We’ve had some pretty glorious weather up here in Shetland this summer. Temperatures have regularly been hitting the 20’s, which, in Shetland, is considered a heat wave! On one fine sunny day we decided to go rock pooling at Leebitton, a place we’d never been before but we were told by a nature loving friend that it was the best place in Shetland for rock pools at low tide. Checking the tide tables and weather and we were in luck – low tide was early afternoon and the sun was blazing.
We were on the hunt for crabs (and anything else we could possibly find) but mostly crabs. The first rock pool we looked in we saw a crab, but he quickly scurried away under thick seaweed so we couldn’t catch it. We did, however, find plenty of sea anemones, limpets, barnacles, different coloured seaweeds and a live jelly fish – the kids loved this and they took turns squealing with glee and touching the jelly-like top. It was the first time any of them had touched a jellyfish before.
We did eventually find two crabs. We found a large dead one with seaweed growing on itthat the kids found fascinating. They spent ages touching and feeling how all the appendages worked – you couldn’t do that with a live crab!
Our eldest (14) went off on his own quietly looking for a hermit crab. He went from rock pool to rock pool picking up every snail shell he could find and he eventually found one that was occupied, much to the delight of the younger children who watched its little legs wiggling in the shell. When the hermit crab was put back into the rock pool it went scuttling off.
Other wildlife we saw that day included:
• diving gannets (called solan geese here in Shetland) beautiful large white birds with black tipped wings and a yellow head.
• a flock of Arctic terns (tirricks, in Shetland) who wouldn’t let us go very far out on the rocks without shrieking at us to not come any closer.
• rock pippits – little brown birds that flit about the shoreline
• oystercatchers (shalders) – with their distinctive bright orange eye and long orange beaks
• a whole family of seals – basking on the rocks on the shoreline they looked like giant prehistoric slugs!
Across the water from Leebitton is the island of Mousa which hosts the finest surviving Iron Age broch tower standing at 13.3 metres. It is thought this structure was built around 100 BC. I haven’t yet had the pleasure of visiting it, but I do want to go at night and see the elusive storm petrels returning after a day of feeding at sea during the summer months. I hear this experience is quite magical.
COLIN THE CRAB
The reason we were looking for crabs on that fine sunny day was because the kids had been sent a copy of Colin the Crab pop-up book to review. Colin the Crab is the brainchild of Norfolk-based mumpreneur Susie Mason, who began her Gone Crabbing business five years ago at the kitchen table of her small cottage.
Spotting a gap in the market for high-end holiday souvenirs, Susie started producing kids’ t-shirts featuring funky, seaside designs in bright, bold colours. Given crabbing is so popular with young visitors to Norfolk, Susie chose Colin the Crab as her brand identity.
Gone Crabbing has expanded and now includes a Totally Clawsome range of delightful home wares including crisp cotton tea towels, sturdy place mats and coasters, some rather snappy oven gloves, chefs’ aprons, gorgeous mugs and cute paper napkins.
To celebrate World Oceans Day on June 8th of this year, Susie launched a new book about Colin the Crab featuring two of his seaside mates Sally the Starfish and Mike the Mussel. Beautiful illustrations throughout the book are brought to life with delightful pop ups by Robert Crowther.
The story is about Colin and his friends who are happily lounging in their rock pool, but Sally and Mike are taken away by children who are rock pooling and Colin gets very upset. Thankfully, Sally and Mike are returned to where they are found and all ends well. The story has a good message behind it, that we should treat nature with respect.
The story itself is very well written but I think it is aimed at an older audience than what you would expect a pop up book to be aimed at. My five year old refused to sit still as I tried to read it to him, preferring to play with the pop ups and look at the pictures, while my seven year old quietly sat and read the book from start to finish, thoroughly enjoying it. It is a long story for such a small book with quite a large amount of text on each page, but if you have an avid reader it’s perfect.
Retailing at £7-99 you can pick up a copy at any Gone Crabbing shop in Norfolk or Suffolk, from any one of their 50 stockists throughout the UK or from their online shop.
Find them on Twitter and Facebook.
