sandy toes and salty air

I am addicted to the beach.

I always liked the seaside as a child;

paddling my toes in the sea,

building sandcastles,

eating ice creams.

But three years in a seaside town for university sealed the deal.

The husband and I fell in love at the seaside.

And as I packed up my university life

and headed home and away from the coast,

I swore I'd be back by the sea one day.

That I became a we,

and the we grew to include two children,

but that call to go back to the sea hasn't dulled for me.

In fact if anything, I want to live at the coast even more now I have children.

And it isn't just the charms of a warm sunny beach that call to me.

I love the seaside just as much on a chilly day,

with the sand deserted and a bracing wind.

I have always been magnetically drawn to the water,

and I simply cannot visit a beach without removing my shoes,

and running across the sand to dip my feet in the water.

The husband will throw his head back and roll his eyes,

looking at me like I'm a crazed loon,

but it's something I simply have to do.

And having a toddler gives me a great excuse,

because I simply have to do it for him,

because he'll enjoy it.

So until my seaside dreams become reality,

we make do with going to visit the sand and the water as much as we can.

We make pretend that we own one of the beach huts,

we paddle out feet,

we eat sand (some of us do anyway!)

we feel the wind in our hair,

we breath in the fresh salty air,

we wriggle our toes in the sand,

we chase seagulls,

we collect shells,

we build sandcastles,

we come to life in the wide open spaces.

The simplest and best of nature's pleasures.