Catching Up

Oops! My blog's gone a bit disjointed while I've been playing around with Flickr and stuff. On the whole it's easier to create a post and add photos the old way, (this after fretting for ages about being able to blog pictures straight from Flickr and now I don't want to use it!!).

Well... where to begin? Went down to Devon full of cold (or was it man-flu - well why can't we have it too?). I took my needlefelting stuff thinking that like usual I wouldn't get anything creative done while I was down there but how wrong I was. I showed the boys my half-done Yoda and that was it. He had to be finished straightaway for #1 nephew. Then I had to do something for 'littley' to make it fair. So along came Cookie Monster.

Of course, then everyone else wanted something - big kids as well as little ones! So I then churned out a mermaid, a black cat, a bunny (well a head at least) and a heart (for me!!! shock horror!). I even got my totally not-crafty sister having a go and she made a beautiful snake!!

Easter Sunday was very cold but even so the kids wanted to go outside and hunt for whatever the Easter bunny might have left for them. Nanny and Auntie NikNak went out to help them look. Suitable attire was donned before they commenced the hunt - Easter bonnets for the kids; nightwear and wellies for the Auntie. I took the photos so I could keep popping back inside to warm up. Later on, when much chocolate had been eaten for breakfast, we went to watch big one nephew (aged 6) play rugby. At the end of the match, cold and wet and muddy (and that was just the spectators) we retired to the club bar for elevenses - half a Guinness and leftover hot dog. Yum!!

Monday was my sister's birthday - 21 again! Yeah right! She had decided weeks before that she definitely wanted to go somewhere and not just spend the day lozzing around at home. So we went to on a jolly day out to Bigbury-on-Sea. We had a HUGE pub lunch first at The Royal Oak in Bigbury then drove down and parked by the beach. Nanny had an afternoon snooze in the car while we all walked across the beach to Burgh Island. It probably means nothing to you until you see the picture but it's the island that has a perfectly preserved Art Deco hotel on it (which costs an arm and a leg to stay in). At low water you can walk across to it but as soon as the tide comes in (which happens VERY quickly) you have to ride back on the sea tractor. This is one of those quirky things that you would only ever find in the UK. It's fab!

Tuesday was our last day and the weather was the best we'd had, so I really didn't want to pack up and just drive home. We hadn't been for a walk down to the beach so it seemed like the ideal opportunity. It's flipping hard going with all those steps and the prospect of the return journey being even harder isn't great, but it's worth it when you're down there. The added bonus being that not that many people attempt it so the beach never gets really crowded. I gathered a few little bits of treasure along the way. I always come back with my pockets full of bits of sea glass, smoothed chunks of plastic and odds bits of fishing net.

This is a photo montage I made of St Mary's beach taken at Christmas 2006. I've always been quite pleased with how it came out. Spot the kiddie trying to get in on the action!!