Sand and play.

You can never quite tell what a day will bring from how it begins can you? Yesterday as I made packed lunches in the kitchen the day was dull and cold, not very promising at all. Isabella raced from the bathroom where she had been brushing her teeth with Lucy, her face now crumpled and bellowing, "Lucy hurt myself on the nose!"
Lucy, quite oblivious to this great distress due to the fact that she had indeed had little to do with said nose, was busy communing with nature. Strange noises emitted from the bathroom which brought to mind how I imagine a drowning whale may sound.
"Eeeooh...ahhhhhhohh....ark, ark.." (now look, you get the drift)

"Lucy, what are you doing?"

"Talking to the birds through the window, Mummy"

" But they don't talk like that."

"Well, they're responding."

When will I learn how pointless it is to correct a Lucy?



Lunchtime saw the clouds disperse to be replaced by a hot and blazing sun and the chance for an after-school beach trip was here. We have not yet sorted the bag which sits in our car from now till late autumn, a bag full of towels and sun cream, buckets and spades, sketchbooks, playing cards and all the paraphanalia necessary for a family who virtually live on the beach. It is so much easier to have this ready should the chance arise than to waste time finding it all before heading off, but yesterday I only had a towel and the camera. No matter, I don't suppose the girls will go in the still icy water. Yeah, right...




The tide was out and we clambered over the rocks to the clean-washed sand beyond. Tights and shoes were cast aside. As the sun beat down, Isabella trailed after her sister into the shallows and then followed her as she leapt into a pool...up to her thighs; skirt now also removed.



They swooped and swirled across the smooth, golden sand like the seagulls wheeling high overhead, sheer pleasure and excitement in the voices ringing as one long slim pair of legs danced along with one much shorter, rounder pair. So what if the school uniform was soaked? Plenty of time for it to be washed and dried later, but these moments are precious and so much more important.



The light continued to shine down on the crystal water creating shadows out of the ripples breaking the surface in the oh-so-light breeze.



A mermaid's face of sea lettuce eyes and pebble nose, a tangle of hair and leaves dried in the sun for a mouth, was created by Lucy...



while our own little mermaid continued to run in and out of the water like some little sea-wraith, giggling as the cooler currents seeped slowly in.



Finally, after clambering back over the rocks to warm in the sun it was time to wave goodbye to the beach. We had passed a wonderful hour and a half, and now food was needed. Home to tea and a delicious drink of our elderflower cordial, a gallon of which we had somehow overlooked from last season's making. So flowery and evocative for us, like drinking memories if that makes any sense? I will post the recipe again on my website soon as it was so popular last year.



And so it seems the day that started so unpromisingly turned into a winner full of sea and sand and little girls' laughter. Just about perfect (and Isabella fell asleep within a moment of going to bed instead of calling out that she is just a 'little bit dead' as is so often her wont...sigh).



Have a lovely day x