Through Another's Eyes

We went on a day trip last week with the preschool group Squeaky's been part of over the last while.  Nowhere is more likely to appeal to me than a day at the seaside, particularly in Weston-super-Mare, as I grew up just down the road and spent far too much time there in my not-so-wild and mis-spent youth  And the thought of someone else coming up with an idea for how to fill an entire day of the seemingly endless school holidays is very attractive indeed.

So, onto the coach we climbed, and headed off for our adventures.  Riding the donkeys on the beach (it's the law!), a lovely lunch with my parents (who still live just up the road), a trip on the merry-go-round, and an afternoon in the splash park meant we had a wholesome and fun filled family day out in the sunshine.  It didn't cost us a great deal, just a couple of £s for the rides, and more importantly, it didn't take huge amounts of planning from me.

Our new friend Fred

In fact, Squeaky's very favourite part of the day was climbing onto, and jumping from a large rock in the playground of the splash park.  The local council spent thousands on converting some old wasteground into a fantastic park, and she's more interested in a rock.  Figures.

Rock, obvs

My favourite part, on the other hand, was chatting to some of the other parents on the coach, and hearing what they had to say about Squeaky.

I mean, I know that much like Mary Poppins, she's "Practically Perfect in Every Way", but when you hear from other parents that their children say to them that "Squeaky's a big girl, but she still talks to me, I like her", or that they report back every day on whether she was at the group that day, and are really sad on the days she's not there, it's quite a thing.  (And for full disclosure, as I was writing this longhand in my notebook at the local soft play, when a grandparent came up to me and complemented me on how nicely Squeaky was playing with her much younger granddaughter)

There are times when I worry about her, that she seems shy, or doesn't seem to know how to ask to join in a game with others, and finds herself left on the sidelines.  But really, it seems I have nothing to worry about.

Our day in the Somerset sunshine is linking up with Coombe Mill's Coutry Kids Linky.  

Buried Alive!

Squeaky is, err, shall we say assertive. She likes to manage, direct, instruct, and generally tell everyone else what to do.  If there's fun to be had, she's definitely the one making the decisions.

With this in mind, we made the most of the recent sunshine & headed to the beach for some good, old-fashioned family fun.  Sandcastles were built, as long as they met with her planning restrictions. Ice cream was eaten, Sun cream was liberally applied to all exposed surfaces, water was consumed in a way rarely seen in the UK. And we did as we were told.

First, Miss Squeaky demanded a hole to sit in.  Then the hole was extended to fit legs. And then she insisted on being buried in it.  How could I say no? Do you know, I even helped her get out afterwards, though I don't think her shorts will ever recover. Two trips through the washing machine and they still look like she had an embarrassing accident in them.

A trip to the beach

Yawn.  That's what you're thinking now, isn't it?  Another blogger, bragging about her latest jaunt to the seaside, while you're stuck inside because it's not so sunny where you are.  Well, stop rolling your eyes, put down your cuppa and read on.

I put the washing out to dry yesterday morning.  Always a mistake, it started raining about an hour later.  Typical.  It stayed drizzling on & off for most of the day, which put paid to any exciting plans we may have had for going to the park, or anything more strenuous than a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse marathon.  Squeaky, however, had other ideas.  She wanted to go to the beach, and have a beach party.  She's been hassling me for days on this front, and as it was my day off today, there was no excuse that I had to go to work, or she had to go to nursery.  A beach party was the order of the day.

No chance in this weather though, I don't really enjoy being that kind of old person who sits in their car on the seafront sipping a lukewarm cuppa out of a flask, reading the paper.  So I had to come up with an alternative.  And if we can't go to the beach, the next best thing is to bring the beach to us.  I'm not daft though, there was no chance of sand & water play on my carpets.  No way.

Instead, I raided the airing cupboard, and found every blue, brown & yellow towel I could get my hands on. Squeaky then made the blue towels into the sea, and the brown & yellow into the sand.  We got our buckets & spades, a beach ball, and had our very own indoor beach party.  (Please ignore the pile of clean washing artfully displayed in the background!)

We spent the afternoon building sandcastles, swimming in the sea, catching and eating fish, and throwing the beach ball around.  We even managed to turn the tv off for a good couple of hours!

I don't think this is a rainy day game we're going to manage on a regular basis, part of the excitement today was because we're off on a proper holiday soon, so Squeaky's building up to that.  Even so, it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon, and it's great to watch her imagination develop, suspending the reality in place of something much more fun.

What do you get up to on rainy days?

Marine Conservation Society Big Beach Clean-Up

What a busy, busy old day. (I'm writing this sat on a train, to publish when I find a wi-fi signal that lets me get into blogger & publish it). Squeaky, her Gran, and I spent the morning at Sand Bay, near Weston-super-Mare, taking part in the Marine Conservation Society'sBig Beach Clean Up.

We joined about 100 people, including some folk from the local radio station, and the Mayor, in cleaning up litter from the beach, while a group carried out a survey of the amount and types of litter found in a 100metre area as part of a scientific study. I was actually quite pleasantly surprised at how clean the beach was, more seaweed and driftwood than litter. This made the litter collecting quite difficult, there was a clear tide-line of natural debris, but once you moved the seaweed slightly, there was quite a bit of litter, mostly small pieces broken up by the sea.

