Sand in the sandwiches

Up early to make a picnic and met B/C and the babies train.  They walked to the playground on the Heath to let Ivy let off steam whilst I popped into Waitrose for a few things.   We then drove over to West Wittering which,  despite a stiff breeze and uncertain weather, was packed and grew more so as the day went on.  A simple picnic best eaten, as here in Ivy’s case standing up.  She’s at the lovely little camping table V&I bought at Merci in Paris.   We built sandcastles and paddled, no one really swam as the waves were churning and the life guards were frantically tannoying to tell people to swim between the flags only.   A hundred yards out windsurfers raced by.  

The sun did come out but not for long.   Went home and the weather picked up and we had a lovely time in the garden with them.  There will be sand in the rug I took forever and my skin felt frosted by the sand on the sun cream. 

In the early evening I was picking flowers up at the raised bed and a stag beetle flew around, noisy, lumbering and crashing into the knapweed.  It was a beautiful sight! I only saw one once before and that was in London. 

Vikram and Hannah cooked dinner of aubergine parmigiana and bean stew and we had a very jolly evening.