* 98 *

This young man has just put up some video blog posts across at Milo's Summertime, please pop across and see him.
A big thank you also to those that already have ...X

* 97 *

So, following on from yesterdays post .

We got on the bus which was to take us back to the boat and the closer and closer we got to it the lighter the rain got and by the time we had boarded and got up on deck to say 'bye' to Amsterdam it had stopped completely and Mr Sun was out and shining brightly - typical eh?

We watched for dolphins and harbour porpoises but didn't see any, although according to the wildlife notice inside they have been seen here quite often. Notice the lack of coats which goes to show how warm it got.

There were loads of other boats and at one point I think we counted sixteen , it was all a bit spooky as they looked like ghost ships on the horizon.

Then we saw 'aliens ' all lined up and coming towards us, dozens and dozens of them on both sides of the boat.

Well, they did look like aliens to the boys ha ha. It was a bit strange seeing that many wind turbines out at sea, a sea which was much calmer than it had been on the inbound journey I might add.

Our friends decided to play a game of Bingo which was part of the entertainment and they won the jackpot of over 100 Euros so there were celebrations all round . Cocktails of the non alcoholic type for the little ones and seeing as how the Euros were given in voucher form and had to be spent on board the ship there were also presents of the Lego kind .

There seems to have been a few late nights for the boys lately and Gabe fell asleep on the chair so he was carried back to the cabin and safely tucked up in bed . I stayed with him whereas Milo was allowed to stop up a bit longer with Hub which he thought was a ' great big treat '.

It was raining again the next day when we sailed back into harbour but it didn't matter . We had a lovely time with lovely friends and the rain didn't spoil our time together in Amsterdam.

Our friends left to go to York for a night before heading back to their home whereas I set about doing loads of washing whilst the boys did their Lego.

I wonder where we'll go next year ?

* 96 *

All week before we sailed I checked the weather forecast and every site said the same thing rain on Tuesday, sunny on Wednesday, rain on Thursday . Now that was fine by us as Wednesday was the day we were going to be walking around Amsterdam.

It was raining when we left Newcastle and the crossing was choppy to say the least . Lots of travel sickness tablets being past around which didn't really work in my case !

On arrival in Amsterdam Port it was still raining but when we actually came to the city centre it had stopped , thank goodness for that . So we set off for the flower market but half way down guess what ... yep, you guessed it , the heavens opened - so much for weather forecasts!

We made the most of it though, no choice really . I managed to find the way back to the old square that we had stumbled upon last time we were here. Still peaceful considering it's in the heart of the shopping district .

Don't think we needed any more water thank you Milo.

The boys still really enjoyed it though as the friends we went with also have two boys , they are slightly older than our two but they still get on really well.

I had wanted to take loads of photo's and do some really big posts but it's not to be I'm sorry . I did take quite a few pictures but they didn't come out so good with the weather being so terrible.

I'm going to leave you with these few because I just loved the red shutters .

* 95 *

So last time we spoke I was asking you to keep your fingers crossed for sun for our picnic wasn't I ? Well it sort of worked.the boys had a paddle and splash about then when Gabe's lips decided to go a funny shade of purple I dragged them out got them changed , sat down for food and WHOOSH ..... the heavens opened.

Quickly grabbing everything we ran back and sheltered beside the cliffs , it was okay for a little while but then the wind changed direction and just about had us pinned to the rocks so we had no choice but to run for it.

We got absolutely drenched to say the least . Back home after hot showers , clean dry clothes and some lovely Heinz Chicken Noodle soup to warm us up we did laugh about it .

I think I've mentioned it before but this rocky beach is perfect for sea glass and is apparently one of the best in the world for what is called multi coloured glass, like the ones below. This is due to all the glass works that were once in the village close by.

The famed Multi's strands of glass were cut off a molten glob that had been removed from the kiln for working. These are found in about one in a thousand or more. Glass would be gathered up on a pipe and any excess was cut off and collected in a vat that lay next to the kiln. Colours would become all mixed and layered and then discarded off the cliff at the end of the day.

These are our few bits of multi's the biggest one is in the photo above and we also have what is called a ' fisheye' and that is the clear one in the middle on the right . If you enlarge this photo you will be able to see why it's called that.

These are called Boulders or Eggs and are usually a large single colour piece that started as a huge lump of slag glass that were chipped out of vats and then thrown into the sea. The smaller ones are probably 'marbles' which were used in the necks of bottles as stoppers .

These are just a few pieces of our collection we do have quite a few hundred more , all colour co-ordinated in different tubs chuckle.

Phew I didn't mean to go off on one about sea glass , hope you don't mind?

Now , what else did we do last week ? It was my dads birthday so we spent the day with him and my mam . He wanted to go for a walk along the river and luckily it was a sunny day.

On the way I did find these lovely lilac flowers , very similar to Clover but not sure what they are -- anyone have any ideas?

By the time we got to Roker Beach Milo needed a rest so climbed up on here for a quick power nap ,

But was quickly woken up by nanna.

I think one day I must make a list of all the beaches and parks we go to as I think it must get confusing for you sometimes , I know it confuses me ! Do you think that's a good idea?

Speaking of parks we also managed a few outings and I was pleased to see quite a few fungi sprouting here and there , must have been with all the rain we've had lately.

Oh and there has been some disastrous cake baking too. I used a recipe that I found in this months Country Living for Blueberry muffins. On my first attempt I forgot to put in the baking soda and the second attempt was just plain awful ... yuk yuk yuk . These were on the side waiting to go in the bin when a certain young lady decided that she would rather eat them .... say no more !!

I went back to my tried and tested recipe and by the amount of chocolate around Gabe's face I think these went down a bit better.

Next Tuesday we're off to Amsterdam for a couple of days so prepare yourself for tons of photo's next week okay .... have fun x

* 94 *

Finally after what seems like forever being cooped up due to crappy weather I had decided that today we were going out . No matter what the weather was doing we were going to brave the elements - luckily for us it turned out to be a rather nice day.

There were still quite a few black clouds hovering about but there were also a few white ones and a bit of blue sky too and believe it or not it was quite warm, T-shirt warm in fact . So we headed off to the beach and with Tess's post in mind we created some beach art. I also did a bit of stone writing which was inspiration from Pinterest.

If you enlarge the photos you will see that there is writing on the stones beside the figures.

The beach was near enough deserted , a heck of a lot different from when the air show was on and just the way I like it, so I'm going to let the photo's speak for themselves.

It's forecast for nice weather again tomorrow so we'll probably be heading to our normal beach armed with buckets, spades and towels ... fingers crossed as the boys are really looking forward to playing in some rock pools.