end of May before we and the weather finally both got our acts together, and we went to a great place called Pesky Husky in Staintondale, just north of Scarborough. The sun shone for seemingly the first time all year, and the trip was just a delight.
Video here
We tagged along to the the trip, a couple of days over half-term staying in Hartlepool – where Katie was born and brought up. It was great to share some of her old memories and places, particularly in such lovely weather. A trip up Roseberry Topping, a morning at the beach in Saltburn, as well as a trip to Robin Hood’s bay and round Ward Jackson Park in Hartlepool itself.
Photos here
Easter week in Woolacombe
Lovely time last week in Woolacombe with our old Gloucestershire mates the Greenwoods. So great to go away and have such fun with people who make life so uncomplicated for us with our semi demanding 11 month-old. Continue reading “Easter week in Woolacombe”
Video of our brief Suffolk holiday
It seems ages ago now and it’s hard to think it’s just a couple of weeks since we had a great few days in some brilliant weather on the East Anglian coast. Just got round to editing together the video last night. It’s almost exclusively beach stuff but that’s pretty much what we did in the daylight.
Half term break in Suffolk… the first real chill of winter
With the national trophy cyclocross coming up in Ipswich, I wasn’t relishing the thought of another long day out and night away from the family. Enjoyable though the sporty bonding trips are, I find it an uneasy comprimise to spend time away enjoying myself and leaving Katie with two young people to look after.
The Ipswich race was luckily on the first Sunday of the half term break, so we booked four nights away to coincide, meaning a great chance for a rest plus an ‘easy’ journey to the cyclocross.
As things turned out, it was absolutely perfect. Better than perfect really, if that’s possible. When you bookk things online you can never be sure what it’s really going to be like, but Low Farm near to Brampton in Suffolk was a bull’s eye in terms of holiday accommodation. There was a fully fledges soft play area called Moo Play Barn and an indoor pool, alledgedly heated (well – it was pretty cold outside too), and a collection of farm animals specifically penned up for children to interract with them. (The Alpacas and their fluttering eyelashes were my personal fave.) A perfect place to be really if the weather turned bad. Except, strangely, it never did. Let’s face it, this was late October. But on three of the four days, we enjoyed pretty much uninterrupted sunshine. I find this type of cold, almost frosty sunny weather the very best time to be on a UK beach. I know they’re ace in hot weather, but there’s something about the quality of the air and the light that is so untainted.
The three days were spent well. Day trips to Great Yarmouth (ace model village), Southwold (Pretty, Posh and very very English) and Aldeburgh (quaint, full of corduroy and blazer wearing bafoons for some reason on the day we were there, but somehow real-feeling, and fisherman-like gritty).
A very chilled out time.
Enjoy the photos of the whole trip – browse them here or click here for a slideshow.