I'm happy to be back after my two day break of sea-side camping.

A few friends and family gathered here at our house by the sea to play at camping. We set up our tents just a bit from the terrace and pergola.

Calling the house the "camp store" and "camp clubhouse".

Our intentions were to be out in the "camping area" as much as possible.

Our first night was so windy, I thought the tents would blow away or at the very least collapse upon our sleeping heads.

The leaden sky was telling of that first night of wind, but we were up for the challenge. And the next morning, as often happens here at Toad Hall, we had a complete weather change and the wind had died. This made for a lovely way to start the morning off with coffee on the boil over the fire accompanied by the cries of the gull and the cacophony of cricket song.

Our next full day together was warm.

The sun came out and we went for a long dip in the sea. The tide was going out so we waded our way across the bay to the channel and splashed about; taunting one another with seaweed. We lazed on the warm sand and caught hermit crabs to watch their antics and let our legs dangle in the current whilst little fish nibbled our salty skin.

After this we returned to the beach and let ourselves dry in the sun, feeling that wonderful sticky layer of salt letting us know what we had been about. This was followed by a meander around the point to do some treasure hunting.

We collected shells, rocks, crab casings, and all sorts.

I was lucky to find more bones to add to my ever growing collection and was not stingy with my find, they were shared all about. Here are some of the treasures set to dry upon the bench on the terrace.

A funny sight, indeed, watching friends and the sea with vertebrae lined up like lead soldiers upon the railings.

Although we truly spent most of our time out of doors, even keeping the majority of our food and supplies in coolers, we did make trips indoors to relieve ourselves from the baking sun. We spent an early evening playing card games at the table and a funny game in the living room, where someone wears headphones the the other tries to lip read phrases to them. This always results in fits of laughter and silliness. And we were glad for the reprieve from the baking sun.

This is September, however, and the cool weather soon returned.

And there was another evening of ghost stories round the fire and camp food cooked to a crisp and laughter and talking and listening to the owls and sounds of the evening.

It was a lovely little break and I had to remind myself to take a few photos, as the joy of being mainly unplugged for two days was like a wonderful little time travel trip to the time before social media existed and it was simply social living.

I thank all of you for happily encouraging me to the break and I was so happy this morning to see the comments and votes on my last post. This is truly a wonderful community and despite our being 'virtual friends' I find you all to be dear 'kindred souls'.

I hope that you had a moment to enjoy some unplugged time and to capture these fleeting moments of late Summer to early Autumn.