It’s a lovely day today, warm even for spring and we decided to head down to Burnham-on-Sea and maybe find an ice-cream at our favourite place, Little Italy on Sea. Our little village of Uphill, also being ‘on sea’ was absolutely heaving with people and we thought Burnham might be less crowded, and also it would be a nice little trip.
It was a nice little trip, except we were unable to park because of problems with the payment machines, and we knew these days traffic wardens are very hot on “illegal” parking. We tried to find somewhere else, without success so headed back out of Burnham to drop into Apex Park where there’s usually an ice-cream van. ‘Usually’, but not today. So we headed back home, and as we drove into Uphill, down towards the beach which is our way home, there was a perfect parking place!! We took advantage of it and then sauntered down to the boatyard where we hoped Giulio’s Gelato at the Boathouse would be available – and indeed it was.
How perfect! I had a large tub (they had run out of cones) with a generous helping of salted caramel and another of vanilla; himself had a cherry Bakewell and a cookies and cream. We sat at a table, slightly in the shade because the spring sunshine was actually very warm, ate our ice-creams and watched various dogs falling out with each other and their owners trying to control them, ditto small children and parents. We sauntered back to the car, noticing as we passed the rhyne that the tide was coming in, and then headed home for a nice cup of tea.
A rhyne by the way is a local Somerset word for a drainage ditch. There was a hilarious typo in the village magazine once, talking about the Uphill rhinos, not rhynes! Rhinos are not native to Uphill.
Lois Elsden 