Sailing to Salcombe....

Nothing beats a sunny Saturday's sailing to Salcombe...

Salcombe is a lovely little town and there is nothing better that arriving in this busy little town by water instead of by car. Don't get me wrong, I love the little walk from the car park, past the boat sheds and little shops, but arriving by water is wonderful, especially on such a gorgeous sunny day, in mid September.

I love sailing past everyone, out 'playing' on the water.....

....and admiring such wonderful yachts like this. The shrimps nicknamed this particular yacht; 'The Killer Whale'. I can certainly see why. Isn't it beautiful? It reminds me of a wonderful period of my life spent at the Hong Kong Yacht club out on the Gold Coast aboard a 100 ft yacht. On Sunday mornings we would get a whole group of friends together and sail from the Gold Coast to Repulse Bay.....happy days! Believe me if ever you feel the desire to live in Hong Kong as I did in my young, free and single days, the Yacht Club is the place to be....sunshine, beautiful boats but most of all SPACE and the feeling that you can actually breathe; something I struggled with on Hong Kong Island amongst the skyscrapers, noise and fumes!

Look at this Lifeboat from the 1950's, I wonder how many lives it has saved over the years? The stories it could tell.....

I've always loved boats and being near the water I guess that comes of being a Pisces! Hopefully over the next few years we'll get a boat of our own and be able to do this every weekend. The shrimps will learn to sail at Salcombe on a Saturday morning when they are a little older and hopefully we have many happy days ahead of us spend poottling about on the Estuary.....

Sailing in towards the town you are greeted by this ....

Oh my, behind these buildings, I can spend many an hour mooching in Joules, Crew Clothing, Fat Face, White Stuff, Musto, Henry Lloyd, Jack Wills, Sea Salt to name but a few, and all on one tiny road, Fore Street....also all the lovely unique gift shops tempting me to open my purse and BUY!!!

We settled for a Salcombe Ice Cream, oh..now they're good! and then relaxed here at The Ferry Inn watching everyone sail backwards and forwards to the beach across the Estuary at East Portlemouth on the little ferry.

Big Shrimp enjoyed herself no end watching everyone passing us by as we enjoyed coffee and juice..

...but couldn't wait to get back for a little face painting at the quay.............

Now I just want to do it all over again this Saturday!

Hello Cupcake - Part 2......

As promised here's another peek into the fab Cupcake book that I was given recently....

Use white and yellow mini marshmallows to create buttered popcorn clusters.....

I'm not sure that my daughters would find this particular cupcake that appetising!!

Or these for that matter...clever though, isn't it?

This is a novel idea, White chocolate as Parmesan cheese and hazelnut chocolates as the meatballs, all topped off with strawberry sauce............

Look at the detail in this Bagel cupcake............

And these cats are happy dining on white chocolate fishbones.....

For the pony mad little girl..........

Or dog lover...

Walkies?.....................

A scene straight out of Jaws; The Cupcake Returns......

What a great birthday cake 'Old Swampy' would make.........

What would you like to be when you grow up?

A slumber party essential to ease the party into dreamland.....

Mama owl and her baby hooters......

Cupcake pumpkin patch and creepie crawlies........what a great idea for Halloween.............

Edible ornaments.............

I don't think I'll be able to resist having a go at these wonderful Nutcrackers........

Frosting the Snowman....

I hope you've enjoyed the pictures, If you're as keen on making cupcakes as I am, then this lovely book is an absolute must.

Hello Cupcake...........

When I started this blog I promised myself that it would be a weblog of our family times together, for us to record our time together in our new home in Devon and to look back on every now and again and say; "Gosh look how lovely the weather was then"..."Look how young they looked"........."Oh, wasn't that the best ever day"............................................

As I explained at the end of my old blog, for those of you that knew it, this blog I'm sure, could appear quite self indulgent with picture after picture of my family, but that is what it is for, so I apologise if my posts are sometimes a little repetitive.

I never intended for this blog to really be read by others, but it's lovely to see that some of you have chosen to follow my life, it somehow makes the hours and hours spent uploading photos worth it. If it gives anyone ideas for day trips, holidays etc, etc, then that's all good, and if you live outside the UK as I know a couple of you do then it shows you just how beautiful this country can be and prove it's not all grey and rainy days!!!

Sometimes though as a blogger you see something, buy something or are given a lovely gift and you just know that fellow bloggers would love it to don't you? You just want to share. So as well as my family journal every now and again I like to throw a new purchase (or two) in to show you, after all I am a semi-professional shopper!!

A few weeks back, my kind mother presented me with this wonderful book and I just HAD to share it with you, but as time is short today and these pictures are taking an age to upload I shall show you a few today and a few tomorrow. I'm sure you'll love it as much as I do!! I LOVE making cupcakes, I love eating cupcakes but I certainly don't love the inches they have added to my waistline, so I shall take my time working through the book or I may be the size of a house by Christmas!!!!!!!!!

For anyone that knows (or is) a keen gardener this would be worth a go....It would also be great for a Garden Party.

A close encounter of the cupcake kind!!

The Big Top.....................Looks easy, maybe I'll make two!!!

Turn all those funny family quirks into quirky family cupcakes..................

The perfect bring-along for a baby shower or for a new mother.................

Score a strike when you serve these at a bowling party.........

For the more traditional amongst you.....

A different idea for an Easter cake......The Easter Bunny jumping down a rabbit hole.

Something for a teenage party perhaps???

My favourite....Sunflowers with Oreo centres...Mmmm.

And how cute are these fellows?...........

Almost as cute as these..........

I hope some of these have given you a few ideas, I just had to share! More to follow tomorrow.

Have a lovely day.

First Day.

