Winds, Whelks and Woolacombe: the joys of a school holiday camping trip

At the end of July we went on a camping holiday in North Devon. We had such a lovely time, rockpooling, roly polys down the sand dunes at Woolacombe, ice creams everyday and the best fish and chips we've ever eaten at Squires in Braunton. We came home with a lovely collection of seashells to wash and indentify at home. Despite the fact we had a great time, our camping holiday nearly ended before it began. 40-50mph winds were forecast for the day we were due to pitch our tent, they weren't wrong...

We had chosen a site with a beautiful view, but campsites with amazing views are normally high & exposed. This one was no exception. We lay the tent out as we always do, but when it came to stand the poles up, we couldn't fight against the wind. In fact the wind was so strong, it bent one of the metal poles. Mr M stood looking at the bent pole in shock and uttered expletives under his breath. Magoo had been counting down the days to this holiday and I couldn't face packing up and going home again, but the tent wasn't going up without a fight.
We retreated to the car to regroup and have a break from the relentless wind. "When can we go in the tent Mummy?" piped up a little voice from the back seat. "Just as soon as we've got our heads together" came my reply. We decided to try a different tack with the tent and with all our strength we managed to get the bloomin' thing up. Even the guy who owned the campsite was impressed we'd managed it. Despite our awful first day, the sun did come out and the rest of the holiday was glorious.
We managed three trips to the beach, once to Croyde and twice to Woolacombe (because we loved it so much). Magoo and I spent a happy hour peering into rockpools at Croyde Bay. We found heaps of shells, including Whelks, Top Shells and Limpets amongst many others. We decided to fit as many as we could into our bucket and bring them home.
A few days after we got back, Magoo and I sat out in the garden and washed the shells. It was the perfect opportunity to have a closer looks at our finds. It never ceases to amaze me how clever Mother Nature is. Each shell is small, but perfectly formed.


I particularly like whelk shells. When I was little I used to call them 'ice cream' shells because of the swirly cone at the end which looks like a Mr Whippy.


Magoo and I love collecting shells, but we don't know much about identifying them. After a quick search online I think I now know my whelks from my periwinkles. I particularly like the UK Safari website



Once we had washed them, we left the shells to dry on kitchen paper. Magoo decided to give some to Grandma and we've kept the rest in a bowl on our dresser. It's a lovely reminder of our time spent in North Devon.

And here's some photographic proof that our tent withstood the winds...we spent the whole holiday slightly in shock that we managed to put it up at all :)

And the view from our tent, beautiful, but windy!

I'm linking up with Country Kids over on www.coombemill.com
Whatever the Weather over on www.lifeunexpected.co.uk
Point + Shoot over on www.youbabymemummy.com
Let Kids be Kids over on www.letkidsbekids.co.uk

Take me to the sea

We're back from our holiday in Cornwall and we had an amazing time. We packed so much into our seven day holiday, dressing up as pirates, seeing a show at the Minack Theatre, playing on the beach, mooching round the shops at St Ives, visiting St Michaels Mount, seeing artists work as part of the Open Studios week (in particular Faye Dobinson, who I will blog about at a later date) and lots & lots of walks around the coastline.

I have taken loads of photos, so please indulge me while I share just a few of them here...

Our home for the week

We walked through these beautiful paths nearly everyday...on our circuit we saw birds of prey hovering over the cliffs, shiny black beetles, strange buzzing green beetles, cow parsley, pretty pale lilac flowers (might be thrift, need to get a flower book!), shetland ponies, lots of large lambs and much, much more

The view from our circuit walk through the lanes around our cottage. Jaw-droppingly wonderful...the view out towards Sennen Cove and Gwenver beach

Enjoying the view at the Minack Theatre...where we saw a production of "Annie". Anyone who performs there must have to get used to being upstaged by the wonderful panorama behind them...

We took part in the world record attempt for most amount of pirates in one place which took place in Penzance.

My daughter loves pirates and she has an amazing costume at home, but we didn't bring it with us to Cornwall...so I had to improvise with cardboard, wool, my stripy top and a head scarf...not to mention a nasty scar created with eyeliner!

Beautiful weather at Sennen Cove beach...perfect for frisbee, sand castle making & ice-cream eating

And it wasn't all blue skies, we had loads of rain over the first couple of days...but that didn't stop us getting out for a walk - plus it means there are puddles to jump in!

I'll leave you with a photo of a Sennen sunset...or watching 'the sun plop into the sea' as my daughter likes to call it.

I'm linking up with Country Kids at Coombe Mill

Gower holiday: part one

We're just back from another amazing holiday on the Gower coast. We first went back in October 2013 and fell in love with the stunning coastline. This time we stayed at Langland Bay, in a beautiful cottage overlooking the sea. It was amazing watching the weather change over the coastline & hearing the waves crashing onto the shore at night.

We packed lots of stuff into our four day holiday: digging on the beach, fishing with nets in rock pools, a coastal footpath walk, visited Clyne Gardens in Swansea, climbed a tower, drank hot chocolate in the sun & collected special rocks on the beach.

We did so many things I'm going to split the photos over two blog posts! These photos are of Langland Bay & our fun on the beach.

I'm linking up with the lovely Country Kids at Coombe Mill for this blog post

Vintage love: Alfred Meakin ceramics and vintage fabric

We spent a few days in Cornwall at the end of May, we had such a lovely time, I wanted to share some images of our stay. It's taken me almost a month to blog about them, but with a young baby, all blogging plans go out the window most of the time!

Whilst we were in Cornwall we visited the quaint village of Polperro. I spotted a sign for 'bric a brac sale' at the side of the road. Never one to turn down the opportunity to rummage through bric a brac, I took a quick look. To my surprise amongst the CDs and books was a table covered in vintage ceramics. I could've bought the lot, but I was very restrained and just bought a sugar bowl and jug made by Alfred Meakin.



I love the simple design and lovely cobalt blue flower detail. And at £1 each, an absolute bargain.





I also had my 'vintage fabric' antenna in full working order when I spotted two vintage sheets plus pillowcases at the sale.



I have already cut some peg bags out of this fabric and I may make some belts with it too. There's plenty to use and I love the fresh colours and design, it's in fantastic condition.



We also made a few other 'finds' on our holiday, but not of the vintage variety. First up was Sams on the Beach at Polkerris. Based just a stones throw away from Menabilly, the beloved home of the novelist Daphne du Maurier.

It is apparently one of the best places to eat seafood in that area. It was very chilled, reasonable priced and in a location to die for. We will definitely be going back again!



Next, we took a trip to the Hidden Valley Gardens at Treesmill, Near Par.



It was such a lovely, secluded place. Complete with large Summerhouse where you could make your own pot of tea and buy a homemade cake, our money went in an 'honesty box'. All proceeds go to charity as part of the National Garden Scheme







All in all, we packed quite a bit into four days, we found some stunning homegrown places to eat and visit, plus I came away with some vintage mementos which always makes me a happy traveller!