Great Lakes

Last week I was off work to go on our annual family sojourn to the Lake District. Apart from two years when we went to Guernsey, we spent every summer there for as long as I can remember as a kid. We stayed at a farm in Carlisle for a few years where we saw kittens being born in the barn by day and made our nighties make static sparks against the nylon sheets at night (hours of fun!), then about twenty years ago my mum and dad bought a timeshare in Langdale. Apart from three years ago when my dad passed away, we've been every year, in fact it we decided the following year we really wanted to keep it up partly because it was the part of the country he came from and loved so much. We also see our American cousins who have kids around Duke and Joe's age and it's amazing seeing them all grow and get to be firmer friends every year.



Lots of exciting "firsts" this time: Nathaniel and the boys went canooing to the island where they filmed Swallows and Amazons, the highlight of which was the hot chocolate when they got there....

The bigger kids jumped off the rocks and I reckon Joe and Duke will be chomping at the bit to have a go at that next year....

My mum bought a Nintendo and Nanny Van bought one a few weeks ago so the boys had a few sessions with their new plastic babysitters...


But we went swimming every day and the boys even swam for the first time ever without arm bands! They can only go a few strokes before realising constant motion is the key and under they go but the will is now there to swim which I'm so happy about. I was a pretty amazing swimmer as a kid, in fact my poor mum used to take me training at 6am before school every morning....actually, maybe I shouldn't be encouraging the swimming thing too much.....!

Always good to be home.

Madame xxx