Saturday 23 August 2008

All right. That's enough rain. Stop now.


So. There we were in the last week of term. Slightly benign weather, sunny in a mildly promising sort of way. We were all looking forward to the holidays.

Six weeks of not having to rush out of bed in the mornings to go to school, but instead to fling back the curtains to the beams of a new summers day, throw on a couple of light things and dash off, clutching sandwiches, to one of Pembrokeshire's gorgeous beaches.

After all, what is the point in living in a popular holiday destination if you can't go and lord it down on the lovely sands of Saundersfoot, Tenby, Whitesands, Amroth, etc, while casting pitying glances on the poor holidaymakers who have go home again. I might as well be back in dear old Worcestershire with the nearest beach, well, where is the nearest beach to Worcestershire? We always used to go to Pembrokeshire...

But I haven't set foot on a single Pembrokeshire beach yet this summer holidays and with only one week left and the weather forecast not exactly promising I don't expect to have the chance.

And I'm cross about it. How dare the horrid weather spoil our plans? Rain, rain and more rain. I'm fed up! And I'm feeling like a totally rubbish mother. Leaving aside the fact that I ordered a kitchen to arrive on day one of the holidays (the first black mark for me) I seem to have completely failed to provide the wonderful sunny summer holiday experiences that memories are made of.

Take this week, for example, we have been shopping for new school clothes, shoes, trainers and Brownies uniform. Rosie went to a party, Hannah went to a friend's house, Hannah went to a party. We played with plastic ponies inside, in between showers we played with the real (slightly damp) ponies outside. I planted out the sprouts and the kales and a few pak chois and grumbled about the weather. Not really the stuff of an Enid Blyton novel.

We should have been on the beach with homemade lemonade and thick slices of pie, fish paste sandwiches and a super cake. We should have played beach cricket (or, more likely, boules with two identical sets - confusing, but funny) and paddled in the sea chasing waves and pretending that we know what to do with a body board. Instead with did that, once, way back in May, when we kidded ourselves that we would spend all summer on the beach.

Now I have one more week left to make this summer perfect for my two little girls. One more week of devoted maternal attention. We will go to the 'family attractions' that they so adore, so what if it is raining, we WILL go to the beach, and to a friend's house for lunch, and to the cinema (and to the hairdresser too, but I haven't told them about that one yet).

Perhaps, as last year, the last Monday before school claims them again will be warm and sunny and we can go to Carew and watch the swans on the Cleddau.


We will have a week of doing tom fool things so that memories, once back in school uniform, will be of a summer that was great, after all.

7 comments:

  1. I hope the 'better forecast for the next week' applies to you as well as us. It has been a stinker, even I'm admitting that now.
    The next week will be a whirl of school shoes, name-tags and new uniform around here. I just hope that the sun shines long enough for a last-ditch attempt at a rain-free picnic. For you too!

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  2. I do hope the last few days of the holidays will be better weather-wise for you.It's Sod's Law isn't it? The holidays start and the heavens open.

    Having said that I remember it raining only once in my childhood. Holidays were long,warm and weatherless. My mother once complained that Nov. 5th's bonfire - held in our garden - was an annual mud bath - we children only recall fun, sparklers and Roman candles.

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  3. hasn't it been a bi*ch? I just cannot even get the washing dry and am surrounded by at least a dozen pairs of damp denim jeans, combats and FLEECEs! Hope you get a few proper summer days before 2 Sept!

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  4. My sympathies regarding the weather - my expensively acquired tan is currently dissolving in the ambient damp. I have to say that my favourite beach holiday is Cornwall in November, because the body boarding is so much better and there aren't hordes of people from Chelsea blocking the roads with their Hummers and Aston Martins. Chippy, moi? I too pray for at least SOME sunny weather before the wee uns go back.

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  5. I can't believe that I've never been to Pembrokeshire. Must do something about that - it sounds wonderful. Hope you get a few last nice days to enjoy.

    PS Have just sneaked a peak at your Cooking Is A Game You Can Eat and am now feeling Very Hungry. Unfortunately, do not have right ingredients for raspberry oat thingy, but have made a note next time I do.

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  6. Hope you had a great week - we did have a nice couple of days on Thursday and Friday and a glorious one yesterday. Back to rain again today of course. Thanks for your comments on mine. I would love to have your veg report too. When everyone came up on Friday there was much moaning about what a bad summer it has been for veg but ours isn't too awful, perhaps because we garden on a soil which drains like a sieve!

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  7. Your thoughts on this summer are the same as mine. I hope you enjoy your last week of school hols., sounds as if the children will with what you have planned (except the hairdresser?)

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