I took this photo yesterday of our beach completely covered in a white blanket of snow & emailed it to BBC points west news when I got home.. I had to record the news as we were putting the children to bed but afterwards when they were all asleep I was very excited to see it on the telly as Richard Angwin (the weather man) used it during his forecast! YAY!
I'm still in a state of shock... I was woken this morning by a weird crackling noise & sirens coming from outside. For a while the noise sort of combined with my dreams... but as soon as our power went off and the baby monitor started beeping I was leaping out of bed.
As I headed across to the bedroom window I was thinking how strange a time it was for someone to let off so many fireworks. What I saw on opening the shutters had me transfixed in horror...
Our Grand Pier was engulfed in flames and smoke. I loved looking at it every day & night when it lit up with a myriad of green lights that reflected beautifully on the water... when the tide was in.
All that's left is a hollow burnt out shell... thank goodness there was no one hurt and the wind blew the smoke away from shore... You can see my shaky video here
We had a relaxing day today... well deserved as this week has been exceptionally manic with errands & various appointments. We headed off to meet up with friends and see the old fashioned steam fair on our beach lawns. F decided he preferred to look at the rides and flat out refused to go on anything. So we stood and watched his 3 pals have a ball! While they were on the mini cars we went off to the hook a floating duck stall. F's prize for catching a big yellow duck on the hook at the end of a long stick was a bottle of bubbles.... and he was delighted. We spent the rest of the afternoon with buckets and spades on the beach making sandcastles for the little ones to demolish before they'd hardly left the bucket!
On the way home we wondered up the grand pier walkway for the first time since it's recent opening. We made a donation to the pier fund, bought a couple of Mr Whippy ice creams with flakes and saw close up what's now left of the pavilion. I was really glad to see the walkway full with lots of people... sitting having an ice cream or cuppa & just watching the world go by and not just heading for the wreckage at the end.