Gone Crabbing have made this rather awesome video about how to go crabbing properly and I can’t wait to try out their suggestions with my own children!
GIVEAWAY
Gone Crabbing have offered my readers the chance to win one of their Big Crab Apron and Double Oven Glove sets RRP £28. I too was sent one of these sets and they are adorable! They’re made from a good quality cotton and the colours are bold and bright. They’ve become somewhat of a talking point in my kitchen!
How to Enter
For your chance to win one Big Crab Apron and Double Oven Glove set RRP £28 enter using the Rafflecopter form below. Come back and tweet about the giveaway every day for more chances to win!
Terms & Conditions
This giveaway is open to UK entries only. Entrants must be age 18 or over. The winner will need to respond within 48 hours of being contacted; failure to do this may result in another winner being selected.
The prize is offered and provided by Gone Crabbing. The prize is one Big Crab Apron and Double Oven Glove set. There is no cash alternative and the prize is not transferable.
If you need some help using Rafflecopter, here’s a quick clip to show you how. Rafflecopter will pick the winner at random from all the entries received. I will be verifying entries and any automated entries or those who have claimed they have made the mandatory blog post comment and really haven’t will be disqualified. It’s mandatory!
Closing date is midnight on Monday 1 September 2014 and the winner will be announced that day.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Don’t forget to visit Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary giveaways page for more fantastic prizes!
If you want to be kept up to date on my recipes, occasional craft tutorials, adventure stories and giveaways then please subscribe to my weekly newsletter; it gets sent out every Monday morning if there is new content. Your email address won’t be passed on to anyone, you will never be spammed and you are free to unsubscribe at any time, no questions asked.
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Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary was sent a copy of Colin the Crab for review. We also received a complimentary apron and oven glove set. All opinions expressed are our own. This is not a paid post.
Quick Breakfast Smoothie
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Wow – this little adventure looked amazing! I would have loved this – and my son too of course! We visited the Atlantic ocean this past summer in Prince Edward Island, Canada and it was so beautiful, but we didn’t find any tide pools. Just enjoyed some lobster and the beautiful beaches. You have a gorgeous blog and your recipes look amazing! Thanks for dropping by One Time Through – I’ll be following your adventures! Best, Sue
My favourite has to be Bournemouth beach x
Blackpool.
Beaches in Cornwall…what a lovely set to win.
Maura x
Whitley Bay in the North East
The Gower, in South Wales.
Bournemouth.
Right on my doorstep! My favourite is Druridge Bay in Northumberland 🙂
Whitley bay beach
We love Brancaster beach in Norfolk. It’s unspoilt and when the tide is out the sand goes on for miles!
Newquay!
truro cornwall
cala galdana, menorca is our favourite
porthcothan in cornwall
mexico 🙂
Broad stairs
Blackpool.
blackpool
I love the jurassic coast, durdle door is my favourite
Port Eynon in Wales – and I’m lucky enough to have moved just up the road from there this year 🙂
craster which has world famous crab sarnies freshly caught .. the crabs, that is .. not swimming sarnies.
I love the seaside resorts of North Yorkshire
Great Yarmouth
At the moment it is Woolacombe beach in north devon but we are off to Mexico in April so that may change 🙂
Puro beach in Majorca! x
Anywhere on the cornish coast
I love the ones round Cornwall, especially Newquay 🙂
Cleethorpes beach is my fav
cornwall
I love Newquay Cornwall! 🙂
Whitby
Cromer!
Clearwater, Florida – the sand is golden and the sea is warm
You can’t beat Scarborough!
Crosby Beach, Liverpool…..wonderful wide vista, great for watching seabirds-the herring gull chicks are so cute.The addition of Anthony Gormley’s Another place art installation-wistful iron men looking out to the sea is very thought provoking. Wonderful sunsets. And the perfect waterfront for a Cancerian like me, which is why I
Love the Crab apron and gloves ( I love to cook!)
