biblical event

ellie lottie and dem all went out to the beach after a hot sunny day and masses of these little blighters were washed up on shore....either a freak wave or kamakazi fish or a plague sent from above?

you decide

fools

nice to see peace even on the beach

ellie took some smashing photos too

in case we could ever forget she exists

nice perspectives

hidden treasure

whilst strolling through peacehaven i found this mosaic panel under an empty shop window

a little buzzy bee and dotted with mirror pieces so it looks like rippling sea when cars zoom past

beautiful

lark in the park

this week has been 'love parks week'

a recognition and celebration of our beloved green and free areas

so we went along to:

A Lark in the Park
An all ages, all interests, all FREE Community Festival

Piddinghoe Sports Park, Peacehaven
Saturday 30 July from 11 - 5pm

As part of national Love Parks Week, this FREE festival is guaranteed to be a good lark

(to quote their website)

there was dog agility

(not free)

you had to pay to enter your dog

balloon modelling

(not free)

a tea dance, rock climbing, arts and crafts, face painting, netball, football, etc etc

(not one of them free)

i'd spent £3.70 getting there so i had £1.30 left in my purse which only bought 2 balloons

consequently the girls were very disappointed and hot and bothered and annoyed

i love our free public places (especially libraries)

but don't promote a free local facility then charge for everything 

i certainly don't go to events if i know it's going to cost me (anyone who knows me will confirm such)

oh well

geeks

dressed up for their trip to the cinema to see the final harry potter film

ellie as luna lovegood

dem as professor sybil trelawney

and they wondered why they got stares from newhaven to brighton and back

today on our way to the beach...

we spotted the newhaven monster

(clearly a head and some humps...albeit in bindweed and ivy and not lurking underwater)

a drugs bust

(well we let our imaginations run away with us)

but this yacht was having large packages removed and this is the border agency examining the packages

a beach stone shaped like a skull

and one like a gravestone

what do you mean it was a quiet day in newhaven?

joey and chandler

i got this chair off ebay for £10.50

so now i have 2 kids behaving like mr bing and mr tribiani

chocolate mousse

the girls love watching 'nigella express' on the food network

they saw her recipe for choccy mousse and demanded we make

ellie whipping the double cream with vanilla extract

lottie melting the dark chocolate, marshmallows and butter

this stuff is very rich but very luxurious

sooo easy and sooo yum

fat and fluffy

we had the fatest, fluffiest pancakes for breakfast today

lottie topped hers with very posh raspberry coulis and strawberries and bananas

ellie just slathered hers with very posh belgium chocolate sauce

(and token fruit pieces)

self raising flour, 2eggs, milk and vanilla extract make these divine

"feed the birds..."

what do you do with cereal that has gone stale because your kids forgot to peg the bag after pouring some?

string it on wool

make a pattern if you want

tie in a loop

and hang on a nearby tree for the birds to feast on

lottie and i also discovered whilst doing this, that we don't like the yellow or oaty coloured ones, but the brown and white ones are best

fairy chimes

i saw these on the crafty crow

teeny flower pots with pretty danglies

these are lottie's

these are ellie's

ellie has hung hers on the elder tree in the garden by her fairy house

lottie has hung hers on the twig celebration tree in the lounge

and every time they chime, a fairy has flown past!

free french fun-filled fire-fuelled frolic

newhaven cormorant was last night...an event with very crazy blue french people doing very crazy things all along the west quay

boats with flares and pulling bonfires joined them

everytime they met a local group, they all stopped and stood on their oildrums to watch

newhaven community choir (with grandad singing)

an oildrum chien!

the ferry tooted the group and was lit up by coloured flares

absailing with flares down from the cliff

their final display of fireworks and oildrum crashing and firecrackers

and when the ferry left the harbour it was all lit up like titanic...beautiful

this was a fantastic night (spoiled on occasion by some ignorant chavs) and we are very grateful for all the effort and input by these amazing people...and considering they carried their oildrums all night, they must be knackered!

bath crayons

did you know that puffy bath paint (see old post) when dried can be used as bath crayons?

neither did i

so you grate the soap

looks like white cheese

blend with hot water and add food colour

shape into logs

leave to air dry until rock hard

we have decided they are actually turd crayons

a beach afternoon

"come on egon...you WILL go for a swim"

silly babies

ahhh dog by my side, crocheting granny squares, sun, sea, life is good

a yacht from across the atlantic!

and very handy they are too

it was clearly too hot for the gulls too

lottie's beach treasures (dead crab mainly)

and my beach find...steroids from france!

 (the tablets are still dry inside...bizarre!)

millionaires shortbread

our version is called paupers not-shortbread as fiscally we are poor as church mice and only had half a tin of condensed milk; and we didn't make a shortbread base

1/2 pack ginger biscuits crushed and mixed with 1oz melted butter

press into 6" square baking tin...put in fridge to cool

in a saucepan add 1/2 tin condensed milk, 1oz dark brown sugar and 1oz butter...bring to the boil then simmer for 3 mins until gets thick and sticky...remove from heat and pour on top of biscuit base...put in fridge to cool

melt 100g bar milk chocolate and pour over toffee layer and put in fridge again

once cool, slice into 6 and promise to only have one slice today and leave the other until tomorrow  and then break your promise because it's that good

rusty boat yard

we had a stroll on a beautiful summers eve and found an old boat yard

i have never seen such huge rope!

(check out those vampire legs)

the claw!