It was a wonderful surprise when Tony called me and told me he was coming up to see me. He'll come up to see Mandi when she's back, but he just wanted to come up to see me, as it'd been a long time since he'd been up.

Well it was wonderful seeing him and we chatted for ages and then I sort of, asked if we could go to the beach as it'd been over a year since I last went, and "no problem, we'll go now!" sort of answer!!! Now Tony has a lovely car - a sporty one, which means a very low car. I had to hold onto his arm as well to lower myself down into the car! Once in though, all was well. He's had this car for quite a few years now, but he absolutely loves it and I can see why.

So we drove down to West Appledore because the crowds were out and I knew that it would be very difficult to find somewhere to park. Boy it was a gorgeous day - blue sky and the temperature - wow 22C!!!! I kept my jumper on, because the wind has been very cold and being at the sea, I expected it to be windy - WRONG!!!! No wind, just sun so it was exceedingly hot, especially in comparison to how it's been the last couple of months. Needless to say I took my camera to take some pictures of the beach so I was ready.......

West Appledore

This was to my left - I couldn't walk about without my rollator, so we found somewhere to sit and just look - and I could see that I wasn't the only one who'd found it suddenly warm, there were lots of people with their jumpers tied around their waists.
Girl exploring rock pools

A young girl was walking over the rocks looking into the rock pools. I used to love exploring rock pools, but it's got to stay in my memories I'm afraid.

Tide on its way out

The tide was on its way out. Tony and I sat there remembering earlier times when we used to go with my Mum and her dog and walk over those dunes you can see in the distance. My mum used to search for bits of wood for her fire, but sometimes she found great pieces that had become wonderful shapes from the sea.

Appledore Lifeboat at its moorings

The Appledore lifeboat was at its moorings and the small lifeboat was on the slipway, just in case they had a call out. There were a few lifeboatmen standing around the lifeboat shed, and they were giving talks to some holiday makers.....

Then horrors of horrors - the message flashed up on my camera - card is full.!!!!!!! I thought - never mind, I'll put a fresh one in - but there wasn't one!!! How on earth could I forget to make sure there was a free memory card for the camera? So for my first trip out this year and about 2 years since I went out to the beach - I only had enough film to take 4 pictures! I won't repeat what I said, and Tony was probably shocked at my language - but I couldn't help it. So only 4 pictures, but it was so wonderful being there, no wind and gorgeously warm.

All too soon, we came home, but not before we went on a trip around Westward Ho! and we were so shocked to see so many new builds there - I would think there were about 50 new houses being built, maybe even more, we didn't go all over the whole of the village. Okay - they are attractive houses, but there used to be horses in fields there, which was an attraction to people. Still they will have wonderful views of the sea from those new houses.

Soon it became time for him to go back home. We had a wonderful time together - talking about the jobs he's doing and how much he's loving it. It was lovely just to see the enthusiasm in his eyes and hear it in his voice. He's found his niche and he's thrilled at last to be doing it.

Well it's back to normal now - one thing I did notice on our way, was that the driveway is absolutely full of bluebells, because of course, there aren't cars coming up and down squashing them - so tomorrow, weather promising to be dry - I'll go up the drive and take some pictures.

So take care folks, and look after yourselves.