Where we walked this weekend #5 - the beach picnic edition

We've been having some  productive old weekends round here lately, I honestly don't know what's gotten into us. The morning after the clocks went back, because we were all up even more ridiculously early than usual, we found that we had got ourselves ready, had breakfast, mowed the lawn and made a batch of banana oat muffins all before 9am. I'm aware this makes us sound like we've really got our shit together, but in fact this is the OPPOSITE of what our weekends usually look like, when it takes circa three hours just to coordinate getting all three of us out the door and ready to do something. So wanting to make the most of the extra hour, we got our wellies on, made a thermos of coffee, packed up the muffins and headed for a beach picnic (was toying with calling it a beach-nic, but I don't think that really works, so I'll refrain). The sun shone, Arlo chased seagulls, we contemplated a paddle (too cold) and then sat on the slipway, with tin mugs of coffee and a muffin, and just felt a bit bloody lucky to live in this lovely place, to have Sundays to ourselves, and to get an extra hour of family time every once in a while.

Where we walked this weekend #4 - the beach edition

We spent a nippy but sunny hour or so on the beach this weekend, strolling, paddling, drawing in the sand. Our little tradition of a walk each weekend is becoming one of my favourite parts of the week because we get to visit a different bit of the island each time. This time it was a far away corner we haven't visited since Arlo was a teeny tiny bundle in a baby sling. This boy's getting so big lately I feel like I can't keep up, it's like we're on fast-forward. If anyone can remember where I left the remote please tell me. I wouldn't mind pausing for a bit and staying as we are for a while.

Where we walked this weekend #3 - the 'sorry it's late' edition

When I talked about our intention to go on a family walk every weekend this Autumn, each time to somewhere different so we'd see and appreciate more of the Island, I did it on here so that we kind of had to stick to it, and that's why I'm so keen to show that we're actually doing it - because we are! In fact, this walk was from a few weekends ago now, but things have been so busy around here that I've not been quite up to date with posts and things so I'm playing a bit of catch up now.

So this walk involved a walk down a hill, past a lighthouse, and down to the prettiest little bay with barely anyone on it. We ate a picnic at the bottom of the hill, looking out at the handful of people in floating around under the sun in their canoes, wishing we were too, then went to investigate rock pools, which Arlo loved. The beach (or more accurately, "beesh", as he puts it) is his absolute favourite at the moment, which is pretty lucky considering we live on an island that's totally surrounded by them. Of note: the weather was totally amazing, summer's not over yet! Plus, we marched all the way back up the hill in one go without having to stop for a little rest (the usual option), which we were pretty pleased about. Planning for future walks to be less uphill where possible.

Where we walked this weekend #2: The Cumberbatch edition

Slightly later than I'd hoped this week (MEGA busy week happening over here!) but better late than never, I wanted to share some pics from our latest walk - we're trying to fit in a different walk every weekend to see more of the beautiful place that we live, because let's face it, it's easy to forget sometimes.

So this weekend we headed over to Mottistone, which is famous for two things; Being the site of the Long Stone, two standing stones (one no longer upright) that mark the spot of an ancient burial ground, so legend has it. It's a bit magical and one of the most visited spots on the Island and sometimes druid gatherings happen there in a stone-henge-solstice kind of way. The other thing it's (now) famous for is being the spot where Benedict Cumberbatch got married earlier this year on Valentine's day, and closed all the roads so the locals got annoyed but brought lots of celeb pals with him so we all got a bit excited like when my mum's friend said she was sure she saw Keira Knightly in the Freshwater charity shop on the morning of the wedding and I said I wasn't sure because it's a pretty rubbish charity shop as charity shops go, but she swore it was her and she was having a good rummage, but then I saw somewhere that she couldn't make it because she was in LA filming but really wanted to believe it could be true and told people anyway.

But I digress. Cumberbath conubials aside, it's a pretty magical place, one we've visited for years and years since I was little, so I was pleased to take Arlo along for an explore. On the walk up through the woods to the standing stone, we discovered all manner of things that kept him busy - shiny iridescent beetles, flowers, lots of blackberries for picking, soft feathers and sticks of various sizes (Arlo currently pronounces 'st' as 'd'. Imagine the lols).

