23 September: A day at the beach

Monday 23 September was a local holiday, which meant the boys had a day off school. The boys and I spent the day with our French friends and had another fantastic day with them. The children get on extremely well and so do the adults, so it was the perfect way of spending the day.

A piece of Australia in Scotland

My oldest son was running late with his school project on  dinosaurs which was due the next day, so we got up at 07:00 so he could finish his presentation before we went to the beach. He worked really hard all morning and a little after 11:00 we decided it was enough for the moment.


After picking up our French friends, we all drove to Newburgh beach, just over half an hour from where we live. We parked at the car park close to the estuary of River Ythan. A short walk took us down to the beach.

What a surprise we got when we arrived at the beach - it was like being back in Australia where we spent our Christmas holidays last year. The weather was nice and warm and the beach was just like an Australian beach with sand dunes as far as the eye could see. Amazing!

Getting close to the seals

Another novelty of this beach is all the seals in the estuary. There must have been more than 30 all together, from the inner to the outer parts of the river mouth. It was the first time my boys and I have seen seals in the wild, so we were extremely thrilled. I took lots and lots of photos of these lovely, playful creatures.

It was such a lovely day, so many people came to look at the seals and to go for a walk along the beautiful beach. We had our picnic and stayed for hours, but most people just went for a walk along the beach, so it was never really crowded.

Swimming in September

The boys were all thrilled with the sand dunes and the beach and soon they were running up and down the dunes. We managed to get them to have a quick lunch before they were back in the dunes, running up and jumping down. I think they played a number of games, including 'Hide and seek'.

As with most children, our boys are attracted to water, so after a while they were down on the beach, playing at the edge of the water. As expected, it didn't take them long to get their trousers wet. The weather was nice and warm, so the wet clothes were quickly stripped off and they continued to play until they all were only wearing their boxer shorts.

At this stage my oldest son decided it was a good idea to get his underwear wet too. When asked what he intended to wear on the way back home, he had no answer. This didn't put the others off and soon all the boys were running around soaked to the skin.

By the time we left their clothes were only damp, so we put their trousers in plastic bags, wiped off as much sand as possible and let the boys sit in the car with only their T-shirts on. They were extremely happy with their day at the beach.

 

The constant gardener

When we got home my oldest son continued to work on his school project, while I cut the grass. On Friday our French friends had been over for dinner and while we were eating the husband was looking out of the window and said:"You're not a very keen gardener, are you?"

This is of course true. Strictly speaking I have lots of time to spend in the garden, but I still keep putting off cutting the grass. I decided to cut the grass before my in-laws arrive on Wednesday, so the only thing they can comment on is: "You're not a very keen housewife, are you?"

The garden does look much better after the grass has been cut, though the shrubbery could do with a proper cutting. I'm afraid I'll end up killing them through sheer ignorance, so I've decided to leave it for our landlord to fix after we've left the country.