Lick not bite

We have just got back from a lovely sunny week in the Isle of Man visiting Grandma and Grandpa - in all the visits I have made I think this is the first time I haven't needed waders. We stayed in a fantastic cottage (the last time we stayed there I found out I was pregnant with Euan so it has really good memories as well as an amazing location - it is the white cottage in this photo at the bottom of the huge hill - more about that to come).


The whole family came including Ruby dog and Martha cat - Martha has just been diagnosed with kidney disease and we had to bring some hugely expensive food with us for her - the dog found this very tasty when left on her own briefly!

From the cottage there were two tracks out - the first led down to a stony bay, we spent lots of time finding the perfect skimming stones (I think that men are genetically drawn to skimming in the same way they are pulled toward barbeques). The other way led up the 'mountain' behind the house. Tim's old school friend, Dave, visited us so we took the extra pair of carrying shoulders to help us on the adventure of the climb. Everyone did really well and got to the top with minimal complaining - we had snacks at the top before coming down and hitting the beach.

The beach we mainly used was Port Erin - The Island had a festival celebrating the sea during the week we visited. One of the days we happened to get involved in the festival by luck. On a gorgeous evening a sailing boat carried a group of costumed story tellers to the beach, each one told old Manx tales to small groups of children around a bonfire while the sun set. We planned on staying just for a short while but ended up listening to all the stories and having sausages and kipper pate for tea before heading back. It really was the stuff memories are made of.

We spent a lovely day with Tim's parents (I have a feeling that they both slept well that night!) - we went for lunch, for once the children were relatively well behaved. Then went to the Rest Home for Old Horses, Anya and Patrick we able to chose a horse to adopt for a year - Patrick decided in a few seconds, it took Anya about half an hour of worrying! As ever we ended up on the beach.

Other than going to the beach everyday, we all managed to eat our weight in ice cream (in fact that was the only thing that Euan did eat!) - there were lots of different flavours and each round of cones had to be sampled by all.

We have far too many photos of the children - here are some random ones that made me smile:

The holiday was lovely but very hard work. I sort of pictured long lovely lunches in seaside cafes followed by reading a good book on the beach while glancing at 3 happy children building sand castles - it didn't happen and I don't know what planet I was on to even expect it? It's full on from 7 til 7 at home and a 3 hour boat trip doesn't involve travelling through a magical dimension so it was the same on holiday. But as they say a change is as good as a rest!

The best of the hundreds of arty photos, will have sort through some of my favourite ones:


A select few of the very many quotes of the week - "seaweed is like grass but wetter" ~ Anya,

"mummy"(a good new word)"round and round"(meaning bus)"boat" "motorbike" and "MMMIIINNNEEE" ~ new words liberally used all week by Euan.

"If you love it you'll have to marry it" ~ Anya to Patrick when discussing ice cream flavours - brought back many memories of school.

"I can't remember our old house but I do remember I have a tent bed" ~ Patrick - it was a long week away for him!

Thought of the week - "How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then to rest afterward." ~ Spanish Proverb