On the way back, we heard the faint sound of the Bestival coming over the hills and for a second I felt a little pang as I remembered that was me about 8 years ago, having fun in a field wearing a pirate hat or something ridiculous, and now I was here, wearing sensible walking shoes (Alex made me buy them. I still maintain that Converse All Stars are adequate footwear for any terrain, but he kept going on about 'ankle support' so I caved and bought some. They're so ugly, but strangely comforting to wear, it's like my ankles are being cuddled, quite nice). But that pang went very quickly as I looked down at a muddy little child, holding  a squishy handful of warmed blackberries. He closed his eyes and started to count to three, to let me know he wanted to play hide and seek with me. So I hid (badly) behind the closest tree, listened to his giggles and waited to be found. It was honestly more fun than I ever had at any Bestival.



Oh, and there's an INTERESTING FOOTNOTE to this post: after the walk my sis excitedly told me that the Cumberbatches had been back in Mottistone on that very day, to christen their son at the same church (no road closures this time I'm happy to report)

Where we walked this weekend

There's nothing like missing something to make you appreciate it, is there? Since we got back from our holiday in Wales, where we did lots of walking and general appreciating of the scenery, it's like we have a new-found love for this island we live on. Just like when we lived in London we hardly ever went to the museums, we realised we don't spend enough time out appreciating all the lovely bits of the Isle of Wight. So our plan for Autumn is to do a different walk each weekend, to take in the scenery and appreciate this place we live. This was our first walk, in Newtown, where you walk along a long long jetty to get to a harbour filled with lots of sweet little boats. On holiday we would've sought this out, loved the walk and said things like "oh imagine living somewhere as pretty as this!" turns out we do - we just needed to look.

The view from our holiday

Oh hi there, sorry for the radio silence around here of late, we've been away and getting right into holiday mode for the last two weeks, i.e. not feeling like doing much. I've had a break from work and blogging and clothes washing and setting an alarm and all the usual stuff, and it's been brilliant to break the routine and chill for a while. I don't want to wang on too much about our family holiday and all the things we got up to, but here are a few snaps that I captured along the way - is Wales pretty or what?! We had a few gloriously sunny days, a lot of very rainy days, and a few in-between grey days, but every single one was lovely. Two whole weeks of proper family time, and not even the sun getting his hat out could've made it better.

Out of office

This boy...  some pics of a grey day we recently spent roaming around our local cemetery. It's very pretty and car-free which makes it a good place for Arlo to explore, so I hope that doesn't sound too weird a hang-out spot! Arlo's love of animals has spread into his clothing and he has some real favourites that he always asks to wear, including this tee covered in little jungle animals - wrestling this off at the end of the day for bath time is not fun!

In other news, I just put my out of office on, as we're off on our holidays this weekend. Two whole weeks off work. Two weeks straight of looking at this face. Lucky. Not sure how much blogging that means will be happening around these parts, I'll just be doing whatever feels right. For me, 'whatever feels right' probably includes things like: reading magazines, having brunch, going to the beach and generally just having a bit of a lounge at every opportunity. For Arlo, 'whatever feels right' will most likely be wearing this animal tee shirt for two weeks straight. But each to their own.

The barrenness of busy

"Beware the barrenness of a busy life" - Socrates. I saw someone post this on Instagram yesterday and it's been popping into my head ever since. I reckon he was on to something. This last month has felt very busy, and now I come to think about it, it's felt a little barren too. Lots going on, but not so many things that I actually want to remember. Many things happening, but few lasting memories. Alex and I have both had very busy work months - he's been working weekends to make up time on a big job that's just been finished, and I've had a lot of long days in London which have seen me creep out of the house before anyone wakes up, and creep back in again to find everyone tucked up in bed already.

So July's felt like a bit of a hard slog, but I'm so hopeful for August to come and be all kinds of nice to make up for it. Alex's big job is now finished, so he gets his weekends back, and we're both on official count down to our holiday at the end of August - two whole weeks of not very much stretching out in front of us, not very much 'busy', but more 'lazy', which I think are the best times of all.

Today was our first family day together for weeks, and we made the most of it. I'm writing this on the sofa next to a little boy who's snoozing away, totally knackered after a morning spent on the beach. Considering we live on a little Island surrounded by beaches, we hardly ever go. I plan to rectify this from now on, because we had so much fun today. Buckets and spades were purchased. Sandwiches got sandy. Body parts were buried in the sand. Lots of giggling happened. All the good beach things.

