Unclean! Unclean!

North Devon is a great place to holiday with children. It rains a fair bit but at least there are plenty of wet day activities. There are lots of slightly old-fashioned towns to potter around, and the beaches are just brilliant.

The highlights:

Watermouth Castle near Ilfracombe. Be warned: this is not your usual theme park. Cool 11 year olds will find it all a bit cheesy and embarrassing, but my two were thrilled by, inter alia, the crazy golf, the water show and the Archimedes Screw.

Isn't this just amazing? 15 minutes of lights and water - it was better than Coronation Street!

Diggers! Diggerland in Devon was pricey but worth every single penny. It was such serious fun for James that he couldn't even smile.

There were real diggers to be driven and real earth to be moved. If you have a digger-mad child or husband, then this place is well worth a special trip. Marvellous ....

Blue bubble gum ice cream. This stuff doesn't come out of clothes and is even inclined to stain the skin. You heard it here first, folks.

We returned with several pounds of weight gain, some rather nice hand-painted ceramics,

and... chicken pox. Laura is spotty and we are pariahs. Any other time of year and parents of small children would be beating a path to our door, getting the lurgy out of the way. But school starts in two weeks and who wants their child to miss those exciting first days? So... I'm ringing the handbell, calling out'unclean!' and hunkering down for a lengthy course of cabin fever.

Incidentally, the shop is open again with a range of knit dresses that probably should have been listed in March! Anyway, in between cuddling Bottomley Potts on the sofa, I'm doing some drafting ready for a Christmas collection, including a posh baby dress. Which on my current form, will probably be in the shop for Valentine's Day....