Kiss me quick

Yesterday - oh joy! - a really warm, sunny day, set to last. Maybe my winter-white legs and feet could catch a few rays. The Gardener and I spent the afternoon at the seaside, having run Flossie into a deep, pleasurably-exhausted sleep after a long hilly walk in the morning. Our local beach bans dogs until October, and we assumed that the same ruling would apply to other holiday beaches.

Flossie dutifully obliged by settling into her basket with her teddy. That dog can sleep for Britain (and teddy never seems quite awake at the best of times...).

Although really on the Bristol Channel, with Wales looking very close across the water, Burnham on Sea and Weston-super-Mare have an authentic seaside-y feel.

The Burnham beach was almost empty.

Dogs are allowed, apparently. Sorry, Flossie.

But the Weston-super-Mare one was decidedly not empty. One end of the beach has desolate semi-derelict Birnbeck Pier, once thronged with visitors but now used only by the lifeboat; a sad sight.

This end of town was rather grim, and probably awaiting redevelopment.

We walked along towards the buzz of the Grand Pier, past dozing people. The Gardener took many pictures.

But the recently-refurnished Victorian Grand Pier and the long Promenade were another matter entirely: traditional, jolly, very British seaside activity everywhere.

And again, unlike where we live, dogs were permitted, and we found that we could have brought Flossie, who would have joined the young Dalmatian swimming joyfully in the Marine Lake - although, personally, I prefer to think of family beaches being dog-free during the summer.

The Marine Lake is reached and replenished by every tide.

Its small beach was popular, although Victorian visitors would have greatly outnumbered those we saw today.

We watched a fundraising event for the RNLI, and saw Minnie Mouse take her his head off to cool down.

The land train buzzed up and down. Fish and chips, candy floss, ice cream and doughnuts were everywhere. No Kiss Me Quick hats though - perhaps no longer a seaside prerequisite?

We resisted many things.....

We had coffee, and later an ice cream; we took many photographs and came home in time for Flossie's dinner. The Gardener is deeply tanned already, in that patchwork manner of people who work outdoors all the year round, but I was gratified to find that my winter pallor was noticeably lessened.

And the sunshine is forecast to last for the week; I feel browner and better at the very thought!