Summer Holidays

Well it's been all quiet from me lately because we have been away on our holidays.. we spent some lovely family time camping in Cornwall!  The weather was pretty nice.. though we did catch the tail end of hurricane Bertha, had about an hour and a half which was quite scary.  After 5 minutes of the 'wind' starting the tension band system (which is designed to protect the tent during high winds) BROKE!  The tent pegs kept pulling out of the ground.. Gary and Matthew had to keep racing round knocking them back in before the whole thing took off.  I managed to dash to the camp site shop and buy some real bad-ass heavy duty bad weather pegs .. I think they're the only thing that kept it on the ground in the end, 'cos it felt like we were fighting a losing battle until they went in.  Several tents on the field were broken, and one poor family having tied the tent to the roof rack on their car during the worst of it, forgot to untie and a day later drove the car off - taking the side of the tent with them.. such a shame.

It was break filled with out-of-the-ordinary moments..  the tail end of the hurricane being one of them lol.  Unfortunately I don't have photos of the following rather bizarre moments..  

Later on hurricane day and still having very strong gusts of wind, seeing a young man strapping his surfboard to the side of his motorbike to drive home was unexpected.. I do hope he got there safely.  

Seeing a tent with a satellite dish outside so the occupants could watch Sky TV was plain WEIRD.. it seemed like their were as many glampers as campers this time, the people next door even had a microwave!  (I just LOVE getting away from electricity while we are camping, the thought of taking electrical devices with me is enough to make me shudder).  

The little boy in the next tent spinning and spinning, like a whirling dervish for more than 5 minutes without pause.. then just stopping and walking on with perfect balance!  Amazing..  I've never seen anyone do THAT before!

A combination of Spring tides and the effect of the weather brought high tide up a long way!  It was so weird one evening when high tide flooded the beach car park (actually on the sand) and came right up to the grassy area where a brass band played on regardless of the pandemonium breaking out around them as cars and surf hire businesses scrambled to evacuate the flooding area.. I couldn't help thinking 'how very British' :) - as Matthew said there was something almost Titanic-like about the scene with the band playing on regardless.

Of course the strong tides and weather meant the surf was amazing! Matthew had a wonderful time surfing on his new board and Rachael and me had a whale of a time on our body boards :)  Gary couldn't take his kayak out on the beach next to us.. the surf was too much for it really, but we took it in turns on the board so he still had fun.  We got 2 or 3 surf sessions in most days.. the early morning and evening ones were wonderfully quiet.

I've got LOADS of photos :) but I've whittled them down for you..

Seething white water at low tide

Wedding Anniversary!
20 happy years!

Early morning Tintagel..
so peaceful

No matter how many times you see some things,
when the light catches it 'just so' you have to take another photo :)

Early birds outside Merlins cave 

17 years old!  I remember when wearing the 'right clothes' had nothing to do with how suitable they were for what you were doing lol

Shadows on the sand..

I entertained myself by piling stones..

Leaving a trail of fairy stacks behind me ..
like a trail of bread crumbs

Gary in beach comber mode..

looking for 'treasures'

like this lovely, big, rusty, old boat chain..
which was immensely heavy

Then the happy chappy found another big stick!
Which just had to come home with us
(I'm not quite sure what he plans to do with this one mind you!)

Amber posing next to Rachaels sand portrait of her :)

Tired after a long walk..
Jesse loves being in the van :)

Lots of beautiful sunsets (and moon rises but no pics of them!)
This was from MY perspective.. the boys were in the water

Matt was surfing

While Gary took lots of photos

Including lots showing big waves rushing at him :)

and crashing over him.
I like this one

Oh and we did some celebrity spotting too.. we bumped into Damian Lewis (from Homelands & Band of Brothers) with his wife and children a couple of times :)

I'm not sure whether I shall get round to doing a fibre of the month for August..  The sample is done but time is just slipping away from me.  

xx