The first week of September saw Husb and I get away for a bit. Prior to that, Fruit & Faith, (the guinea-pigs) & Flora (the hamster) went on their hols to Birmingham and Jasper (the cat) went to the cattery and the chids (pictured below) went to Wales (by train) with the big two boys carrying ruck-sacks (!?). 
Yep, it did take some organising.
After sorting out all that and clothes etc for all concerned, there was little mental (or physical) energy left to actually formulate a plan as to WHERE we were actually going to go on our holiday. Husb had spent several hours surfing the web looking for holiday destinations (and there were plenty) but nothing which fitted our window of opportunity and meagre budget. So, we took the kids to the station, & cat to the cattery, then we came home, packed (including our 2 man tent) drank tea and got into the car. Husb said "North or South?" and I said "North." (honestly).
One of our fav (kid free) outings is The Albert Dock in Liverpool. It has great coffee shops, cutesy/gifty/nicknack shops and the Tate (which we love). We had just missed the Klimt exhibition (by one day!) which was a pity because I'd have loved to have seen Klimt's 'The Kiss' up close. I do have a thing about getting as up close as possible to the works on display. Love to see brush marks and finger prints and all the bits you miss when looking at visual art in books. Anyway... we took our time and spent AGES without anybody getting fed-up or needing a wee or a drink of juice etc. (Actually the chids do like art galleries but can't stand and look at the same thing for more than 30 seconds). I ALWAYS come out inspired. Husb and I took some silly photos outside of each other...just playing with light and profiles etc. I only have a compact camera and live in hope for the day when I can take truly arty-farty decent pictures.
I call this one "HIM"
I call this one "HER"
although it was taken by "him".
Then of course a posed pic together doing the touristy thing ...
The sky went all dark and moody (then it rained). We drove out of Liverpool after a seriously yum coffee and a long sit on a leather settee and decided to stop on the ouskirts in a non-descript but very nice Innkeepers Lodge. It included a huge continental breakfast (something we always appreciate when on holiday).
At the Tate, a guide had recommended Port Sunlight in Birkenhead and also Anthony Gormley's 100 figures on the beach, as possible places to go on to. (Remember the no-plan plan?) So next day we headed there. Port Sunlight was quaint and we did enjoy the Lady Lever's Gallery but we didn't stay long at Port Sunlight.
Not long later we were quite taken with the metal sculptures by Anthony Gormley. 100 life sized guys looking out to sea. (Note the very childish photo of me playing with perspective & pretending to press the sculpture into the sand heehee).
Carrying on North, we went over to Southport. It had been quite sunny so we decided to pitch the tent, for a night under canvas. Note the black bin bags tied to the top of the tent ggrrr... Our big 2 boys had gone camping overnight with some friends from church and unknown to us the tent had returned without the little square of canvas that sits right on top (which is crucial for the rain proof nature of the tent). It's unlike Roman to lose something like that and we never thought to check the tent before we left. They had only used it days before. Anyway...that night there was a MASSIVE rainstorm which began as we were having a nice meal in Southport. We returned to our little tent, unsure of what we'd find but the cleverly designed rain proof makeshift cover I'd tied on had kept the interior DRY! We were amazed and had been discussing the possibility of kipping in the car. I must say we stayed dry all night, the only downside was the noisy flapping of the plastic bin bags as the wind was blowing a gale. Note the 'nature' we enjoyed in our interior to exterior view...
Bright & early (it was too chilly and soaking to hang about) we headed to Blackpool for a night in a B&B.
There's something about this photo of Husb I like..sort of picture-postcardy without the sun, blue sky, or bucket & spades. I can almost imagine the 
text... 'Wish You were Here' in a swirly yellow font.
We asked a couple of people to take a snap of us in front of the Tower and the one below was by far the best ... seriously... even with the tower poking out 
the top of Husb's head. It does kind of capture our holiday though (!)
I call this "Self-portrait with Tower" !!
We went to see the Blackpool rock making demonstration and that was a highlight.
Next day we went to Wigan to see George Orwell's famous 'Wigan Pier'. There used to be an Orwell mini museum that we'd visited once, many years ago in 1991 (ish) when we were at Uni. Well, it had closed down last year. There was torrential rain running down the road and my tooth was really starting to play up. We pressed on and drove to Manchester, hoping to stay a night but it was extremely expensive, even for an impersonal no breakfast place.
Neither of us wanted to suggest what we were both thinking. Finally I broached it & we went home. BUT we promised ourselves that we were still on holiday. We left the cat at the cattery, the chids in Wales and the small furries in Birmingham. I didn't even operate the washing-machine or push the hoover till after the chids came home late on Sunday. I don't think it was the greatest holiday and we were only away 3 nights but we enjoyed eachothers silly jokes and, well, it made a change. :)
I have so enjoyed sitting on the floor of our schoolroom and 'playing'. A double LO is not my usual style, but there were so many pictures & so much to say that I HAD to do a double. Still got to sew the buttons on and decide what to do for the journalling. With so many pics and 'busy' pics too, it's really important to leave some space around the photo block. The title 'September Afternoon' doesn't really show up too well, it's actually a 'conker' coloured green and brown/upper & lower case letter mix which is a bit lost on the above pic.