Margaret River in Australia, a gorgeous beach and lots of happy memories there
Woolacombe Bay, Devon
Carbis Bay, Cornwall
Looe Bay Cornwall
Lyme Regis
I’m completely biased because I live here. I love the Cornish seaside, particularly St Ives 🙂
I always remember going to Torquay when we were young, which was many years ago! We always went looking for crabs with my Uncle Geoff. These days the nearest and best to us is Formby beach in Southport. Thanks
Swanage in Dorset – I used to own a small hotel there and we had school parties ‘out of season’ and the children loved it, so I know it is brilliant for kids.
I live in Guernsey so am surrounded by coastine; we have wonderful beaches as well as stunning cliff walks.
swanage in dorset
florida beaches love em
I like the beach at broadstairs
Southsea – It holds so many memories for our family
mudeford, dorset
crantock beach in cornwall
Nice, a perfect blend of city and sea!
Meeru in the Maldives. Paradise!
I love the beach at Lytham as that is the beach that my daughter visits regularly!
Salcombe in Devon
Westward Ho in North Devon…A very special place.
I love the beaches in Devon
Gower Coast, South Wales
The Wirral, Uk. It’s my home & has a beautiful varied costline.
Dunwich
st ives
CRICCIETH
I love Caswell Bay near Swansea.
Hikkaduwa in Sri Lanka
Clacton beach at the end by the Martello Tower. quiet, deserted and lots of rock pools
Redcar – Which is lucky as it’s where I live 😉
Right on my doorstep. Swansea has many lovely beaches.
Portreath, Cornwall
Robin Hood’s Bay near Whitby is the best ever
Dominican Republic as got married on the beach there
got to be newquay beach in cornwall, its just beautiful x
Robin Hoods Bay – North Yorkshire
Scarborough. The place of childhood holidays for me 🙂
Casablanca, Morocco x
Woolacombe in Devon
we love Bracklesham Bay because the beach is covered in fossils and it’s pretty cool for the children to spend an afternoon finding millions of years old sharks teeth
i love Blackpool beach and also Filey beach-can’t really choose between the two 🙂 x
Boscombe beach
I love The Lizard in Cornwall!
I love Weymouth in Dorset.
Godrevy Beach in Cornwall, just a few miles away from my house!
I love the west coast of Scotland
Whitby, North Yorkshire
Hastings x
The north norfolk coast, have such fond chilhood memories of holidays there, remember searching the rock pools on cromer beach with my dad and collecting all our little treasures in a bucket. My favourite part was letting the crabs go afterwards 🙂
pembrokeshire
Mudeford Sandbank
Mudeford near Bournemouth. I used to live near there and it is a lovely peaceful beach.
Whitby
Porlock Weir
love Filey and Filey Brigg-great place for crabbing in the rock pools
Lytham St Annes, its stunning
Holy Island, so peaceful.
camber sands
Torquay
Southport Beach
Brighton xx
The Gower
Lyme Regis
Weston Super Mare in the mud!!
Salou beach (port adventura, spain)
Playa Jardín, Puerto de la Cruz. One of many black sand beaches in Tenerife
St Bees in Cumbria.
little town called tywyn in north wales, its a lovely beach and the mother in law has a caravan about a 30 second walk away.
Trevone in Cornwall.
North Norfolk, absolutely beautiful
we live no where near to the sea it sucks i’d love to take the kinds more often x
Whitby – I just love it’s old-fashioned charm.
Scarborough
skeggy
Lyme Regis in the West Country. Full of happy childhood memories
I love the beaches in Corfu, Greece
My favourite seaside location is my little hometown of Whitehead in Northern Ireland, as it holds so many happy childhood memories. It was part of our outdoor playground – lots of rock pooling and giant boulders to climb. My father and I spent many sunny afternoons clearing a strip of rocky seaweed so we had a nice sandy strip for easy paddling!
albufeira!
Aberdovey, Wales
Weymouth.
The Seychelles
The Queensland coast in Australia, 4 Mile Beach in Port Douglas in particular!
Moorea
the outer Hebrides beaches
Bamburgh beach!!!! Northumberland!
