Our original plan was that we would go down to Cornwall for a few days ringing, before returning to our tin tent, which is on a site in Devon for the summer. It was a lovely idea, especially as the ringing itinerary included towers I had always wanted to ring at, including Hugh Town on the Isles of Scilly.
In reality, the timing just didn't quite fit with the end of the KHT's term, and would have required far too much driving, in too short a time.
Then, as the rest of the world has not yet broken up for summer, meetings were scheduled.
In the end, we decided that we would go to the caravan, but just for a long weekend.
"Let's go early in the morning" said I
"How early?"
"When we are ready!"
This insignificant exchange sums up a basic difference between us. DH likes to have an idea what time we are leaving, so he can plan accordingly. I hate having a self-imposed deadline, as I always feel that it is hanging over me like the Sword of Damocles. Why start the day with a feeling of impending doom and failure? It just does not make sense to me.
Bags were assembled in the hall. As fast as DH took luggage out to the car, more appeared. DH would have preferred to have all the bags assembled in the hall BEFORE he started packing the car, but hey, I was the one packing and the day before was a tad manic!
The car was duly packed.
"Are you sure we have everything? The car seems almost empty..."
It was true, the back seat is normally buried under a sea of holiday paraphanalia and it was clearly visible and surprisingly bare."It is only three nights, Honey, not a fortnight. If we have forgotten anything we will cope, we always do!"
Roughly on schedule, we departed. A mini miracle.
Unfortunately, by the time we reached Michaelwood a comfort break was required, but we didn't stop for coffee.... Oh no! We were travellers on a mission and were not going to delay for such frivolous and time wasting purposes...
We arrived at the site at 11:15am, which was good progress. Coffee time. I reached for the jar of coffee. It was a dried out sticky mess in the bottom of the jar :( I then realised that I had forgotten to pack the small container of coffee that we take out in the lunch bag! Argh!!!
We unpacked the car quickly, and headed off to have a picnic lunch on a nearby beach. Stopping at a conveniently positioned Co-op on the way, to purchase an essential jar of coffee.
Usually, we pick our spot on the beach to give us shelter from the prevailing wind. Today we picked our spot to give us the advantage of the breeze, and then moved steadily back up the beach as the tide came in. The sea was as warm as I remember it being. We put up the brolly to give us some welcome shade and applied liberal coatings of suncream to avoid the embarrassing red glow of sunburn.
It wasn't only people who were feeling the heat. A horse was brought down on to the beach to cool down in the sea. The rider was followed by an assistant with a horse poo sized pooper scooper. This added a black horse to the white horses, which were rolling up the English Channel.I looked around to see if they were filming an advert for Lloyds Bank, but there was no sight of any film crew.
Around 5pm we decided to pack up. The car park was full of people wanting to take advantage of the warm summer's evening and there were plenty of BBQ's gently sending smoke signals of celebration into the still warm air.
A lovely summers evening in a quiet corner of the West Country. Perhaps we will stay for a week after all...
No comments:
Post a Comment