I am not an axe murderer

We've been away. We packed the tent up and we went to Northumberland, for a week mainly of looking at books and gardens and complaining about how cold it was. This, for us, was a perfect combination.

 (Traditional midsummer dish of warming stew)

We met up with Driftwood - you may already have seen the beautiful pictures of roses on her blog. I have one picture of a rose.

But then the camera was taken away. I now present to you the Littlest Latte's documentation of our morning out with Driftwood.

It's often only with a bit of breathing space that you can get a real sense of a holiday. Each one reminds you of something you are missing - for me, this time, it was the time spent reading books aloud as a family that I enjoyed the most.

(Because of this, we especially enjoyed watching a couple in a caravan opposite spending two hours trying to set up a satellite dish, before finally getting the Scrabble out. We're not wild campers by any means - we don't have a lovely bell tent and cook around a fire, but I made my own mind up about caravans many years ago. I did a lot of caravanning as a child, and firmly believe that once you open a cupboard to reveal a set of sherry glasses held into place by special clips, you are no longer allowed to use the phrase 'getting back to nature'.)

I might return to the holiday in a later post - to be honest, we have barely had time to look at our photographs. Normal life - and work - takes over again far too soon. My challenge for this summer is to try and carry something of 'holiday' throughout the children's break - something easier said than done.