Special days, with special girls.....

Thank you beautiful lovely girliewigs for not only making me smile each and every day and making me question if it really is possible to love you any more? but also for helping create days full of wonderful memories that I'll cherish and remember forever.....

When we awoke this morning you were so eager and proud to give me these beautiful cards that you lovingly made....

I even cried when I read this beautiful poem and your wonderful writing inside that you'd taken so long over.........

Then you took me out to Salcombe for the day to enjoy the beautiful gardens and views that Overbecks has to offer.....

We walked up steps with quirky handrails....

Witnessed the first signs of Spring....


Found Secret Gardens....

Fabulous statues...

Seating to rest our weary feet....

And admired such stunning views.......

We listened to crystal clear jolly music on this wonderful Polyphon (I'm glad I don't have to find room for one of these to send you to sleep at night instead of the ipod you are now used to)!

We enjoyed games on the manicured lawns.....


....outside this beautiful National Trust house; Overbecks...............

And finished our little trip by soaking up the March Sunshine as we ate homemade cakes whilst enjoying the spectacular scenery...

And whilst I sit typing away, I glance down at my wrist admiring the beautiful bracelet that you gave me this morning and remind myself..."Mothers hold their children's hands for a while, but their hearts FOREVER".............

I love you beautiful girls, forever, thank you for a wonderful day and for giving my life such meaning. xxxxx

Out of the mouths of babes......

There are those times when young children just come out with absolute classics...... You know the times, when you have to try your absolute hardest to keep a straight face when you explain that; 'yes' you can understand why they thought what they did, but you have to slyly wipe away the tears of silent laughter as you explain the reality.

Walking along the quayside during low water on Saturday afternoon..........(note small black blob half way up on the left of picture)


Big Shrimp confidently asked...........

"Is that the plug"?

I can see her logic, when you're 5 years old the water has to go somewhere, right?.....................................................How hard it was to not undermine her confidence whilst we fell to the floor laughing!

Inspired by Lola.....

I haven't been feeling too well this past week, in fact not only have I not remembered feeling this unwell for years and years but my husband can also not recall ever seeing me so poorly. When on Friday I slept for most of the day (something unheard of with me), and spent the evening talking to the 'big white telephone', if you'd have told me that the following day I'd be back in Devon I'd have probably have laughed in your face!

Well yesterday morning when little shrimp woke up, I decided to crawl out of bed with her. As we led on the settee together watching the wonderful 'Charlie & Lola', for the first time in over a week, I started to feel a little better..(may have been something to do with the extra strong pain killers prescribed by Doc starting to kick in).

Charlie & Lola was all about Fossils yesterday and as we watched it a thought came to mind....If I were to really force myself to get up, showered and dressed, put some slap on and start to feel slightly human, do you think I could make it to Charmouth Beach with the girls in search of their very own Fossils just like Charlie & Lola?

After all, I was having severe beach withdrawal problems having had to cancel our weekend visit to the cottage, and as this was so much closer to our home, maybe, just maybe if I dosed myself up to the eyeballs then I could manage it? If I could, then great as I was staring to feel slightly claustrophobic having spent most of the week in our bedroom...I needed some space but most of all sea air to blast away those nasty horrible germs!

I revved myself up for the most of the morning...can I/can't I make the journey and when I'm there will I feel up to the car journey home again? I decided no....and sent Mr Shrimp off to Frome to get a haircut. Then I felt sad............................I hate being ill and after a week of feeling rubbish and couped up at home I'm somewhat 'over' being ill now....getting rather tedious and look at the day I'm doing my family out of? the girls were so excited about becoming 'Lola & Lola' the archaeologists for the day and they'd been so considerate and well behaved during the past week as I was so unwell, surely they deserved a little fun?!


OK, Ok I can do this...quick everyone, before Mummy Shrimp changes her mind..........Mind over matter.......I feel OK, I feel OK.....I won't be sick, I won't be sick..................... Yes it worked and just under one and a half hours later we arrived in Bridport for a little Saturday afternoon mooch....Of course the whole time I was there I was looking out for Hen, Mr HH and the adorable munchkin....... Alas my 'Hen spotting' came to nothing so I had to make do with admiring all the lovely buildings in this pretty little town.....

....paying a visit to Hens favourite store where I must have said; "Don't touch"..or trip over the dog at least 30 times and resisted some lovely greengate oilcloth.............

