I know there seems to be a recurring theme here at the moment...hut, beach, hut, sunshine, hut...you see what I mean?... but I really need to write this post because I am still buzzing about my day.
I realised the other week that I have never been and spent time at my hut on my own. I love to take people down there and I love to show it off but I have never spent time there completely alone. I felt that I had to rectify this and quickly.
Due to my work patterns, it has been quite difficult to fit in a lone visit and the weather has not always been favorable and I always have other things to do, but I decided that yesterday was going to be the day that I put things right.
I worked on Monday evening as usual and resolved to get up the following morning, walk the dog and then drive down to Hayling and my hut.
The weather forecast was pretty good. I took a selection of my birthday presents with me and decided that I was going to spend my day pottering about, reading and drinking tea. The thought of it filled me with joy.
It took 40 mins to get from our house to the hut and I gleefully unlocked the outer doors and let myself in.
The first thing I saw was a broken mirror!! I decided that the '7 years bad luck' didn't apply to me because I didn't break the mirror! My 'beach hut repair man' had been doing running repairs following the storms and the exterior banging in of nails and so on had knocked the mirror off of its hook and onto the floor.
The good news was that the hut looked much more secure than the last time I was there. The floorboards had been sorted out and the base was securely attached to the frame.
I unloaded my bits from the car, carefully placed my new knickknacks in suitable places and put the kettle on. I put the sun lounger out on the decking area, found the remaining choccie biscuits that were left from Christmas and were amazingly not soggy or damp, made a cup of tea and prepared to settle down and read my new book.
It was blissful. It was heavenly. It was all I had wanted and so much more. The sun was shining and there was a gentle breeze. There was one person on our row of huts who was doing some running repairs of his own and that was it. No people, no dogs, no cars....just me and my hut and my thoughts. The fact that the sun was shining was an added bonus.
After a couple of hours of total relaxation a car pulled up and the repair man had arrived. Although I had spoken to him several times on the phone, I had never met him so it was lovely to put a face to the voice. We sat and had another cup of tea and a chat and then he got on with what he wanted to do and I went for a walk to then end of the road and got myself a cheese salad roll via the gift shop that I love and that sells all of the things that I love including this.....
....which is the same as one of the gifts my daughter gave me for my birthday and which is already in the hut.
One of my sisters got me this.......
....which I also love and which is also in my hut. (Sorry that it's sideways on. I don't know how to get it round the right way without messing the blog up!!) It's a heart made of cockle shells and cockles are a family tradition. Both our Nan and our Mum were big cocklers. I remember going cockling as a child, very probably at Hayling, putting the cockles in a bucket with water and flour overnight so that the cockles would have a good feed and be nice and fat in the morning and then boiling the cockles until the shells opened. We would then wait for them to cool down before eating them in a very short space of time. My sister often goes and finds cockles when she is at the coast with her own children and, no doubt, her grandchildren will very soon know about the cockle tradition.
The cockles that are available in supermarkets are, in my opinion, not a patch on fresh, flour-fed cockles that you have collected yourself. We also have a 'thing' for winkles too! I remember our Nan collecting winkles, cooking them and then giving us a needle each so that we could get the winkles out of their shells. I'm not sure that my children even know what winkles are! Perhaps I should teach them.
Anyway, back to my blissful day.....after a couple of hours all the jobs were done and my man went on his way. I stayed for another hour until I decided that I really should be thinking about packing up and going home...especially as I had to be at work before 6pm.
I washed up the cups, put away the chairs and shut down the hut for the day. I felt a bit sad to be leaving but I felt completely thrilled that I had had such a fantastic day.
When I used to think about having a beach hut I used to fantasize what my perfect day would be like. After the burglary and the storm damage I was longing for a good day there. Well, yesterday was my perfect day.
I was overwhelmed by how much I had loved my day there. I really couldn't put into words just how perfect and wonderful it was. It was all I had dreamed about and more. The fact that I got sun burnt and am still lobster-red 24 hours later was just one of those things!
And so my love affair with my hut is alive and well. I couldn't be more delighted to be a hut owner and I hope the affair continues for a very, very long time.
I hope I haven't gone overboard with the photos!
Much love.
xxxx
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