Tales from Spylaw, part 3

Amy likes to paddle. Present her with a shallow stream and she’s flinging her socks and shoes over her shoulder before you can stop her. The actual temperature doesn’t appear to have a bearing on her enthusiasm; I’ve had numerous conversations with her about the disadvantages of paddling in streams while it’s cold enough to still have snow on the ground.We live about as far from the coast as it is possible to live in England, and while Amy has seen the sea in the past I doubt she remembers it. Spylaw is around 20 minutes from Bamburgh beach and we spent at least a few hours there most days. The weather wasn’t ideal, even on the hot days the wind took the heat out of the air and the North Sea isn’t renowned for its gentle Mediterranean warmth. Still, she splashed around with enthusiasm and participated in the traditional shrieking as she ran away from the waves.

I also had a great time, having rediscovered my love of playing in the sand. There was something quite cool about building a minature castle while the real thing was in the background. It took great restraint to stop myself from preventing Amy “helping” me with my masterpieces. Kerry didn’t enjoy it quite as much as she wasn’t able to get as involved as she’d have liked. She’s reached the stage in her pregnancy where she’s getting a lot of back aches and this puts a few limits on her activities, sometimes she can only give me a piggy back for 25 meters before she has to stop for a rest.

Amy also rediscovered her love of eating sand while we were there. We were hoping that having being soaked in seawater the salt would put her off, but it only appeared to enhance the flavour. Apparently it’s “yummy” but I remain to be convinced.