our island holiday

On Monday morning we packed up the car with three kids, three dogs and two adults, leaving just enough space for a change of clothes and our swimming gear and we headed off west for our first family holiday.

 The trip to our holiday home at Inish Beg was only really an hour or so long, but we made it an adventure in itself with car bingo games and sucking sweets. We also made a couple of stops on the way. The first at Drombeg to have an explore of the stone circle and settlement there. Over Christmas we all read The Boy with the Bronze Axe about Skara Brae on Orkney so it was wonderful to be able to take the kids to a similar settlement.

 In one of the pools there we found loads of tadpoles which was a great discovery especially for Benny who had been learning about them in his last week at school and had never seen real ones before. He spent the rest of the car journey drawing the life cycle of the frog to show us what he knew about it.

 Of course there were a couple of boggy bits and of course certain members of the family fell into them, using up the spare clothes we had brought half an hour into our holiday!

But it was sunny and warm and the blue skies were beautiful as we arrived in Baltimore. We spent an hour in the park there stretching our legs and playing pirates.

 

We found a little restaurant for lunch and visited a pirate exhibition the high light of which was the real, live pirate's parrot!

After stocking up on breakfast supplies and a bottle of wine we headed off to Inish Beg to find our holiday home. We can't recommend it enough if you are ever looking for a place to stay in west Cork. Our house was on the edge of the estate with a lovely big garden and paddock, perfect for the kids and dogs.

 We explored the house and relaxed in the sunshine, before heading off to the pool on the estate. That was lovely too. We had to book it in advance but this meant that for the hour time slot we had it completely to ourselves.

Refreshed and happy we headed back out for dinner in a lovely hotel on the edge of Baltimore. We had such a nice dinner and played crazy games of eye spy and ate and drank until we were fit to burst. It was late when we finished our meal, so late that Joa fell asleep in my arms while we were paying the bill. So we popped the kids into bed and Garry lit a roaring fire and we enjoyed our bottle of wine and a film.

 

The following morning we started slow and lazy, as holiday mornings should be. We decided to take a short ferry trip to Sherkin Island, only a 10 minute boat ride from Baltimore.

It was so much fun, Benny in particular loved the ferry ride. It was long enough to feel the sea breeze and be caught up in the excitement of being on a boat, but not long enough for them to get bored.

The sunshine was glorious and we walked a small way around the Island.

 The kids were getting hungry and cranky so we stopped at a pub for some soup and chips and the older 2 spent some of their holiday money from Bubs on Sherkin Island fridge magnets (the ultimate holiday souvenir!)

 Feeling a lot better we headed back to the pier to wait for the boat to come to take us back to Baltimore.

 

The journey back was just as much fun and just as breath taking as the way out, and for some of us it was very tiring all together...

 We returned to Inish Beg and drank tea and read our books. We also took it in turns to take the kids for short walks. I went with Benny to the main house in the estate to book the pool for the next day and to order some videos so we could have a cinema night. We also checked to see if the hens had laid any eggs but we were too late for those.

 Garry took first Rebe and Captain and then Benny and Maggie into the woods across from our house to look for the perfect sticks to make bows and arrows.

 Then he found some string in the car and helped the kids make the bows and showed them how to fire the arrows

 By this time Joa had woken and I walked with him to the estate and we looked at the sheep on the way and checked the hens (again).

 We headed back to the same lovely hotel that we had dinner in the night before. It was just as lovely and so much fun with Benny proudly ordering a 'point of Guiness' at the bar for Garry and everyone having a knickerbocker glory for desert.

After dinner we came home to have our cinema night. We had popcorn and orange juice (or wine depending on how old you were) and then we toasted marshmallows on the fire. Before the film ended both Benny and Joa had fallen asleep and were carried up to bed. When Rebe was tucked in too Garry and I watched Braveheart and finished off the wine and a sneaky bar of chocolate.

The next morning we extended our check out time to give us an hour in the pool. Then we packed up and managed to get this beautiful picture of all 8 of us before heading slowly home again.

 We stopped off in one little village for burgers at lunch time (at Rebe's request) and then found a really lovely beach for a good play and run around.

