Spring Adventures - Same Beach, Different Day

We have been to the beach an awful lot this Spring. We have been to other beaches a little bit, but mostly we have been to Westward Ho! And not just because it is the only town in England to have an exclamation mark in its name!

We have been there when it has been beautifully sunny and the beach has been the picture of the British Seaside Holiday. We have been there during the PotWalloping festival. The festival happens when all the winter storms are passed, and people walk the length of the bay and throw the 'pebbles' (the boulders you can see in these pictures!) that have been washed down by the winter waves back up onto the pebble ridge that separates the beach from the burrows wildlife reserve. The festival also involves live music and stalls and a general party atmosphere.

And to be honest, I've yet to see much pebble throwing going on!  

We have been there when the tide has been way way out and the beach has been an endless swathe of smooth sand.

And we have been there on days like this one, when the tide is right in and rolling up against the pebbles, and there's a swell and surf and stormy skies. And the water foams and bubbles and the children surf and we all feel wild and barefooted.

And afterwards there should always be doughnuts on a day like this. Ice creams can wait for the British Seaside days, stormy wild days are doughnut days.