Bantham Beach, Burgh Island and a free tutorial

I thought you might like to see some photos of Bantham Beach and Burgh Island which are just 20 minutes away from Coombe Leigh. 

Bantham is a large sandy beach much favoured by surfers, and Burgh Island features a stunning Art Deco Hotel – the white building you can see in the photos – which was the setting for one of Agatha Christie’s novels “And Then There Were None.” Bantham is about 8 miles from where we live, so as Townie Husband was at the rugby, Ben and I decided to head off in that direction for a nice walk before dog beach restrictions commence on 1 May…. 

You have to walk down along the river to the beach.  I kept stopping to take photos and my canine companion was getting a little impatient!  Rather than Agatha Christie, this part of Devon reminds me of the children’s author Enid Blyton – I can just imagine the Famous Five having an adventure along the river banks!! 

Then the path drops down through the sand dunes towards the beach and you can see Burgh Island in the distance.  Can you see a black tail waving happily too? 

 Then the island seems to rise up in front of you.  The angle of this shot is deceptive though as you will see …

Once you scramble down the cliffs, Bantham beach opens up in front of you and Burgh Island is a very long way away!  You can’t actually walk to it from Bantham as the rive crosses the beach and the water is too deep and swift to cross. 

 So Ben contents himself with paddling in the shallow warm pools left by the receding tide.  The sand is covered in ripples from the waves and is great to run around on …

 Especially when you’ve made some new friends.  The little pug attacking Ben’s right back paw was absolutely fearless – and only 5 months old!  There weren’t very many people on the beach at all as the weather was quite chilly and there had been lots of heavy, thundery showers … 

 Luckily these clouds passed overhead without dumping their load of rain on top of us.  This was good as there is absolutely nowhere to shelter once you’re out on the sands.

Looking back the way we came .. we walked a very long way indeed.  And someone’s paws became tired and he wanted to go home for tea.

 So we did!! (My legs were tired too.)

But before I end this post – I am easily pleased by little things – don’t you just love Ben’s bus ticket from his birthday – picture and all?!

And excellent value at 70p – for a whole day’s travel!! 

Oh, and thinking about birthdays – I have put together a quick and easy tutorial for Stitch and Flip – the technique I used to make the squares for Ben’s birthday topper.  You can download it free here.  An extended version, together with additional tips on problem-solving in free-motion quilting from Leah Day is in the May Issue of the Bustle & Sew Magazine – out tomorrow. 

So you have only 24 hours left to subscribe and receive the April Issue immediately followed by May’s Issue tomorrow – plus “The Stitcher’s Companion” as your joining gift.  That’s $40-worth of goodies for your first $5.50 payment – but only for 24 hours! 

To learn more please click here.