Then this afternoon we hung out with the type of friends that crossed over from the 'friend' category into 'family' years ago. Friends with lots of kids that all became a little gang of pals of various ages, with Arlo the littlest trailing along behind them, trying to keep up. More giggling happened. And some swimming. Also a below-par attempt at completing the Observer cryptic crossword. And now we're home and Arlo is snoozing and we're making burgers. Beat that July, you long-and-fairly-boring month! And hello August, very happy to see you, let's make this month less busy and more lazy please. Because that's when the best stuff happens.

Making new traditions

I love it when something unexpected becomes a bit of a tradition. Three years in a row we've gone with my sister to watch her other half play cricket on the village green of the sleepy little village we grew up in. The first year, Arlo was a tiny new-born that we all took turns holding and staring at, the second year, my sister had a new-born of her own, and Arlo practised taking wobbly steps, and then this time round we had two little toddlers running around and causing havoc. This year we: fed ducks, played in the park, ate animal biscuits and tried to join in with clapping the right players at the right time. I hope this is one that we do year after year - who knows what next few visits could bring?

Snapshots from holiday

A few pics from our first ever family holibobs last week. I didn't take lots of photos while we were away, and I don't have lots of words to go with them, except to say it we were in a very happy little family bubble for the best part of a week. We sang, we laughed, we explored. We had lazy days and (some) active ones too. We had really good eats. We forgot what day it was most of the time. We didn't really want to come home. It was all the things a holiday should be.

Back to life...

You know that thing that happens on holiday at some point when you start referring to your hotel room or apartment as 'home'? Well that happened very early on while we were on holiday this week. We had a little two-bedroom cabin booked in the middle of the woods, and after about half an hour of us unpacking, including Arlo covering the floors in train tracks and us filling the fridge with essentials (milk, prosecco), it felt just like home.

So, now that we're back home home, and back to reality - like both of us back at work next week, and needing to do about five loads of washing, and something in the bin smells really bad - I just want to say 'bye' to our temporary little home in the woods. Bye to a week where I didn't wear a watch because there was no need to know what the time was at any point. A week where a lot of laughing happened. Where it was more than acceptable to drink a bottle of prosecco a night. And hot tub relaxing happened on the regs. Sigh.

It wasn't exactly a jam-packed holiday, and we didn't do lots - some hours were whiled away watching cartoons on the sofa, we spent a lot of time drawing elephants, and wooden train tracks needed rearranging often. But whatever we did (or didn't) do all week, we were all together. One whole week spent just the three of us. We all needed it. And Arlo loved it. No-one had to leave, we didn't need to wave anyone off to work, or drop anyone anywhere for the day. It was just the three of us, doing whatever we felt like. So bye, and BIG THANKS to our cabin home in the woods.

A mini milestone

This week something pretty monumental happened in our world. Arlo and I went for a walk without the pushchair for the very first time. Now, I totally get that that is probably VERY boring for everyone else, but for us it's pretty big news actually. I've never felt happy taking him out for a walk without the pushchair as back up before - every time we've tried, he's not wanted to hold my hand, and tried to run off, and we've had to just turn right around and go home again because it's not felt right. These days he seems more grown up, able to understand more, and he happily held hands and chatted away while we walked up the road.

When we got to the little footpaths that take us to the park, I let go of his hand and he trotted along with his bear and his choo choo (the two favourite toys of the moment). He picked leaves and proudly showed them to all the dogs he met en route (they were fairly non-plussed). Once we got to the park, we played at rolling his choo choo down the wooden ramp that I think is meant for much more boring things like press ups and sit ups.

He kept his beloved bear under his arm the whole time - this boy has a lot of bears, all lined up in his bedroom, all lovely gifts given to us when he arrived. And the one he has chosen as his favourite? The same bear his dad (or 'Diddy', as Arlo calls him, which never fails to raise a smile from me, as I remember when Puff Daddy changed his name the first time round) had when he was a little boy. It's just the sweetest thing.

