Beach envy

We just spent a brilliant weekend in Hoylake. Lovely, lovely friends who live in a beautiful house filled with light, kids, music and with arty stuff happening in nearly every room (jewellery making, sewing, painting...). All this AND there's a huge beach at the end of the road. How gorgeous is that?

There's something magical about the long view across the sea to the horizon. It never fails to calm me down and lift my spirits.

Having had my spirits lifted, the trip to the beach was only slightly marred by Missy falling over no less than 8 times, and whining, then thumping me in face with sandy hands. I won't go into how we sorted that one out because my blood temp took ages to return to normal, but suffice to say I was reminded of it all day as I couldn't get the sand out of my fillings for some time. Thank god for the long view.

I came back to Austerity Towers very disgruntled. I've always wanted to live within walking distance of a beach. And what a beach it is, nearly as good as Tentsmuir, my all-time favourite in Scotland. They did say we could visit anytime, so perhaps we could just move in... I'm a very good house guest, they'd hardly know I was there. I'd be on the beach ALL the time anyway.

I'm now wondering how to shift the house 50 miles in a seaward direction.

What's your favourite beach?

Lucy