Happy Days......

This is what Friday nights are all about.....Playing on the beach, skimming stones and having fun rolling down the pebble slopes stopping short of the sea.

The draw of the sea was just too strong and we succumbed before we reached the cottage on Friday evening. The dogs had fun too watching all the children playing whilst their parents relaxed or fished.

Meet the canine members of our family............

Archibald (aka Archie) - Age 7

Mabel - Age 6

I was so excited about arriving at our cottage on Friday evening as our new settee had been delivered. That excitement soon subsided however, when I took one look at the brand spanking new settee sitting in the living room and soon realised they'd delivered the wrong one!!! Grrrrrrrrr.....Now if this was the only error that had been made with all the deliveries of furniture to our new home then I wouldn't have minded (well, maybe just a little)! But seeing as EVERY single delivery had a problem with it, I am starting to lose all faith in the abilities of various companies to successfully communicate with warehouse personal/delivery drivers/distribution centres etc....Grrrrrrrrrrr...............OK moan over.

Saturday was one of the best days I'd had in a long, long time, not because of any momentous occasion but purely because not only was it a spectacular day with the sun shining down on us the entire day, but the day was full of laughter, fun and family enjoyment spent in the good old outdoors...perfect.

We started our day in Dartmouth....walking along the harbour admiring the beautiful yachts with the sun glistening on the water. We then headed for the park where the shrimps enjoyed playing, racing one another and eating ice cream.

With a trip to M&S, lunch was bought and we stopped and ate it on the beach as we headed back home. King prawns, smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwiches, finished off with fresh strawberries...all tasting so much better accompanied by the sound of the sea.

We spent a little of the afternoon working in the garden, cutting grass, pruning and looking for Archie who had escaped and we later found in the garden of our neighbour! The sun was still glorious however and it seemed a crime not to be on the beach. I cooked some food, made up a picnic along with a flask of hot chocolate and off we went.

What a fabulous atmosphere there was, there were still quite a few people enjoying the early evening sun. We started by rock pooling which the shrimps thoroughly enjoyed, then they played in the sea. They splashed around and watched with intrigue as young children played on boogie boards in wetsuits and glided along in dinghies. Mr SB and I sat enjoying the moment as our young daughters sat in the water holding each others hands....where's the camera when you need it. Watching big shrimp when she came out of the sea with her brightly coloured beach dress keeping her warm along with the hot chocolate she was gripping hold of as if her life depended on it, I couldn't have loved her more...what a wonderful evening we had enjoyed together.

With the shrimps tucked up in bed, we sat in the garden with a glass of chilled wine watching the sun go down agreeing with each other that it doesn't get much better than this. We have had a very bad couple of years as a family...business's going under, starting from scratch building new ones, dealing with terminal illness and the subsequent death of a cherished one.....life goes in circles...for every bad couple of years you experience I firmly believe that a couple of good ones are waiting around the corner to be enjoyed. This is what has kept me going during the hard days...looking forward to the days we are experiencing now, and boy after those hard times does it make us truly grateful for these happy, happy days.

Waking up on Sunday, after such a fun evening the night before on Thurlestone beach, of course the shrimps wanted to return. Big shrimp was desperate to play with her new 'Frisey' or Frisbee to you and I. Leaving the house the weather was like this...


10 minutes later, arriving at the beach the weather looked like this..........



Do you think we let that spoil our fun.............Of course we didn't.......


Once they got used to the water there was no stopping them...getting completely.....SOAKED!!

Luckily the sun shone through and another pleasant day at the beach was had by all......

Heading home on Sunday evening our extremely tired little heads were still swimming with wonderful weekend memories. Happy Days..............

Child free week-end!

Three weeks ago for the very first time in almost 5 years my parents had the little shrimps to stay (well they have had big shrimp for one night almost a year ago).... Now I make no bones about the fact that they are both extremely... shall we say....spirited, loud and exhausting.. especially for two grandparents that are used to their peace and quiet!! In fact the whole experience left my father so shell shocked that he's still recovering and it prompted me to purchase this card for Fathers Day!! I couldn't have found a more perfect one if I had commissioned it myself!!

The offer of help was GREATLY appreciated let me tell you, as Mr Summer Blue and I were wondering how the heck we were going to manage to paint the entire downstairs, all around the kitchen units, window frames, skirting boards and numerous doors, at least 3 coats if not more, in the presence of said high maintenance shrimps and two equally high maintenance dogs...... We had already done upstairs and that was hard enough and took 10 times longer than it would have done if one of us hadn't had to keep the children amused while the other painted, refereed the fights,let the dogs in and out of the garden, made meals, etc etc etc..........

