Did you miss me?

I missed you all! I really did. I had a wonderful - yet hectic, pandemonic, slightly chaotic - time at the ocean and miss it so much already. I love the ocean. It's like coming home. It's when you remember without thinking how to climb cliffs, go rockpooling and be the perfect paddler. It's when you can see the shore in your mind's eye, smell the pungent salty air of the seaside and feel the crunch of glistening wet sand crystals beneath your feet even when you are 100 miles inland. That's why it feels like home to me, although I have never lived near the sea.

There is something, some invisible force, that draws me to the ocean....that vast, huge body of water that nobody can ever hope to see the whole of. The uncountable drops of brine, the life it holds and the power it has over life and death and our land enchant me. I think it all began when I went on a trip to the beach with school, a beautiful beach with white sands and smooth pebbles, gleaming azure waters and green sand dunes as far as the eye could see. We had a booklet with some information about the beach itself and the ocean in general but one quotation, printed in small Times New Roman on the back of the leaflet, still stays with me.

“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” ~ Mother Teresa

So I think the ocean kind of signifies the world to me...but each drop of water represents a human being, someone so tiny and diminutive in the whole scheme of living, but someone so brilliantly important in their own way. The ocean's special and ever since I first visited, many yonders ago when the sun shone in summer (!) and I could wear glittery mauve jelly shoes without feeling self-conscious, I have vowed that one day I will live in a house right by the sea so I can be breathless every minute of the day - astounded by its beauty and sheer mass and blueness.

So now that's over and done with, I just had to write it somewhere, I'll share some nice little details about my lovely holiday. And, if you haven't yet realised, this post will probably be a long one, so leave now unless you're in it for the long run...! My parents, little sister (who's actually not so little anymore) and I stayed in North Devon, one of the most beautiful and serene places on the English coastline. Many of the beaches are deserted, with only a few souls wandering their sand even in summer, and some days we had the sea to ourselves. The water was absolutely freezing, cold enough to give you frostbite I'm sure, but since when did that ever stop me?! I guess I'm just too used to the English Channel which is significantly warmer than the Atlantic Ocean, naturally. Still, here's some proof that I did actually go in [my feet in the water as you may not be able to decipher thanks to such limited DOF]...

It was sunny and warm most days, although rain plagued us on the last couple of afternoons in true English style. My mother and I drove to a deserted little cove and shore named Putsborough Sands together, just to see it. It was absolutely stunning. There really are no words to describe it. Seriously. You'd have to see it to believe it, and my photographs do not do it justice by a long way. The sun shone high in the bright blue sky illuminating puffy marshmallow cloud formations as Atlantic waves lapped the shore, and clouds reflected onto the sands. My heart just skipped a beat. It was that beautiful. The tide was out and my mum had my camera bag safe and sound round her neck so I just ran. I ran like I have never run before...wind blowing in my hair, wet sand at my feet, the crunchy pebbles between my toes and the absolutely blue sea waiting for me...almost calling my name. And as I ran, blue sweater round my waist and sandals long discarded, I felt truly happy. A different kind of happiness, a place of absolute sweetness and joy. I almost didn't write this for fear I could not even hope to emulate such beauty and such joy but I am glad I did, for I have tried. This is the view I was met with.

And...other stuff...we played a game of Boggle every evening (I always won, unapologetically, it's the only game I am good at), we ate ice-cream until we were bursting, we painted sugar dishes in a shop, my sister and I made up songs, wrote stories, cooked pasta and garlic bread, stayed up late, woke up late, went out to dinner in typical English pubs and had fun. Here's just a few more pictures from my stay....

And, a rare one of my little sister who recently turned thirteen. The sea is in the background, which I love, of course.

Thanks for reading. If you got this far, well done! From the bottom of my heart!! =) Have a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful day...and thanks for the lovely comments you left me whilst I was away.

Love, miss Lulu =)