Our brilliantly middle-aged weekend

I really enjoyed writing last week's little weekend post because it made me stop and think about all the things that happened, rather than it all whizzing by as we prepared for another week to begin. So I thought I'd do another today as we seem to be cramming loads of good stuff into our weekends at the moment. Although as I think back over the last two days, I see a pattern forming. It was decidedly middle aged. Here's a selection of the things that happened:

• We went bird watching. Kind of anyway - the first picture above is Alex and Arlo emerging from a twitching hut (is that what they're called?!) after we had a little look in as part of our bike ride this afternoon.
• I mowed the lawn. And afterwards I said something along the lines of "well that was very satisfying"
• We dawdled our way round a garden centre.
• We listened to the Archers omnibus. I've surprised even myself.

But it was totally brilliant and I loved every minute of it. Not pictured above: lunch at the best burger place on the Island, picnicking in the sun, taking lie-ins in turns, playing in the garden, back to back Mad Men, exciting vintage furniture finds. 

Weekend highlight: learning how being out and about on a bike is like being part of a cool club, because everyone on a bike says hello to everyone else on a bike, it's so nice. And these are actual proper cyclists, the kind that wear lots of lycra and neon and have little bicycle nap-sacks and stuff. As opposed to the three of us, winding down the road with Arlo in his little kids seat and smallest-child-helmet-you-can-buy, singing the wheels on the bus, me screaming out things like "WHICH SIDE OF THE ROAD SHOULD I GO ON NOW?!" and "I DON'T KNOW HOW TO INDICATE!"

We did some good weekending. Hope you all did too! 

Busy days and early nights

Something a bit different happened on Saturday evening. Arlo fell asleep in about 5 minutes flat. This is the boy who's been routinely taking anywhere between 1 - 2 hours each evening to fall asleep after we've taken him up to bed. It was totally, totally, brilliant because I felt like I'd been given the amazing gift of an entire evening to myself - Alex was out for the night so the house was all mine. I choose to spend my evening in the best way I know how - with cups of hot tea in my hand, Charlie Brooker and Gogglebox on the TV, and family photos all over the sofa. I'm still scrapbooking all our photos and I'm just loving getting them all out and going through them all again. Arlo's almost two years old and it seems all at once like it's gone by in a flash and like it's been infinite, it's weird. I'm so desperate not to forget any of it that I'm trying really hard to get photos printed and sorted so that's what's taking up a lot of my time at the moment.

Anyhoo, our boy hasn't always been the best sleeper and this welcome snooze was the result of a really active day for him - after a morning shopping we took him to soft play which isn't something we do that often (especially not on a weekend, as it was pretty mental there as you can imagine!) but he spotted one of his pals from his childminder's straight away and spent the rest of the time following him around and trying everything out. I was especially proud to see him go down the massive slide over and over with the biggest smile on his face (very blurry action shot above that captures the joy - it's hard to focus when someone's sliding THAT fast), after our time at the start of the year when he became a bit too nervous to go down the slide at our local park. Any slide concerns he may have had are officially over, and every time he came hurtling down he picked himself up and yelled "NUVVA WUN!" before doing an impression of an elephant and running back up the stairs. (not sure what the elephant bit was about, tbh).

Then this afternoon Alex and I took it in turns to play with Arlo in the garden while the other did some work on the spare room (more of that in another post because I haven't taken any pics yet, but it's looking GOOD!) and we had such a brilliant time. The garden is becoming one of my favourite places to hang out and Arlo just loved it - we both got soaked playing with his water table on the patio, watered the weeds with his little yellow duck watering can, and I turned a couple of old slates (found propped up against the shed when we moved in) into a makeshift blackboard for us to doodle on. Arlo loved drawing away with the chalk so much, he was a natural. Something tells me that boy is going to wake up to an easel on his birthday next month...

So all in all, it was a day very well spent. The kind of day that I remember having when I was a kid and loving - going ever-so-slightly feral out in the open air, scant regard for usual clothing conventions, getting soaked and having a right laugh.  It was only out in the back garden, but it did feel quite back to basics in a "oh the wifi doesn't stretch to here,  it must be the wilderness" kind of way (I'm joking. Kind of.)

Walking this weekend

I've been trying to think of what to write under these photos for a while, but I don't really have words to describe how brilliant this weekend was. Friends, family, babies, dogs, beaches, walks, pubs, drinks and good eats. Best one in a while. Some highlights: seeing Arlo offering Monty the dog a harmonica to play so he could join in with him, helping him change into spare dry clothes and get all cosy in the back of the car after he fell into a rockpool at the beach (felt like a proper mum and dad thing to do), and drinking prosecco three nights in a row. All the best things.