Pigs in blankets xxx

What’s new pussycat? Well I’ve done my knee in again and personally I blame the pig, Peppa Pig that is!

Let me unravel my tale of woe and twisted tendons for you if you will.

It was bed time story time Sunday night and Harry had chosen a Peppa Pig book about George finding a dinosaur skeleton on the beach.

Always looking for something new to do I asked the Twinkles if they fancied trying their hand at fossil hunting. It was a unanimous YES PLEASE!

I turned to my most trusted fact finder and asked Google where the best places for a spot I archaeology were near me. Three places came up, Sand Point, Middle Hope and I already forget the other.

So the next day when they were changed from their school uniforms we grabbed the dogs and set forth on a treasure hunt, they had chosen Middle Hope, I also thought the name sounded positive.

So we popped on Google Maps ( I’m not on commission promise) and headed out. It took us past the bus terminal where our favourite friendly ice cream kiosk is and down to a National Trust car park.

I couldn’t for the life of me get the car park thingy to work so will be looking out for a fine.

It was like the set of cocoon, lots of old people and Ollie and Harry felt it their duty to shout hello and chat to every last one. Tilly was pleased with the pace of the walk, but then she’s not getting any slimmer ( Tilly is a dog.)

There were a lot of steps! It turned out I’d gone the wrong way although on the map it sometimes looked like the right way. So back down the steps we went and up another road which led to some more deep steps, 109 to be precise.

By the time we’d got to the top my knee was already aching and Ollie decided his was too, but we pressed on.

It was in the middle of a field somewhere I realised that Google Maps has eaten most my battery life. Oh dear.

We continued to find ourselves at a cliff edge looking down on the pebble cove that is Middle Hope.

My pep talk about safety, sore knees, dead phone, coming back the next day was lost on Harry who was having none of it and for a four year old that boy can be fierce!

Letting him know I wasn’t happy about it I continued walking and found a very steep path / ragged rock steps that had been worn away with time. Needing to go down backwards, facing in to the hill, edging my way and lifting two dogs and two boys ( not at the same time, I’m not Hercules) down to each level I’d made it to I wondered if I’d made the sensible choice.

We finally made it to the beach and my leg practically gave way. My Fitbit has congratulated me on achieving 10,000 steps quite some time before.

We set about looking for fossils and were handsomely rewarded.

Ollie lost interest about 5 minutes in but luckily had popped some toys in his pockets.

We made the most of it and I didn’t allow the fact we had nothing to eat or drink, mo phone and a few weary legs between us deter us.

It was pretty magical and we named Harry, Harry Hope after the place and due to his tenacity.

Across the cove we noticed a gentle, sloping path leading down to it. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and we decided to take that path home. Tired but content we used landmarks to make our way back, one being a blue pooh bag hanging in a tree (not ours).

Back down the 109 steps we went and the boys made me run as they heard an ice cream van. It was worth it, my lemonade refresher was wonderful.

We got home, washed our hands, packed my knee with ice and camped out on the sofa until Daddy got home from work.

Happy Days xxx