Last night, as I do every night, I crept into big shrimps room to watch her sleep and to give her a final kiss goodnight before going to bed myself. Last night though, I couldn't help myself. I climbed in next to my teeny tiny little girl who looked so incredibly young and innocent still as she lay clutching the three Dalmatian dogs that she'd bought with her birthday money, and I snuggled up with her and held her tight...listening to her little breaths as she submerged herself in dreamland unaware that the very next morning she was to enter the next chapter of her life!

I quietly left her room, climbed into bed and sobbed and sobbed!! Not just a little cry but proper sobs coming from deep within, It took me a little by surprise. I have been dreading letting her go, not being her 'whole wide world' anymore, but I didn't realise that I would be this upset. I guess I just needed to get it all out of my system. I thought this morning that maybe all the tears were over and done with, but oh no...........who was the only mother that welled up in the classroom this morning and had to leave before I made a total show of myself.......yep...that's right, yours truly! I'm guessing this gets easier as the days go on, yes?

Big Shrimp was fine, as expected. She was just excited about wearing her new uniform and seeing all her friends again because horrible old mummy had made her spend the summer in Devon, so she hadn't seen any of them since July. She was so eager to get there she skipped along holding Daddy's hand. I think even Daddy was a little sad to let her little hand go as she entered the classroom for the first time.

I even managed to get this sneaky shot of her first few moments of school. I have no worries about her. She's more than ready having missed starting school by 2 days last year, she's very keen to learn. Even her new teacher (who had spent time with her previously last term), said that she thinks that she'll be the model student...... there you go Shrimp, that's something to live up to!!! No pressure there then!

Mr Shrimp had me in stitches last night when he said that he'd spent a great deal of time yesterday thinking about how we are now responsible for her educational development.... He then went on to say how he thinks he should start to brush up on his long division and fractions...I pointed out to him that she was only in reception class and I think he had a while before he need worry about that!! He then asked how my times tables were.....when I rattled off my 9 times table in a fashion that resembled an auctioneer at a cattle market, he decided that he would be responsible for teaching 1 - 6 and I would be responsible for teaching 6 -12!!!!! As he has it so easy, he can take on the fractions and long division!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My baby's all grown up!

Whats a mother to do?............my poor sad heart can't take it!!

Today she turned 5 years old and tomorrow she starts school. They say; "It goes so quickly"...they're right!

We've had a lovely weekend at Big Shrimp's favourite hotel near to our family. There were lots of presents, lots of cake eaten and lots of catching up with family and friends.

Now a very tired little 5 year old is tucked up in bed ready for her first day at school tomorrow...

Happy Birthday sweetheart, mummy and daddy love you and your sister very, very much and can you please stop growing NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you.

Bank Holiday in Beesands...

My goodness, it was hard to imagine this morning when I got caught in a heavy downpour that this was just a few days ago on Bank Holiday Monday, when we spent the afternoon enjoying the pretty coastal village of Beesands.

Beesands is a lovely beach, it's a little way along the coast from Slapton Sands and Torcross, but a little harder to get to, therefore it's never quite as busy. We're lucky to have this beautiful beach just 15 minutes from our home.

The surroundings are lovely and fabulous for walking the dogs.

How lucky are these fellows enjoying not only a sea view, but rolling countryside?

It's a busy beach for local fishermen and evidence of their days catch is there for all to see....

Look how clear this water is.....It was wonderful to sit this close on such a lovely sunny day listening to the gentle waves lap against the shore; so relaxing.

The 'shrimps' entertained themselves skimming stones as we relaxed and enjoyed the last few hours of our Devon Summer before heading home the following morning, our heads full of wonderful memories of a fantastic summer.

In the blink of an eye.......

How can they go from this...................

.......to this in a blink of an eye?

Today I made my first purchase that made me cry....shopping NEVER makes me cry, but today it did.

We left Devon at 6.30am this morning to return home to normality after the most wonderful summer spent in Devon. I hadn't even unpacked the bags and put the washing in before 'Big Shrimp' and I went off on our 'mummy and daughter' morning that I'd promised her, to Bath, to purchase her first pair of 'big' school shoes for when she starts next Monday.

Now, starting to panic is maybe a slight understatement....... When you're living in the heart of the South Hams believe me there isn't much choice when it comes to buying school shoes so we made a special trip to Plymouth last week, as it was a rainy day, to go and see if we could find any. Unfortunately the rest of Devon and Cornwall had the same idea and no shoes could be found in an 8.5F ANYWHERE!!!!!

Luckily we had a little more luck in Bath. We thought we'd start at a lovely little shop called; 'One Small Step' where we have previously bought all of the girls shoes and hey presto.... the shop was quiet (not what I was expecting), during what the shoe shops say is one of the busiest days of the year! However leaving it so late there was very little choice left. All the lovely old fashioned styles had gone in her size, but we did manage some very plain black shoes that fitted her perfectly.

We thought we'd pop into Clarks for some winter boots but OM'IGOD..... It was HEAVING....we had certainly made the right choice!!!

After a lovely lunch together we made our way home with me feeling so sad that it would be one of the last trips we'd make together apart from holidays and weekends when, more likely than not, little shrimp would be with us.

Sweetheart, I've treasured each and every little trip we've made together; our little lunches together, trips into Frome to mooch on Catherine Hill in all the vintage shops, our visits to art galleries, girlie days spent together at the Country House Hotel & Spa we belong to....It all went far to quickly and now it's over I'd give anything to have it back. Thank you for a delightful summer in Devon helping mummy look after little sister. We had a lovely time together didn't we? and mummy was so proud at how fantastic you are at body boarding now. I love how you're growing up as an outdoors girl. I hope that you've enjoyed your early childhood darling and I've made it fun for you. Next week is a brand new chapter in your life, one which I'm sure you'll enjoy just as much...even if mummy is finding it a little difficult to let you go........