Coniston Water

Time is getting short now for our weekends at Bay View.  The season closes on 1st November so we are doing our best to make the most of the time we have left.  With that in mind last Friday night Caroline, Charlie, George and I loaded up the car and zoomed off up the motorway to spend the weekend in our little bolt hole.

For Saturday’s entertainment Caroline suggested a trip up to Coniston Water.  It being a superb suggestion I agreed without hesitation knowing that we were in for a good day.

It’s a gorgeous drive from Bay View up to Coniston and takes about 50 minutes.  Not too far at all so it wasn’t long before the lake came into view and we pulled off the road, grabbed our picnic and scrambled down the banking to the lake shore.

George climbed up high to eat.

 

Charlie perched  on a rock like a cute little pixie while he ate his snack.

It wasn’t long though before he climbed up and joined George on his perch.

The weather had that lovely crispy autumn feel. The boys played with whatever came to hand while ..

.. Caroline took some pics with her iPhone...

..including this one of me taking one of her.  I was very amused as you can see.

George and his aunty Caroline enjoyed a little chat.

Soon after, we drove further up the lake to the main touristy part of the lake shore. 

There’s a cafe here, boats and canoes for hire and cruisers to take you up and down the lake.

Here’s the steamer setting off on a tour of the lake.  The sky looks ever so dark and foreboding but it wasn’t like that for very long.  It really was a nice day.

There is nowhere in the Lake District that isn’t beautiful and there is no season when it isn’t a joy to be there but autumn has a magic all it’s own and I love it.  The image above was taken by Caroline.  Beautiful.  No other word for it.

George was the first to get his feet wet. 

The boys had a whale of a time in and amongst ..

.. and up the trees which surround the lake.

Turn your back to the lake, peer through the trees and there are tremendous views like this of the Cumbrian mountains.

Time was marching on by this stage but there was a little time left yet for more fun on the water and wet feet.

Yep, despite the helping hand and the stick to steady him, Charlie’s right foot got wet through.  The other one just got wet!  Then it really was time for home.

One last pic before I go.  Isn’t that a whopper?!!

Counting my blessings,

Helping Grandad

Nicholas stayed over with us on Friday night.

On Saturday morning after pancakes (what else?) for breakfast Nicholas got the surprise of his life. 

Grandad was doing a job in the garage which involved the sander and asked Nicholas would he like to help him.

Nicholas actually got to use the sander!  Now that’s a first.  Grandad isn’t usually so free with his electrical tools, he’s very cautious by nature.  Nicholas was over the moon!

Speaking of which…

The night sky was breathtakingly beautiful last night!  My picture in no way shows just how spectacular the sight was but it gives a bit of an idea.  I usually have a peep at the night sky before I turn in and I’m sooo glad I looked out of the window last night.  Like I said it was breathtaking!

Until next time,

Family Day in Cleveleys

Last Sunday found me, my girls, their boys and our men heading to Cleveleys for a fun day out.  All the men except Caroline’s husband, Trev, who was working, poor thing.  The weather wasn’t what we had hoped for.  Instead of a bright and fresh spring day we had a dull, windy and quite cold day.  We still took a picnic, albeit eaten sitting in our cars instead of in the open air, after which we braved the elements.  We took a bracing walk along the promenade and beach and breathed in that glorious salt sea air.

The boys found a wall to climb up, over and jump off.

You can tell by the number of layers my beautiful, windswept girls are wearing how cold it was.  Here’s my first born, Victoria.

My second born, Caroline.  Both smiling even though high winds were whipping around their ankles.

Gary, Victoria’s husband.  He was feeling the cold and definitely not impressed by the weather but still smiled, kind of, through it all.

George throwing stones in the sea and Harley chasing after them.  That dog should have been born with webbed feet.  He loves the water and it doesn’t matter how cold it is.  He just dives right in!

George and Nicholas running away from the waves.

Charlie had lots of fun riding his bike, which was good to see.  Up until now he hasn’t been very interested in it preferring his scooter.

All three boys playing together.  That’s what I like to see!

With Caroline at the water’s edge. 

