One of the many things the boys love to do while here at Granny & Shen's, is to go for a walk down to the shore at the bottom of the road. With or without my parents' dog.
They don't mind who takes them down, whether it is me or my youngest brother, but I think their preferred choice is my dad, Shen, as he is a champion stone skimmer.
The shore is a sheltered little spot, with plenty stones on the beach, and a calm enough sea for skimming. I just can't skim, so when I take them down they are happy enough to just chuck rocks in the sea, but when my dad takes them, they spend ages searching for the best stones to skim and to see if he can beat his record - which this week stands at 11.
He has been teaching them to skim too. Calum's record so far is 4. David's technique is to through a stone really hard into the sea, near another stone under the water so that it bounces up again and looks like it has done more than one splash!
This morning on their post-breakfast dog walk with my dad they spent much longer than usual down there.
When they came back, my mum and I were presented with these beautiful wild flowers.
Very sweet.
Then my dad came in with something much less sweet.
Winkles.
Eurgh!
He asked me to point out to my bloggy friends that they are different from whelks, before promtly rinsing them out and popping them in a pan to boil quickly for lunch.
I remember having these at my granny's when we were younger. They were quite a delicacy but I just could never stomach them. I've already told you all how I really don't like sea-food - I know, shameful with my island heritage! Eurgh, again.
The kitchen smelled like the sea while my dad drained the pan and then picked out all the snails (I'm afraid that's the only way I can describe how they looked) and put them in a big bowl.
None of the boys were brave enough to try them, I can't blame them. Neither was my brother, which I thought was a trifle unfair as when I was his age (OK, perhaps a little younger), I had no choice but to eat them at my own Granny & Shen's! No, actually, I don't mind him chickening out either.
The boys did enjoy picking them from the rock pools and I'm sure that will be a new adventure added to their shore walks from now on.
I promise I shall have some slightly more appetising food on the blog as soon as I can!
Oh, and my brother has asked me to point out that his skimming record is also 11!
I might be a bit strange but they look delicious! We love cockles here in NZ and these look so good!
ReplyDeleteOh Kirsteen, I used to eat them too.... Ewwww! I couldn't do it now unless ...well, I suppose we would if we were starving. Isn't that awful?!
ReplyDeleteLove the flowers though!
Oh - hope you get more days of sunshine like today :)