Pause

Sometimes, running away is VERY MUCH the right thing to do. I took the girls off on the train for a week away, which as it turned out involved a lot of sand, a power cut (!), not nearly enough sleeping (lol) and some wonderful friends.



Collecting things on the beach. I have been looking, since I was very small, for a stone with a natural hole through it - and I found one, my first one, on my first day here. :)



Yup, of COURSE I took crochet away with me.One park of many!Visiting Angie's Home-ed group. Waiting for people to arrive...Paddling in the stream...Lovely and very varied walk, chatting away, making friends...The next day we met up with one family again. Rob and Carol and their lovely lovely children took us to some of their favorite places, fed us delicious picnics, and were such great company. The children were so sad to be parted at the end of the day!
Most of my pictures of Grace look like this - she loves cameras but would really prefer to be the other side of the lens.This is one of the pictures she took - Rob and the children with our picnic. :)More walks. :)

Morgan walked into the side of a big stone bench, and gave herself quite an impressive bump. A dustbin truck was driving past, and the driver got out to see if she was OK, carried her to me, and offered us his first aid kit. So very very kind and thoughtful. Poor Morgan was pretty swollen, and I carried her for a while not quite sure whether to take yet another holiday trip to A&E!She felt a little better when she saw that we were going to the sea, and climbed down and ran off. So we thought she'd probably be fine after all! The children played on this beach for a while too, small as it was. There was lots of slimy seaweed, which was fun, and more stones with holes in, and Rowan collected a HUGE bag full of sand and grit (which was quietly replaced when she wasn't looking). I asked them to stay out of the water, which lasted until I sat down to nurse Rowan, and the big ones went in up to their knees wearing all their dry clothes. Ah well.

We wore the baby out frequently this week!Russell-Cotes museum and views from above Bournemouth pier.

There were dressing up clothes for the children. The little ones were most impressed.
Before getting back on the train, we spent another morning on the beach, in the sun and the sea and the sand. And oh, it was good. :)
"Look! Balloon!"

I have a huuge soft spot for sandy baby feet...


Then home we came. The train was, um, stressful (busy, noisy, not enough time to change in Birmingham, and over four whole hours of me attempting to get the children to stay where I could see them). But I found myself feeling, the closer we got, that it was more than just our home we were returning for. Hope for rebuilding, family, more anyhow than I expected to return to. I am tired, but so much less weary.