Coasting

This week we have enjoyed a few days on the south coast, despite rather dreary weather. We drove down the Clyde on Tuesday in the rain, stopping as we now always do at Pooh Corner. When we drove down the Clyde before Christmas, Pooh Corner was a mess. The little cave had been trashed and was littered with empty bottles, a dumped computer, the toys a mess. I took this photo on that visit - it's the least distressing. There are various stories about how Pooh Corner came to be. One is that the cave stored explosives during World War II. Another is that the first Pooh was left there by the classmates of a little girl who died in a road accident. The net is remarkably lacking in information.

The good news is that, on this visit, Pooh was sitting in his cave with Tigger and other friends enjoying a jar of honey (yes, a real jar of honey). He had obviously given the cave a springclean, removing all the bottles and offering the computer to charity.

We are lucky - J's parents still have their house a couple of beaches south of Bateman's Bay and so we have all the amenities of home and a sea view. It takes about 3 minutes to walk down the hill, shed the towels and bucket and spade and be in the water. And then takes about 6 minutes to walk back up the hill (it's very steep, especially when you are three-years-old) to hose the sand off feet and hit the warm showers.

Mr M has been visiting the south coast on and off since he was three-months-old. Oddly enough, the weather on that occasion wasn't dissimilar to the weather this week. On this visit, Mr M wasn't feeling very brave, declaring the beach 'too beachy'. And it was. The weather and water were grey. The tides were very high. The sand was covered in seaweed. So somewhat surprisingly, because in the past he has loved jumping waves, Mr M decided he wouldn't even dabble a toe in the water but sat well back on the sand building sandcastles and making sand cakes. I must admit that I found the beach 'too beachy' too, my new scar making me a little hesitant about fully submerging. I was very glad, given Mr M's mood, that we hadn't invested a lot of money going somewhere tropical.

We did, though, have a very relaxed time. Mr M decided to reacquaint himself with the afternoon sleep (on Wednesday he slept for three hours!) thus allowing his parents the luxury of an afternoon sleep themselves or reading time. The days slipped into a slow routine - breakfast, beach, a visit to J's mother at the nursing home, lunch somewhere pleasant, Mr M falling asleep on the drive home, a quiet afternoon, the beach again, dinner. We ate fish and chips too many times - but it's hard to resist sitting at the Boathouse at the Bay or in a park near a beach - and the boys discovered great milkshakes at the Mogo Fudge and Ice Creamery, where Mr M conveniently left his hat on Friday, necessitating a third visit yesterday before we drove home to Canberra.

Home again and we are continuing the quiet, relaxed mood of our holidays. Mr M is watching Toy Story. J is reading on the bed. The washing has been washed, dried, folded and put away. A cake is in the oven and it's fish for dinner.