Lost spade

It was a beautiful day.  

The sun was shining, there wasn’t even a cloud in the sky!

“Today is too lovely to waste, how does everyone like the sound of a day at the beach?” asked mum.

“YEY, I do,” replied everyone. 

So mum sorted out some snacks, juice and rain jackets just to be safe.  Everyone slathered on sunscreen and they were off for a day of beach fun.

It was a short walk, dad found the perfect place to view the entire beach and scope any interesting paths to wander. 

Mum arranged the towels and put up some umbrellas to cover anyone that needed some time out of the sun.

Now they had a base, each went their separate ways on their own adventures.

Mum sat and read her book while checking every now and again to make sure no-one was hurt or wandering too far away.

Dad was way off along the beach happily wandering and taking in all the other possible paths and kicking himself for not taking the fishing rods, today would’ve been perfect to try and catch a few wee fish to show Joe and Mary.

Joe and Mary were very busy, Joe digging with his green spade while Mary helped to build the castle Joe was digging the moat for.   

Once Mary thought she had helped enough and built a tall enough castle for Joe, she went off to search for different shells.  Picking up each one that caught her eye and checking to see if it had a beasty living in it, if there was, Mary always put it back.  Or if it was empty it could be taken home to go into the next art project.

Ages went by Dad returned from his wander looking for some juice.  Mary and Joe spotted him coming back and ran towards mum to beat him, they realized how hungry they all were. 

“Aww that was sneaky spotting me, I was going to eat all of your sandwiches’.” Joked dad.

“Nope we saw you,” giggled Joe and Mary.

Everyone found a place to suit, ate, drank and relaxed for a bit.  This whole beach adventure was hard work.

The weather started to turn and the tide was coming in.

“Think we better head home.” Advised dad.

“Good idea” replied mum as she quickly gather up all of the towels, bags, shoes and umbrellas’.

They left in such a hurry they forgot the spade and didn’t take any photos of the brilliant castle with the moat Joe dug.

It wasn’t until Dad went for a walk after dinner that he saw something odd poking out of the sand. 

Well it couldn’t be, but he walked closer, and it was.  It was Joe’s green spade, that had been left in the moat and buried by the castle to keep it safe.  

Dad took a photo with his phone then picked up the spade and took it home with the perfect bed time story .

©joannehepburn 16.07.2017