The simple life

There’s nothing quite like the Northern Irish climate to throw you a curveball and this weekend we finally, FINALLY got a snippet of the summer we’ve been waiting for all these months.  Which meant only one thing as far as I was concerned – a trip to the beach!  Bubs had hitherto never dipped his teeny toes in the sea or built a sandcastle and now that he’s walking I was really keen to take him before autumn really gets a grip, so this morning we headed off to a little-known beach on the Donegal coast where I myself spent many a summer as a child.

We used to have a rickety old caravan there; complete with chemical toilet and the dodgiest shower I have ever been in – I wouldn’t stay there now if you paid me but when I was about nine it was all a big adventure.  There was a big crowd of kids in the caravan park and for what felt like weeks on end we romped barefoot through the sand dunes, searching for crabs and collecting shells until our limbs grew swarthy and the soles of our feet like leather.  We held hands in a long line and waded into the ocean, the big kids holding extra tight to the little ones as we braved the waves, screaming with delight when we rode the swells and gasping with shock when ice-cold breakers crashed over our heads.  We played Monopoly and Cluedo and Jack-Change-It by the light of a gas lamp and sometimes watched in awe as lightning streaked across the sky in the bay before falling asleep to the soft sounds of the sea, and emerging bleary eyed from our condensation-filled lodgings to do it all over again the next day.

I loved the continuity of being able to bring Bubs back there.  The beach seemed smaller, somehow; but not much had changed.  And from the second he glimpsed the sea Bubs was so excited!  When we first put him down on the sand he was a bit freaked out and he preferred to keep his socks on to begin with, but before long he was toddling about, filling his bucket with sand (and eating a fair bit too), playing football with Daddy and of course, paddling in the sea.  As usual he was totally fearless and while we baulked at the cold water he was practically dragging us in until the waves were breaking on his chest, taking his breath away in the process!  We ate a lovely picnic, chilled out and just enjoyed each other’s company away from mobile phones, TV and the laptop.  It was nice just to stop and take a long, hard look at how lucky I am and remember that we don’t need all the ’stuff’ to be happy, just each other.  What a wonderful day