...and putting my will power to the test and not purchase this stunning 'mini' chair..............Couldn't resist snapping it though for fellow bloggers to admire. Isn't it fab?

We (or rather 'I') only managed a little mooch as we knew we wanted to visit a few more beaches, so back in the car to head to West Bay. That's what I love about blogging, how reading other peoples blogs and seeing pictures inspires you to visit such places you otherwise wouldn't have come across.

We took a little walk, until the shrimp's infamous 'Bendy Legs' took over, we did manage to get this far though to sit and admire the lovely views..

Back down to the beach where the shrimps played whilst I almost jumped with joy at the sheer amount of driftwood to collect, that made me very happy!

On we motored just along the coast to Charmouth beach for the shrimps' Charlie & Lola moment.....fossil hunting on the beach. Unfortunately we took them into the shop prior to our search so they were expecting to dig out treasures such as this..

Or this...............

Or maybe one of these?

Thankfully Daddy purchased a few 'treasures' before we left the shop to take for 'show and tell' or we may still have been there now...... I did have a flash of inspiration to put a smile on their disappointed little faces and sent Mr Shrimp back to the shop to buy another fossil that he could 'accidentally' drop right by their feet in readiness for them 'discover'.....but my plan was scuppered as the shop had closed!!!!

Oh well, time to leave, mummy shrimp was on her knees and not particularly looking forward to the journey home. I did snap this picture on our way our of the car park which summarized our impromptu afternoon................just lovely.

I won't go into the journey home, but let's just say it involved the Sat Nav taking us the wrong way, the battery running out on the girls DVD player resulting in HSM being played and sung all the way home in v.loud and un-tuneful voices and me muttering the words; "Oh my god, why did I think I could do this today"? several million times under my breath. ............... Push myself? Me? NOoooooooooooooooo.

N.B Just noticed that the date at the start of this post reads; Saturday 30th January....how bizarre seeing as I'm sat here typing away on Sunday 31st! Must have my settings wrong somewhere!

What's not to love?

OK, so there are times when I stop and thank my lucky stars, not only for the good health of myself and my loved ones, but also for the fact that weekends like I have just experienced are no longer few and far between but a weekly occurrence................I couldn't ask for more.

I've been feeling really unwell this weekend but standing at the edge of our country and enjoying not only the feeling of space, but the sea air in my lungs has helped no end, I may resemble Rudolf the red nosed reindeer at present, but hey who cares, I've had a fab weekend.

A request from the shrimps to go for 'coffee & cake' at our favourite beach cafe,'The Winking Prawn' at North Sands, Salcombe, certainly didn't meet with much opposition from us. It may of course have something to do with the huge dressing up box that they love to delve through...

And dress themselves up to entertain not only us, but those at surrounding tables..

'Ay, Ay Sailor'.

"Maybe I'll grow into it"?

"Loving this hat, darlingggggggg"....

We always follow our visit with a walk on the beach immediately outside.

They love to explore and climb over the rocks.

It doesn't take long for the shrimps to get wet so I invested in waterproof dungarees, which seemed to do the job!!

A little further along the road and we reach Southsands and views such as these.....I certainly didn't feel as if this was a winter weekend in January....this view couldn't help but lift my spirits!

For me, my favourite time of the week is when I creep out of bed on a Sat/Sun morning without waking the family and enjoy the beautiful sunrises as I walk along the quay with the dogs.....All that can be heard is the sound of the water gently lapping against the boats or the birds above.

I love to walk to the waters edge and spend a moment contemplating the day ahead........bliss.

As it turned out, this morning we found ourselves 15 minutes down the road in Beesands, a favourite of the shrimps as not only do the get to ride on their scooters....

.......but play in the little park and run on the beach whilst I beachcomb, adding to my collection of driftwood...not to mention enjoying views such as this, the sun glistening in the sea and the soothing sound of the gentle waves.......

So you can see, I have very little to complain about in my life for which I'm eternally grateful for. I went through a little patch a few months ago when I contemplated if this 'split' life was worth it, after all there is alot of driving/packing/un-packing/gardening/cleaning etc involved in running and visiting two homes, I don't for a minute expect anyone reading this to feel sorry for me, but it is the reality. Those times were however during the dark/rainy weekends, when we have weekends such as this it makes me realise why we have sacrificed other things to give ourselves a wonderful quality to our lives where we get to enjoy the best of both worlds.......Long may it continue.