I Like Beer

Fear not, the whole No Food Fortnight challenge hasn't made me turn to alcohol! No, it's much better than that, and no nasty hangover the next day.

On Saturday we awoke to glorious blue skies and lovely sunshine, the perfect day for a family outing to the coastal village of Beer in Devon. DC was well-prepared with his new sunglasses...Hubby had taken DC there for a few weeks back for a little outing while I was trying to catch up on some work; he knew it was exactly my kind of place and was very keen to take me along next time. And he was so very right.Beer is a working fishing village with a main street lined with lovely little shops, cafes, galleries, and a pub. There's a little stream running down one side of the road, which has been incorporated into the pavement really nicely. DC was very taken with this, bending down and peering in (with me hovering nearby in case he decided he needed a much closer look.) 'Look, water!' he kept saying.

This main street leads right down to the cove where fishing boats are pulled up on the pebbly beach. We spent quite a while sitting on the beach, throwing stones in the water and eating bacon sarnies from the bakery on the high street, all the while basking in the fabulously warm sun (quite a surprise for the beginning of March.)
When DC started getting wriggling and our bottoms were aching a little from the damp pebbles, we headed back up to the shops for a little look round. Just off the beach there was a stall selling freshly-caught fish and shellfish; I so wanted to buy some scallops but as hubby reminded me, they'd be sitting in the car for the rest of the day so it might not be a good idea. Maybe next time. By this time, DC was getting a bit tired so we popped him in his pram and had a bit more of a leisurely stroll up and down the high street before heading back to the car and driving further along the coast and into Dorset - it's amazing how we can rack up the counties! Next stop: Lyme Regis.

DC kept on snoozing as we unloaded him from the car, popped him in his pram and took a stroll along the prom to our favourite pitstop in Lyme, Rinky Tinks.Hubby was very restrained and just had a couple of cups of tea, but I went the whole hog and ordered the PB&J Sundae - vanilla and honeycomb icecreams, peanut butter sauce, toffee sauce, strawberry sauce, whipped cream and pieces of Dime Bar. What's not to love?!Every time we walk along the prom we (mostly me?!) ooh and ahh over the beach huts. I always say to hubby 'We should buy a beach hut.' Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a little bolthole down here where we could make hot drinks on the primus, or fry some sausages and bacon for breakfast?! Some of the privately-owned huts are decked out with vintage bits and bobs, while others lean more towards the Cath Kidston school of decor; we always like to have a bit of a nosey (hubby is a little more blatant with his nosing than me, so he could probably tell you much more about the insides of the huts than I could.)The council-owned beach huts can be rented by the day, week, month or season; they start at a very reasonable £2.50 a day in January and February, rising to a £14 a day during the school holidays in July and August. The notice at the end of the row of beach huts proclaims that they are already fully booked for the summer season - looks like you have to get in early if you want to bag yourself a seafront spot!
While DC continued what turned out to be a two-hour nap, we strolled along the prom to Lyme's main street and had a look in some of the shops; we picked up a book for DC in a recently-opened 'nearly new' shop and hubby bought an old (vintage, dahling) wooden box with 'Bristol' stamped along the edge to hold seedlings in the greenhouse. When we finally managed to rouse DC from his mega-nap we headed back to the prom and along to the amusement arcade where DC loves to play on the 2p coin flipping/sliding machine (you know the one I mean!); once our money was all gone we headed back to the prom for a little kickaround with DC's football before heading back to the car for the drive home to our little corner of south Somerset. Ahhh, what a lovely day out.