My freckle fell off!

Smallest was able to tell left from right at a fairly early age. I guess we just took it for granted that once he knew it, he wouldn't forget it. However, it seems the only reason he knows the difference these days is because his left hand has two freckles on it (he calls this Potato Man) and the right has one freckle (he calls this one Pirate Potato Man). This morning, the weather forecast said rain till 10am, sunny till 2pm and then more rain. The clouds were thick and the lake was incredibly clear. We decided on a place to go for the afternoon and then went on a walk after breakfast along our lakeside road. I told Smallest which way we were going and he looked at his hands and said "oh no it's gone!" I don't think freckles fall off do they? - silly bear.

It started raining not long after we started the walk, at first no-one was bothered by a bit of wet and we were slightly sheltered under the trees. It was nice being nosey looking at all the other cottages and seeing what wonderful views they had. There were some amazing places and some very titchy wee houses. We gave up in the end as we were getting wetter and wetter and came back and played UPSET.

Around about lunchtime we got our fleeces and drove to Paisley. Huffle had researched this place and he said it was "a pretty town on a river, must be lots to see". In essence, it was a town and it was on a river. It wasn't particularly pretty but we did find a nice bakery where we bought some nice things for later.

There didn't appear to be a lot to do but as we were hungry (aren't we always?), we chose a place called Back Eddies. An odd looking place but the menu looked interesting and suited each of our individual needs. Once inside, we went through to the back which was a dining room, music room, shop full of pickles, chutneys, jewellery, seeds and all sorts of strange things. Mainly organic, Fair Trade type things. The coffee was roasted on site and was lovely. Smallest had hot chicken on bread with gravy and home fries (roast potatoes) which he loved (right up his street). Small had a homemade cheese burger. Huffle and I had soups and toast. We chose curried vegetable lentil soup and Brazilian Black Bean soup. It was nice to eat healthily. Too many restaurants are chips, fries, burgers etc., this was lovely.

We walked to the Mill hoping to see an old working mill or at least to be able to see what it was like when it was a mill but it was just a shop selling all sorts of expensive things. Upstairs was an exhibition place where they were showing Quilts. We were only allowed to touch them wearing white gloves - we didn't bother. They were amazing pieces of work though. A man we assumed worked there wore the shortest, flimsiest shorts ever and he wasn't young or worth ogling at, it was almost obscene! Huffle said "there comes a point where the wife would look at him in the morning and say 'No Roy (always Roy) get changed or you will scare the customers away'."

Rain was due in 1.5 hours so we decided to drive to Port Elgin Harbour, have an ice cream, walk around and hopefully kill a few hours. We did have our ice cream and we sat on a bench on the harbour and people watched and boat watched. There was a family in a small put-put boat happily sailing around. They passed us and then turned around and we wondered where they were going. They sailed off towards some big boats and we thought they might be getting back on their proper boat, however, not long and they had turned around and comeback again. I found this extremely funny. They obviously weren't allowed out of the harbour wall and were just put-putting about.

We watched a small train peep peep along the harbour and to the park. The driver wore dungarees (very authentic) and waved frantically at all passers-by even though they didnt wave back. The drivers' mate ran ahead in front to the crossroads and waved a flag so traffic wouldnt cross. We walked to a shop and bought Smallest a body board so the boys now have one each. The shop was very interesting and sold really old postcards of the train (I swear they were from the 1970's and some of them had stains on them eeeuuuuggghhhh - I didn't buy anyone one, don't worry). As the sun was coming out and it was starting to get much warmer, we headed back to our house and on to the beach.

Huffle and the boys played football while I sat and read and it wasn't long before the kids wanted to go in and swim. It seemed very cold in there but they had a good laugh and a great splash around. We sat on the beach eating our Paisley pastries before the rain started. It didn't take us long to get all our stuff together and run back. There we made a fire, draped all of our wet and damp clothes everywhere, showered the boys (Smallest actually said he liked the shower now - egg boy!). Actually talking of Egg News, the owners Dad came round to see if he could do anything about the water. He is coming back tomorrow morning to flush out the boiler. He seemed very nice and at least they are trying to solve it. I will keep you updated.

No sunset tonight and more rain forecast tomorrow. I have told Huffle that if this holiday is going to be majority rain, next year we will be holidaying abroad, maybe America, anywhere as long as it has guaranteed warmth. We really struggle when there is not a lot to do. The boys asked for a beach holiday and so far it hasn't delivered too much beaching!!!!! We are here for two weeks by the way.

Smallest also blogged today. You can find his post here.

 

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