Well, with the shrimps packed off to mum and dad, we set off for Devon to paint...and boy did we paint!!! We started at 7pm on Friday night, painted until 2am, slept for 3 hours and began painting again at 5am!!! All in all, from the Friday night until Sunday afternoon we painted for 58 man hours..... I had blisters on my fingers, my knees had seized up from painting all the skirting boards and my back...well, best not mention that, especially to the neuro-surgeon that I'd seen on that Friday morning at Frenchay Hospital about problems with my spine......... I'm sure he'd be thrilled, especially as on top of all the painting we were still sleeping on the floor waiting for the bed to be delivered!!! Boy, the things you do when given a window of opportunity to get things done without children around!!

It was hard work, but worth it; at long last it felt like ours, but more importantly, CLEAN! Now comes the hard part......SHOPPING......

I know, I know, for those of you that know me you'll realise what a chore this is for me, terrible, can't bear it, brings me out in a cold sweat thinking about handing over my debit card in a shop and walking away with a shiny new purchase........yeah, yeah, OK, OK, as big shrimp would say; "Joking"!!..... I may enjoy it slightly..... just a little bit...... Mr SB has now taken to writing "Professional Shopper" in the occupation sections of any forms he fill in on my behalf. Actually I quite like it, much nicer than 'Housewife'. Actually come to mention it, what are the criteria for 'Housewife'? because I'd probably struggle to make the grade.....Do you think the fact that I'm having a sauna, sat in the steam room or trying to act all 'zen' like and trying not to laugh when standing under the 'Amazon Rain Forest' shower with the thunder and lighting noise and flashing lights all around me, or almost passing out with shock when I pressed ' Nordic Storm' by mistake, whilst Mr SB does the school run. Or that I'm processing my latest Boden order whilst he is conjuring up some magnificent meal for 2. Would this mean that I qualify for 'housewife' status?..................Maybe I really should put Professional Shopper down!

Anyway, enough of my inadequacies as a 'housewife'....... We're not off to Devon this weekend as we have parties to attend and a shell shocked father to visit. I must say I'm missing not being there already. I shall miss wandering down to the farmers market tomorrow morning with my wicker basket and coming back with all sorts of goodies for us to devour. The cat will be pleased though, to have us around, although maybe she won't. I'm half expecting to be kept awake by the neighbourhood cats having an all night party in our family room, seriously, the amount of food I leave out and she gets through during the weekend is enough to make me wonder. Maybe I'll pop down at 2am and downstairs will be heaving with cats in micro mini skirts and stilletos all covered in fake tan and sporting copious amounts of hair extensions dancing round their handbags and 2 ginger toms outside the cat flap (or 'flapjack' as big shrimp calls it) refusing entry to anyone worse for wear.......

Well, we'll see, I'll keep you posted on that front.....

Thought you might like a gander at a few of my purchases so far......

I'm terrible at losing keys so this has helped no end...

A more unusual way to store our shoes and flip flops.....

Now I just need to fill the frames with weekend memories....

I love this frame, in fact I bought 2 of them (a girl can never have too many you know)!! I now enjoy collecting driftwood for my own project.

The whole of the cottage is now painted white. We have also painted the upstairs floorboards and stairs white. Downstairs we've inherited a laminate floor, but I'd like eventually to replace it with white washed floorboards. I intend to decorate with driftwood and some stylish nautical bits and bobs. Of course that is if I can drag myself shopping when I could be perfecting my perfect housewife routine instead!

The Perfect T-Shirt!

Following on from my previous post, which included Friday night being 'treat night' for the girls and them devouring hot chocolate topped with whipped cream and marshmallows. Well, having just taken a look at the new Boden Autumn/Winter catalogue online (some of which was shot at my friends beautiful home), I have found the perfect t-shirt for them...

What do you think?.............................

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.

Living the Dream.

Everyone has somewhere they love to be don't they? Somewhere that they instantly relax when they arrive and never want to leave....

For sometime now that place for me has been the South Hams in Devon; a corner of the world that has always evoked fond memories of times enjoying the sea, sand, sails, rock pooling, beach combing and rolling countryside.

Last month our dream of owning a property there became reality and my husband and I purchased our little 'Bolt Hole' by the Sea, somewhere to create future memories for our young daughters and spend many quality hours enjoying being a family.

This blog is a record of our times together, week-ends and holidays for us to look back and remember.

LET THE MEMORIES COMMENCE.............................................