The Weekend

Ok Ok, I lost a week, but lets face it, the weeks really are all alike; full of beautiful and inspirational things where ever I turn. I woke up every morning at 6am and did the usual routine things, only this past week I did them on my own as the hubby was home sick. A viral plague has hit Durham and almost every one I know has it or is getting over it.

On to the weekend, as it really was special and quite perfect.

Friday night I met my friend S in town at around 6:30. We walked over to the Cafe Rouge , I know, French, but it is the only place in Town that has outside seating, and is not a pub. It has the bonus feature of being right next to the bridge over the river wear too. What was supposed to be a quick drink and maybe a small bite, turned into a fabulous gab-a-thon, which we both evidently needed. We also went on a hungry splurge and shared steak and duck and frittes. It was 11pm and they were throwing us out. Places close quite early here, but that's OK.

I got into the cab ride from hell and was home by 11:05.

Saturday we went into town in the morning to take Zelda to her first swimming lesson. We were able to watch her from a viewing area. She really enjoyed it and was ear to ear smiles. Afterwards, we walked down to the river and then decided to head home and get the car and go to the Broom House Farms 6 miles away in the country side.  This is a great place where they have a working organic farm, a great cafe with outside table facing a huge farm field with sand pit, swings, hay stacks for climbing on and a wooden castle on top of a mound next to a forest. We ate some lunch and watched Zelda zip around or about 3 hours. Next we went to visit the lambs. They were so cute and innocent. I felt very guilty about the big bag of meat I had bought earlier from the farm butcher.

We were home by 6pm. The evening was quiet and calm, but I got a sunburn on my face.  Never in Nice did I get sunburned. The sun is so low here that it hits you directly in the face.

Today we woke up early and packed a picnic lunch...cheeses, baguettes, fruit, crudites and a small bar of dark chocolate. We packed up the car with our rug, some warm clothes and some  games and headed to South Shields to go to the coastal beaches.

The journey took all of 30 minutes, 18 minutes according to the GPS, but we took a slower route. The coast was truly amazing. It was the perfect beach. The air was full of seaweed smell, I found crab legs and sea shells and beautifully ground down smooth pieces of green glass. Zelda and her dad played in the crags down by the sea and I made sand mermaids. We ate some lunch and then went for a walk up onto the Key, where when we got to the top, it looked like it had been carpeted with beautiful green perfect grass. Zelda was so proud of herself for climbing up the high cavernous rock, and so she should be!

It was getting late so we climbed down and took the coastal walk walk on top of the dunes back tot he car.

It was a marvelous weekend full of beautiful sights that were only 20-30 minutes away. In contrast to living in Nice, we never went anywhere as  it was always too hot to be out in the blazing sun on an open beach, that would be made up of rock, not sand and have garbage and needles on it. Here it had soft and smooth glass and plenty to keep a child or an adult occupied for hours. It was the perfect beach. The perfect weekend, and the perfect family time together.

good night all!