No valuable treasures turned up on my patch, nor any particularly exciting any unusual items, but a lot of what I initially took for lollysticks, but looking closer, were actually cotton buds that had been flushed down the toilet, That's the reality of them, the cotton wool breaks down, but the plastic remains and washes up on our beaches. This is why I don't flush anything that's not meant for the toilet. I also found quite a few bottle tops, both plastic pop bottles and metal ones from wine bottles (the brand name was a giveaway), about 20 foot of fishing line, some bits of fabric, broken up polystyrene cups and sweet wrappers. We were cautioned to look out for dog poo (which we weren't obliged to pick up), but thankfully I didn't find any.

We were lucky enough to have a chat with the local mayor, who told us about the work that has already been done to restore the beach to its current state, removing invading grasses which threatened the beach, and placing restrictions on tourism development. He's a local born & bred, and his passion for the area and commitment to the local community was clear. Squeaky was very taken with his chains of office, I think she's making plans for a future career in local politics!

As well as the clean-up event, School of Fish were running a children's CSI WSM activity with items to look for & identify in 4 “crime scene” areas set out on the beach, and a couple of local schools came down for the children to learn more about the coastal environment, how they can make a difference, and why it's so important to protect our coastline. I did hope Squeaky would be able to join in with this, but she was a bit too young, and feeling clingy. The weather stayed dry, but the wind was cold, so she stayed close by and helped us by collecting shells. I now have about 2 dozen tiny shells in my coat pocket, and will have completely forgotten about them by the next time I put my hands in the pockets.

To be honest, Squeaky had a lot more fun before we got onto the beach.  The car park where we all met & were briefed was, shall we say, slightly waterlogged.  Add a Peppa Pig obsessed 2 year old in wellies, and what do you get?  Anyone who said "Jumping up and down in muddy puddles" gets a prize.  The prize being muddy jeans.

Unfortunately, due to a bit of bad scheduling between myself and HM Courts & Tribunals Service, we couldn't stick around for the whole event, and made our departures before the nice folk from Marks & Spencers (who were sponsoring the event) got their barbecue started, so we missed out on some great sounding burgers, which they were laying on for all the volunteers after the actual clean up.

We had a really good & interesting morning, I only wish we'd been able to stay a bit longer, though the wind was so cold that Squeaky had had enough when we had to leave anyway. A sunnier day, and some better diary management, and we'd've had a great day out.

It was a strange feeling.  I remember going to Sand Bay as a child, but haven't been back in probably 20 years, so seeing places I remember from childhood through an adult's eyes is a weird sensation.  It's like when you visit your old school and are amazed how small it all is.  It's important to me though, that Squeaky gets to see the places I grew up, even though I know that it's not going to be the same for her and she'll develop her own memories.

The Marine ConservationSociety's Big Beach Clean-Up is taking place on around 150 beaches across the UK over this weekend, with different activities going on in each (I can't promise you all an M&S BBQ, sorry)

I've entered this post to Coombe Mill's Country Kids linky  

How Clean Is Your... Beach?

No, I haven't caught a dose of the Kim & Aggies, don't panic. I'm still me.

With the financial climate not looking like it's going to get a great deal healthier at the moment, more & more people are likely to be staying within the UK for their holidays this year.  It's like the 1970's all over again.  We're actually really lucky in the UK, blessed with around 11,000 miles of coastline, according to Ordnance Survey (the map people).  OK, not all of that is accessible, and even that which is, it's not all the white sandy beaches of our dreams, but they're ours, and need our help.  I was lucky enough to grow up on the coast, and spent many happy hours on the beaches nearby, swimming, climbing, collecting shells, and generally being a kid.  I'd like Squeaky to have the same privilege.

My parents still live by the seaside (I moved, boooooo), but in a fortnight's time, Squeaky & I will be off to one of my childhood haunts, Sand Bay, near Weston-super-Mare, to join in with the Marine Conservation Society and their Big Beach Clean Up event, sponsored by Marks & Spencer.  There are Beach Clean Ups going on across the UK over the weekend of 11-13 May 2012, so there's bound to be one near you.  We were already planning to visit my parents, so we're going to their local event, rather than one closer to home (in case you were worried that my carbon footprint would be bigger than the impact of my beach cleaning).

It's been a good while since I've been to Sand Bay, I'm interested to see how time has treated the area, as well as seeing what interesting items we might find on the beach.  Apparently, during a similar clean up event, Marine Conservation Society volunteers found all sorts of things, including a plastic skeleton & a portable toilet!  Not to mention the cans, bottles, and plastic bags you'd expect.

The Marine Conservation Society are making quite a day of it, with children's activities and a barbecue for volunteers at our location, but each location varies.  Take a look at the map and see if there's a beach clean up going on near you (nowhere in the UK is more than 70 miles from the coast, so you stand a chance), and join Squeaky & I in cleaning up our beaches.  If the weather's nice, we'll get an added dose of vitamin D, if not, I'll just introduce her to the delights of a British seaside holiday!

Oh, and I've had confirmation that equipment will be provided on the day, just bring suitably outdoor clothing - wellies/boots, coats & clothes you don't mind getting a bit mucky!

If you can't make it, or you can, but your children can't, why not visit School Of Fish, the children's website for the event? There's games, downloads, "codcasts" (I love that!), and all sorts of info so you and your family can get involved even if you can't make it to the beach.  See you there!