On the beach

We all slept late thankfully, as the children had done a “sneak-over” and had moved mattresses to be all in Thomas’s room with the result they were still yacking at midnight). (A sleep-over is when sharing a room is adult-approved - a sneak-over is James’s expression when it’s not).

#2 daughter made us scrambled eggs and smoked salmon with Buck’s Fizz for breakfast then we headed for the beach though Nathaniel and James took some persuading as they were playing an imaginary game with dinosaurs and super heroes. James likes when Nathaniel visits as though he and Thomas get on well, Thomas doesn’t like pretend games. He says he left his imagination in Year 2. It’s only 5 or 10 minutes to the beach. It was very windy and wet, with the sea broiling up spume which whipped past us as we bowled along with the wind behind us. The blip is Ella running back into the wind to her mum.

On the way home Ella wanted to walk with me to ask stuff out our daughter, the aunt she never met. She wanted to know if she inherited any of Victoria’s characteristics (her eyes, her thoughtfulness, her love of books and keeping on trying rather than give up quickly when things are hard). This led to complicated explanations about in-laws and natural relatives which led on to ancestors and that my Granny was one of 26 children.

Phil had homemade soup ready for them when we got back. We elected to come home and oh dear the house is VERY cold.

#3 daughter, Ella and Nathaniel are coming tomorrow to stay the night before they drive to Kelso the next day. We have decided we won’t go as there would be 6 households (against Nicola’s recommendations) some of whom are teenagers who’ll have been out and about. They are all doing LF tests but we don’t want to risk it was we have New Year plans.