 

As is compulsory on holidays, we made one final stop for ice cream, rounding off what was for me the most special, stress free, happy holiday I have ever had. It was a very special time for all of us and I know we will all remember it forever.

w'ur holiday ~ Bristol and home again

I don't have any more pictures of the actual things we did because my camera was on the blink but we visited the zoo, and a wild fowl sanctuary, we went swimming and shopping for shoes, we visited with special friends (where I got to hold a very precious 2 week old bundle), we went to a wonderful theater performance and we played and ate and drank. 

On our final weekend we had a family BBQ for my mum and dad who turned and turn 60 this year. It was so lovely. All three of my brothers were there and we cooked a kick-ass bbq for everyone. It was a lot of (middle-finger-showing) fun.

It was the first time in nearly 5 years that we were all together, it was very special!

my dear family

 The evenings were lovely too, when the wee ones were in bed I rocked it on the ukulele with my little brother Chris.

 He very patiently taught me several chords and now I am sporting wee mini ukulele callouses, and I think I have been bitten by the bug and will get one for myself.

The evenings when Chris had gone back home to Oxford I spent watching movies with my other little brother. He has a veritable cinema and I watched my first 3D movie. It was so nice to chill with him...and laugh my ass off to the silly movies we watched!

So we arrived home pretty tired as you can imagine and the garden was over grown and the house had needed cleaning before I even left. But a day setting everything straight and all was good and happy with being back in my beautiful house in my beautiful part of the world.

 We have spent the last few days in glorious sunshine, gardening, sticking lots of things into our scrap books,

 We have been to the beach a lot too because it is so beautiful and hot. My dear friend Lucy came to visit with her brood for a night.

Joa and his very special friend Ash

We had such a good holiday and we are also glad to be home!

And the great thing is there is still 6 weeks of fun before school starts back again :-)

w'ur holiday ~ part 2 Eastbourne

So we arrived safely in Eastbourne where we leaped with glee into the paddling pool awaiting us to cool off.

It was so lovely to be with my best friend Vicci and her family and catch up on all the news.

The following day we all loaded into 2 cars and drove to Groombridge, a completely magical place a 45 min drive from their house.

 There were beautiful gardens, with ponds and giant chess games

 my dear friend Vicci and her youngest wee man (recognise the sling?)

 we took a trip on the pirate boat down the canal

 looking out for sharks and crocodiles and pirates

 we didn't find any actual pirates but we found a magnificent pirate hideout where we had lunch and played

 there were huge bones (made of wood) dotted around the place, probably left by giants or dinosaurs

 these 2 robbers stole all of this precious gold from a museum

huge swings

enchanted sculptures

transforming, magical doorways

covered wagons (and a very tired Joa)

teepee

 At the end of the afternoon we watched a really wonderful falconry display, the highlight of this for Rebe was being feet away from a bald eagle and for me it was watching an unlikely participant 'Mr Pie' a funny wild magpie who always joins in the show!

We had a picnic dinner before driving back home again, where we got the kids into bed before Vicci and I headed out to a pilates class together. It was so nice to do something a little different and not child orientated!

 The following day we were all really tired so we stayed at home to rest.

 Vicci and I made bread and numerous snacks and we had a visit from Vicci's mum which was so lovely.

Much revived we decided to head off to Eastbourne Pier on the Thursday.

 We took the bus and got to sit up top at the front of the double decker. The kids were enthralled, much to the amusement of more senior, regular bus riders. There is only 1 bus a day to our wee village so riding on a bus and seeing so much traffic was a real novelty for my kids.

The pier itself was good fun, Rebe was so fascinated by being able to look through the boards and see the sea under our feet.

 We braved the noise and flashing lights of the amusement arcade to give the kids the experience of that. We lasted about 15 minutes in there before it became too over whelming and we removed ourselves to the calm of the tea room where we treated ourselves to a 'Victorian Tea Party'

 We had tea and little sandwiches served on pretty doilies and scones with jam and cream and then of course 3 kinds of cake.

there wasn't much left when we had finished :-)
That evening the kids decided they wanted to sleep outside in the playhouse. They performed a brilliant concert for us singing and dancing. For this privileged they asked for a donation of £2 that was 'to go to the little plastic money box they have in shops for animals'. They wrote long lists of what they needed and armed with blankets and torches and a midnight feast they headed off to the play house where they lasted until 8.30pm when they all came (or were brought) back in doors to bed again.
The next day we set off after breakfast to catch the train back through London to Bristol. It was a great wee visit to Vicci and her family.
To be continued...