You can see here that Nicholas is carrying a huge pebble under his arm.  He carried that and others for miles.

Nicholas smiling sweetly for me even though I was pointing the camera right at him!  I love his freckles.

 

As we walked along the beach together Nicholas shared his finds with me.  He did offer me some huge ones but I graciously declined those and stuck with the ones that would fit more easily in my pocket.

We had parked at the less pretty end of Cleveleys beach but that didn’t mean we had any less fun.  This part hasn’t been modernised.  Those stone columns are part of the sea defences and have been there as long as I can remember.  I can clearly remember the fun my cousin, Sylvia, and I had when we were kids jumping from one to the next as our mothers walked along chatting together.  Happy days!

The boys had great fun running in and out of, climbing up and over the columns.  I chased them with my camera and I have a hundred of those pics.  I'll turn them into a scrapbook page one day soon.

Meanwhile the girls watched and chatted together.  They’re never stuck for something to talk about when they’re together and that pleases me no end!  I have to mention that while all this was going on the men had retreated to the shelter of the car.  The big softies!

Getting to the end of the afternoon now and time to re-load the cars with bikes, scooters, kids and dogs and hit the road back to the ranch.  (American terminology creeping in.  Our trip to the USA in a couple of days must be in my subconscious!)  Anyway… there’s always somebody with wet feet on days like this.  This time it  was Charlie and he was the only one with wellies on!

Nicholas kindly helped sort him out by taking Charlie’s wringing-wet-through boots and socks off for him.  Charlie was more than happy to let Nicholas do it too! :-)

And so ended another family day out.  Everybody had a good time.  The boys and dogs ran off a lot of surplus energy and had loads of fun.  All these photographs will help the memories we made stay in their minds and that’s what blogging is all about for me.

Until next time,

Before this month gets away from me..

.. I’d better play catch up.

A couple of weeks ago on a damp, windy and very cold Tuesday morning I hiked a six mile route high up over Blackstone Edge with Caroline and Trev.  Sounds like a crazy thing to do I know but we all three had a thoroughly good time.  Half of the time we couldn’t see further than a few yards in front of us because of low lying clouds and mist but we soldiered on and on…  It took a couple of hours until finally we reached the lake where we had a much appreciated piping hot coffee at the visitor centre.   The day after my thigh muscles complained, rather loudly too, but I didn’t.  I’m hoping we’ll do it again some time soon!

Charlie has stayed with us a couple of times this month. Granddad told him to bring his Lego and they would play with it together. I’m no good at building anything but I had great fun lining up all his little figures for a photo op and heaven knows he’s got plenty of them!

At bedtime we played cards and I taught Charlie how to play Strip Jack Naked. He was thrilled with his new skill especially when he won the first proper game we played! I know he’s played it several times since at home. So now that’s all three of my little treasures on the way to being card sharps!

George stayed overnight recently too. 

He brought the game Beat The Parents with him.

We enjoyed a game of that and then watched the television.  Faulty Towers was on.  George thought it was hilarious and was beside himself laughing at Basil’s antics.  In fact we were both tickled pink by it and it’s making me chuckle now just thinking about George rolling around on the couch laughing his head off over it!  Fun times.  This boy seems to be growing up fast now.  It won’t be long before he’s as tall as I am.  Time, slow down a little bit, please!

The Valentine’s fairy called at our house.   Sweet of him wasn’t it?   I have to say he doesn’t usually forget me.

Our house has been ringing with the dulcet tones of these two old favourites almost permanently since William got them as Christmas presents from the girls.  They both make me feel nostalgic, particularly the John Denver, since watching a documentary telling his life story before Christmas.  I had no idea he died at such a relatively young age.   Such a shame. 

And finally, today I went on a little shopping trip.  It wasn’t very successful.  So, on the way home I called in at a McDonald’s and consoled myself with a Munchies McFlurry.  Every so often McD’s bring out a McFlurry that really does it for me and this is one of them.  It’s only the second one I’ve had but it probably won’t be the last.  There again it wouldn’t surprise me if I’m a little late to the party and I’ve discovered them at the end of their run!  Never mind.

Until next time.