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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