ABC Series B is for BOAT

Yesterday having checked the weather forecast we decided to do a day trip to France on a Boat and go to the sandy Beaches of Le Touquet.  When we woke up at 5.30am we could hardly see 100 yards it was such thick fog and everything was covered in frost however by the time we arrived in Dover the fog had cleared leaving us with a beautifully calm and sunny crossing.

P&O have currently got a special offer on their day trips.  I think we paid something like £23 for our crossing which included a box of wine and a 2 for 1 on either a cooked breakfast or fish and chips.  I should have taken a photo of my breakfast as it was amazing but I got side tracked and forgot.

We also took a look around the duty free where I brought some Dior Mascara and an Opi Nail varnish.

Once we arrived in Calais we drove along the coast road to Le Touquet where we stopped for coffee before heading down to the beach for a picnic. 

We had beautiful weather, it was lovely and warm with hardly anyone on the beach.  We stopped for a couple of hours before heading home via Citi Europe.

If I look out in the garden.......What can I see??

I was just thinking the other day about the i-spy books by David Bellamy.  They were great, I had a whole collection.  I used to be able to buy them from the little book club we had when I was at primary school.  Does anyone else remember them?  Anyway I was thinking what a shame it is that something similar doesn't still exist.  For anyone who hasn't got a clue what I am going on about, the i-spy books were nature books with little tick charts of things to look for.

So keeping in a theme I decided it was about time I started to pay more attention to the things around us.  It is so easy when you get a bit older to over look the little things in nature that we see everyday but go unnoticed.

When we were in the garden today clearing away all my end of season courgette plants I really started to notice how many little creatures were running around the garden.

Common Orb Weaver found on the underside of the wheel barrow.

7 spot ladybird.

Common Woodlouse.

Check out how pre-historic a woodlouse is under the magnifying glass.

The other day I was woken up to Mimi shouting woodpecker, woodpecker.  I originally thought that she might be having a bad dream.  However when I got to her bedroom she was hiding behind the curtains shouting woodpecker in the garden.  I was very surprised when I took a look to see the Green Woodpecker sitting there on the lawn.  For a split second I wondered where unearth she had seen/learnt about birds.  Then I remembered it was my dad.  I think it is so cute.  Once a week Mimi goes to my dads for the day, and he takes her on little journeys.  They usually go on the bus to Sandwich to the swings and slides and to see the ducks.  This week they went on the train to Folkestone.  Each time she comes back telling me about the birds she has either seen or heard.

Anyway the long and short of this is that I think it is really important that we slow down and take stock of what is going on around us.  Sometimes it is so easy to let life rush past us, forgetting what is important.

Keeping up with the theme this afternoon when I got in from work, we all went down to the beach to check out the rock pools and to see if we could catch some prawns for tea.  We went down with the idea of catching enough for a prawn curry.

Daddy out in the waves prawning.
Not sure we had the best of nets.

OOOOO check out the prawns.

Not sure there will be enough for a curry!

Lets open it up.  What have you seen this week which you would like to share with us?

Toddler trauma No2: Moving into a "Big Girls" bed.

Well here we are the last day of the summer holidays.  I go back to work tomorrow morning (Tueday).  It does feel really strange.  However because I am only part time I am in for one day and then not back again until Friday.

We decided that we should finally take the plunge and move Mimi into a big bed.  We have held off for so long with her cot that she was almost at the point of outgrowing it.  We have previously attempted taking the bars off the side of the cot but it was so traumatic that we put them back.

Oh my big girl.

It was all very exciting.  She thought it was great.  Lots of shrieking and jumping.  She looks so tiny in a jumbo bed.  We did consider buying a toddler bed but decided that with a spare single bed in the loft we would just use that instead and save ourselves some pennies.

It didn't start off too well.  I must have taken her back to her bed at least 10 times.  I would sit down and in she would come again.  When I stood up to go and take her back she would run off screaming in delight.  She thought it was one big game.  Therefore starting as we mean to go on today Mike put up a baby gate on her bedroom door.  This appears to have had the desired effect.  She stood there screaming for a while at lunch time but she did settle ok and tonight not a peep out of her.  Fingers crossed!

This morning J rang to say that it was a really low tide and did we fancy rock pooling.  So first thing we popped down to the beach.  Mimi had a great time with her net fishing for prawns and crabs.  J using just a little child's net managed to catch a fair few prawns.  Mimi got very wet but had fun jumping about in the little streams.

A while back I noticed that I had lost my sense of smell.  It was one of those weird things where I can't really pin point when I lost it.  I have to teach Food Technology at school and after a few near misses with some cakes I eventually decided that I would go to the doctors about it.  I felt really silly.  However loss of smell is more common than people realise.  Additionally it is a recognised condition known as Anosmia.  The long of short of the story is that I have been diagnosed as having Anosmia.  Unfortunately because the nerve endings are very delicate if they have been damaged by a cold or virus then the upshot is that I have lost it and it will never come back.  The consultant said that basically I will have to go for a CT scan and if it comes back clear then I will have to just learn to live with it.
It is something that hadn't really worried me very much until I had to start working in Food Technology as I seriously can not smell burning food, gas or contaminated foods.

Happy Days

Wow what a lovely day.  Living so close to the beach we are just so lucky to be able to take full advantage of it.



Sunday

After waving goodbye to A we went to the beach to watch Daddy sailing.

We had a great morning romping all over the beach collecting pebbles and beach treasure.  However in the short space of time we were out Mimi managed to do a wee in the car seat, a wee on me and another wee just as we were about to get into the car (although most of this was caught in the potty!)  

Mimi left the house lovely and clean and in the space of a couple of hours look at the state of her. 

Mike then took Mimi down to the swings & slides on his bike.  

Today

I had already thought about painting some pebbles with Mimi, then last night when I was on the internet I came across a great article on Red Ted Art's Blog.  I had never thought of painting them and then drawing on them with Sharpie pens.  (The kids at school love Sharpie's for some bizarre reason).  So with today's project in mind we set out to collect all of the necessary resources.  First up we went up to Tesco to get the pens; which were half price!  Bargain!

Then having sent Mrs R a text message we went down to the beach again to collect pebbles and have a lovely picnic lunch.  Mrs R has two of the most beautiful girls, who are just great with Mimi.

Some of them were a either a little mad or brave depending on which way you want to look at it and went swimming.  However they weren't in too long as the tide was a bit too strong today.

Then whilst we were eating the chickens started clucking because they had laid some eggs.  The girls took Mimi off to have a look and this is what she came back with.  

A very proud Mimi with her freshly laid egg.

After an extended trip to the beach and a late lunch we finally got round to painting our stones ready for the Sharpie pens tomorrow.

lovely day for the beach.

What a beautiful day for a trip to the beach with my old friend J and her little girl I.  We all had a great afternoon burying each others feet in the sand and building sand castles - none of which lasted long enough for photos to be taken as I thought it was great fun to jump on them.

Beach was a bit on the busy side.  Jos Bay is one of only 3 "Blue Flag" Beaches in Kent and there is even a surf school there too.  Well worth the visit although maybe outside of school holidays!

Yum - Ice cream and Sand!