Non-stitching weekend

Well Lou returned from the Isle of Wight on Friday evening in one piece having had a great time

Sarah's final exam (Physics) went well - she's now finished for the summer apart from a morning's intro session at her new 6th Form college on the 1st July and her little sister has two days on the 2nd and 3rd at her new secondary school

Nick had an inter-school cricket match against a neighbouring school on Wednesday evening - he was a last minute 'make-up-the-numbers' addition for the year above him as they are a very small school. They were playing the secondary school adjacent to the primary school where I work which has a pretty formidable sports reputation and Nick's team won - Nick caught one man out and made a partnership of 32 runs with another Year 7 friend.

The offshoot of this is he's now decided he'd like to play cricket for a team and has been trawling the net pricing up the kit which is a bit more expensive than a pair of football boots - but I like to encourage all of them to play sports - after all nothing's better for growing kids than fresh air and exercise - unfortunately he has the same tendency as his father of not letting go of something once he has a bee in his bonnet so we've been nagged to death all weekend. I'm totally sure my son invented 'pester-power'.

Saturday morning - a celebratory breakfast of 'bake your own' croissants and pastries from the freezer section of our local farm shop - now if I were a proper blogger these would all be nicely laid out on a china plate with smiling husband and children waiting patiently at the table and a beaming proud mother in her frilly apron waiting on their every need - instead you see it like it is - chez Bebbington - dressing gowns and all.

It's down to this aforementioned obsessive tendency on the father's part that I've got absolutely no sewing done this weekend and precious little computer time either.

The height of the ironing pile had obviously got just too high for himself to bear and the corresponding nagging became too much for me to bear so I gave in and stood for the best part of 6 hours yesterday and cleared it - phew!!!!!!!

But then some little rotter, probably himself in between still digging for Australia, had put some more washing through the system and just after I'd finally put the ironing board away I discovered another mini pile in the tumble dryer - grrrrrrrr!!! A woman's work is obviously never done!

I decided to draw a line under all this domestic bliss today and insisted we went out to lunch - a sort of joint celebration for belated Father's Day from last weekend and the end of the exam period for Sarah.

Then a minor miracle, I managed to drag my beloved away from his mistress (the pickaxe - well he's spent considerably more time with it than me over the past wee while) and we popped up to Burnham on Sea, our nearest seaside about 20 minutes away to blow away the cobwebs.

I've never actually lived this close to the coast before and the novelty hasn't worn off yet by a long way.

We parked the car near to the church which must be built on very sandy foundations - it had a distinct list to one side.

The weather was exceptionally windy so the rugby ball we'd taken to throw about wasn't such a good idea.

You can see just how windy from the flags on the top of the mini pier.

However the man with the kite and the skateboard type contraction was having a terrific time.

The sands were virtually empty - Nick found his own particular brand of treasure, but Nigel wouldn't let him bring it home despite the fact I thought it might go quite well in the garden somewhere.

Along the beach in Burnham is its most unusual and distinctive feature.

I guess it must be an old lighthouse from earlier times.

It's painted black on one side and red on the other, presumably for navigational purposes.

Then Louise and Daddy discovered a dead fish - the kids reckon it was a stingray - I think more likely a skate, still almost perfect except the seagulls had taken the eyes.

Finally an ice cream rounded off the visit.

Then we called in at the 'Pick Your Own' place on the route home.

Rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries and gooseberries the order of the day - everyone looking more than a little windswept after the beach

Who knows I might sneak in a little stitching this evening.