Sunshine and Showers.

What a wonderful weekend we've just spent together. What I'm loving about having our little weekend cottage is the closeness that it's bringing to our little family. Now, don't get me wrong the; 'little shrimps' can drive me to distraction but it certainly is a welcome change come Friday night (when usually I'd have been sending them up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire as quickly as their little legs would take them), to be sat down together playing board games and doing jigsaw puzzles.

We're in the process of creating childhood memories, little traditions that hopefully they will remember fondly in years to come. The first of these is the treat they get on a Friday night when arriving at the cottage....a mug full of hot chocolate, topped with whipped cream and mini marshmallows. Big Shrimp devours immediately whilst Little Shrimp eats the marshmallows, licks the cream off the top and then passes to Big Shrimp to finish off until she's full to bursting.

The second, as mentioned above will be Friday family night....whatever the shrimps would like to do (within reason) we will do, whether it's a trip to the pub in Torcross to buy cake and a juice and sit on the beach watching the waves and looking for dolphins, board games in the cottage or a DVD of their choice, we will do, after all it's their weekend as much as it's ours.

We awoke on Saturday to find grey skies, but that didn't stop my walk through the town with our two dogs. How I love that time of the day, a little pocket of time before the town wakes up and the air is filled with the noise of car engines, general chitter chatter and the 'ker-ching' of the cash registers. A walk along the quay admiring the boats before the tide leaves the boats stranded in the quagmire that lies beneath the waters of the estuary.

First stop of the day was a little mooch around Salcombe. Just minutes down the road, I love the walk from the car park snaking around the boatsheds to the little town full of loveliness.

I managed to take a snap of the steps leading down to the Ferry Inn and the ferry across to the beach at East Portlemouth before the crowds descended. My mother is going to have a go at painting this for me to hang in the cottage.

The afternoon brightened up somewhat so we drove to Torcross for a walk along the beach to collect driftwood and have fun with the pebbles.



The rain decided to pay us a visit but undeterred we continued our hunt and I was thrilled to be bringing home a wonderful collection of driftwood. What shall become of it? I'm yet to decide, so at present it's left to dry out and for me to ponder over.

Sunday saw us driving along the precarious Devon lanes to our local beach; Thurleston Sands. Nothing beats driving along the beautifully coloured hedgerows, past the thatched cottages and arriving at this glorious site.

It was hard to leave our little haven on Sunday afternoon, until I reminded myself that we can do it all over again next week...should we choose.