Saturday 21st February 2009

Woke up this morning to lovely bright blue skies and temps promising to be above 10 degrees....deciding not to miss the best weather we have seen in weeks we quickly packed a picnic lunch and jumped into Aunty Madge (aka the bus) to head off for Devil's Dyke on the South Downs near Brighton and Hove.

Devil's Dyke is about 35 mins away by car and is a lovely national park area offering great expanses for walking and cycling. It is essentially a huge dry valley with rolling hills on either side and legend has it that the devil dug the valley to drown the parishioners of the Weald (Hence the name). Scientists, on the other hand, believe the largest "dry" valley in Britain was formed in the last ice age. Whichever is true it is certainly a very pretty place to spend an "almost Spring" morning.

On arrival we quickly realised that we were not alone in our decision and the whole valley was littered with people enjoying the outdoors....that is one thing Si finds difficult about being here, the lack of solitude, it literally doesn't matter where you go there will be someone else already there.....I on the other hand find it comforting, you never every feel totally alone, and I find it gives everything a very "holiday" feel as people are generally very friendly along the way.

We have acquired a backpack for Nicholas from Freecycle so we quickly had him out the car and we were off. I was impressed with how fit the entire family is becoming and we covered a 1.5km distance in no time at all and without breaking a sweat, the big two were even scampering up and down the hill side like little mountain goats.

I could have gone further as I was so enjoying the outdoors, but was outvoted as the lure of a picnic lunch still back in the car was too much for the other three. 1.5kms back and then a lovely picnic on the hillside watching the paragliders taking advantage of the perfect conditions. I have never seen so many in the air at once and we sat mesmerised watching there antics for at least half an hour.

I have to say that the whole morning had a very "South African" feel to it, the weather was warm enough for the children to strip down to tshirts (in fact Phil had his shirt off at one stage) and the country side was looking quite brown, it reminded me so much of days spent with my dad at either Summerveld or Karkloof watching him fly his model aircraft and when a glider went over it was just like being at home.

After a fantastic morning, Si and I spent the remainder of the day working on our respective projects and I can now say that I am ready to unveil the new business......Tums 2 Tots Photography