Summer holidays part 1...

Helllloooo! Im back girls,hopping and skipping-oh no-make that hobbling into your lives, my back has well and truely 'gone'!...still in holiday mode, not really wanting to return to real life. One week ago we packed up my passat(which was harder than it sounds, why didnt i just take the truck-oh yes no air con!), two little girls, one mummy, one nanna. Sadly no Mr P as this beautiful weather we've been having down south has a huge drawback for us, its perfect for farming, lots of grass to be cut and bailed. So while he busied himself drilling and forraging, with the promise he would at least visit for my birthday, we set off.

I must say that although his presence was duely noted our little Dorset jaunt was perfect in every way.

The most sparkiling azure blue seas greated us as the view from our(brand new!)caravan, we enjoyed perfect sunshiny weather EVERYDAY and ate LOTS of yummy ice cream, well, we had to sample the local delights, didnt we?!( I now have a huge hankering for a Lovingtons Rum and Raisin double cone!)

I hope you enjoy hopping aboard for a little ride along the dorset coast with us....

How lucky we are to travel for 90 mins(ok so it was more like 120 this time ALOT of people were heading to the coast for a weekend away)to arrive at these scenes of UTTER beauty. The jurassic coast has now been awarded world heritage status, putting it up there with the likes of the grand canyon and the great barrier reef!

You know how you tell yourself to take a mental snapshot of those amazing moments in your life, i tried to do that so many times while were away, to keep appreciating it, but i must admit i was glad i had my camera to help me along the way, the week just whizzed by.....

I know that as a child visited many places in dorset and the west country but somehow i didnt manage to retain hardly any memories of images-only feelings, maybe i was just too young? I know my parents have albums full of photographs of my brother and i growing up so may have to have a flick through.

Anywho, i hope my photos(and perhaps my blog) serve to aid my children when theyre little older and the memories fade.

The place we stayed in was called Eype, in Dorset, near to Bridport and West bay.

Just at the end of our caravan park(which i must add was deserted for the entire week) down a very steep hill and a few steeper dirt tracks was the amazing beach in the photo above, i cant tell you how beautiful a day it was when that photo was taken, we donned our swimwear and chilled out, i was very very silly and applied almost no sun tan lotion, and baked. Ive paid for it every day since-ouch.

The girls and i walked the length of the beach in search of rock pools and driftwood.Oh, and fossils, Poppy is obsessed with the natural world, forever making 'collections' of the things she finds and studying toads and woodlice etc in our garden. We didnt find any(you're not allowed to chip into the cliffs as they're protected) but she bought an ammonite from the antique shop in Lyme Regis, so that pleased her no end. On our way there(we drove to the beach as my mum is a bt of a bambi and wouldnt have been able to negotiate those steep hills)i had to stop to take in the beautiful little lanes and cottages, the pink plant below grows like a weed all over dorset but its sooo lovely!(sal im sure youre familiar?)

One of the the girls favourite destinations of the whole holiday was West bay, pure and simple. They collected wonderful bits and pieces from the beach(lots of driftwood for mummys garden project), negotiated the shingle hills fantastically and thoroughly enjoyed the sights in the harbour. Poppy made herself at home on this little boat...

I think when we go there next time id like to take the girls boating on the river, it looked so peaceful. How delightful is this little shed? I want it in my garden!



Now i dont know if you're like me, i have quite a thing for old telephone boxes, (and post boxes) so lovely, but rare now. I was in heaven in Dorset-there were so many! Although most read 'this callbox does not accept coins' strange i thought! The one below is in Bridport high street, the day it was taken was my birthday,wednesday, street market day! I didnt buy anything though. Dont those marigolds look zingy against the phonebox?

We aquainted ourselves with the locals while were on holiday, for me, you get that real holiday feeling when you hear the thud thud thud of the seagulls on the caravan roof when youre lying awake in bed in the morning. They eat anything and everything, the girls thought it was great feeding them(i know youre not supposed to but we couldnt resist)

A lovely place which came highly reccomended was Hive beach cafe in Burton Bradstock. I treated myself to a gorgeous jacket potato with prawns, mum had ham and cheese. Some of the fish on the menu sounded wonderful-but too pricy for us. We were more than happy with our jacket spuds, it was a huge portion and tasted lovely. It was quite a windy day so we were glad to be sheltered by the windbreak which extends out from the main cafe, it was full of people(mostly elderly!) but we quckly found a seat and the girls ran up and down the nearby hill while we waited for dinner to be served-chips again for the them, many of these touristy places dont offer a good selection for little ones-do you find that too? Afer lunch we went onto the beach, the sun came out and i snoozed while mum and the kids chatted to the other families there.

I couldnt resist the feel of these tiny polished stones which the beach is made up of, each one was like a little gem, this photo just doesnt capture their beauty completely , so soft yet robust. The little boats on the beach are something special too, they look battered and bruised, and - i would think, a bit wobbly were you to set sail, but just nestled in the shingle they're peaceful, like the'd have a few stories to tell if they could speak. Gazing accross to the horizon its no wonder people thought the earth was flat was it? It was so still, and calm, and the brightest of blues, it was hard to photograph as the sun was shining so brightly, it was a case of point and shoot as i dont have a view finder and it was too sunny to see the screen. One of my favourite things to do with the little ones on the beach is to hop over the waves as they crash into the shore, feeling that icy cold sea water wash up to your ankles...and watching the bubble of the foam is magical when youre only 4 isnt it?-come to think of it, when youre 26 its not bad either. Every beach we visited had something different to offer, different shells, pebbles, sand, people, wildlife, i found it as fascinating at the little un's.

Im glad i had my mum to share it all with, we both comment on the same things, she just 'gets' me, you know? Shes my best friend.

As the sun went down on 'our' little valley each evening we waved goodbye to the days adventures and welcomed the evenings ahead. We had the final of Britains got talent to look forward to,(sad i know), new BBC 2 series Mary queen of charity shops,my birthday, sneaky sofa treats...and mum had promised to teach me to crochet! Well, patience is a virtue im clearly not in posession of! I did try, but got tired of getting it wrong and having to ask mum to get me started over and over again. She wasnt a bad teacher, but i was a poor student! I was frustrated that it didnt take the shape of anything, i didnt 'get' why i had to learn these stitches, why wasnt it turning into something worthwhile was all i kept thinking? Anyway, i tried on a few occasions but mum suggested i try when i wasnt so sleepy(knackered!), next time we have five minutes peace together we'll have another go.

I'll have to show the rest of our little jolly with you towards the end of the week, still to come, Lyme Regis for the day, Bridport town and a lovely wildlife park.....

Lyme Regis amusement arcade...

Sleepy Roo, bored of Bridport for the third time round!...


And some special family time...

See you then xxx