Any of the beaches in west Wales. All gorgeous
In Cornwall there are lovely beaches, and not far from me
I love Charlestown in Cornwall
South of france
STUDLAND BAY IN DORSET
love your story and pics – great to see Shetland in the sunshine – continuing the beach theme, Durness in the north west corner of Scotland is another fine one
Borth y Gest
Woolacombe Bay, Devon
i really enjoy my local beach Hartlepool/Seaton Carew
Girvan beach, spent many happy weeks there in my younger days
My home town.
It’s nothing special but it’s ours and we visit it every weekend
I quite liked Benidorm when we went 🙂
Lived in Dorset all my life so I’m spilt for choice but still have a soft spot for some of South Devon’s little coves, like Beer. Love that place and it has a great name! Would love to win the Gone Crabbing gear, one of my favourite things to eat!
Gorleston Beach!
I have been to weymouth & love it! I would really like to experience the beaches of Mexico xx
Hawaii
Lulworth cove in Dorset is by far my favourite
In Tenerife
Blackpool 😀
Scarborough
paphos
Depends on the weather, but in winter it’s Reighton beach in North Yorkshire. It’s so rugged and interesting.
I love Goodrington Sands in Devon it has a lovely beach, great waves during storms, excellent rock pooling locations, amusements near by and beautiful fairy cove by night.
cornwall or for traditional seaside blackpool
the beach in Crete
Piraeus in Greece 🙂
Down in Devon
Absolutely love Tenby at Wales. Fab beach and big waves!!
all of mainland UK, Wales, England and Scotland have stunning beaches
Have you ever visited us up in the islands? 😀 There’s some pretty crackin’ beaches up here too. Hope you get a chance to see them one day!
Llandanwyg Beach – where I grew up
Lossiemouth in Scotland
Worms Head on Gower
Wales,Whitesands in Pembrokeshire.
depending on the weather all our coast it great but Cornwall just nips it!
We love St Ives in Cornwall. The beaches are beautiful and the town is so pretty.
they have a stunning beach in cornwell
Mallaig every time
North Yorkshire coast, Scarborough, Whitby and Filey are lovely x
Southwold
ISLE OF WIGHT
Got to be tenerife where its sunny most days
has to be llandudno
Southwold in Suffolk
In my pre children days I would have said Aruba. But now I would have to go with Brighton. My toddler loves playing with the pebbles
Yorkshire
Fort Myers Beach, Florida!
Brighton beach 🙂
Wales – Haverfordwest x
I love Scarborough – Being at university there was amazing – seaside town, but without the ‘brashness’ of other places. It’s lovely in winter too! Lots of dog-friendly parts also. 🙂
Cromer Beach here in Norfolk. They are known for their Cromer Crabs. Lovely, yum, yum x
Sandy Bay, Devon
Cornwall has some lovely little beaches that I have visited many times
We as a family lover Cromer
Sandbanks sands are so white. Love this prize so cute, hope i win!
St Andrews
Île Sainte-Marie, Madagascar.
Whitby North Yorkshire!
GREAT YARMOUTH BEAUTIFUL BEACHES !!!!!!
Aberdovey in wales
In this Country definitely Roker, there’s loads of little pools. Abroad – Koh Takiyab in Thailand. It’s truly stunning.
Barry Island in Wales.
St Ives cornwall
Lowestoft
Galveston, Texas
Falmouth, not long moved here and loving it!
Whitsunday Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia
We go rock pooling in Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear loads to find and watch there.
Wasnt it just yesterday that we have this same weather. Now its so gloomy and raining cats and dogs! Looks like a fab day by the sea. We dont have that much sea creatures here. I wish we do cuz its so nice to see them esp with my son in tow =) #countrykids
Crantock beach is beautiful
Brighton!
Santorini
Penarth…Where I lived as a child
bahamas but i will probably not be able to go back
Benone Beach in Northern Ireland
Sandwich Bay in Kent
Northumberland
luskentyre on the isle of harris , western isles stunning
Charmouth in Dorset
Bentota beach in Sri Lanka…its where we got married 🙂
Aaww! 🙂
i loved a beach we went to in corfu
LEYSDOWN – when i was a child i spent alot of time there with my grandparents – loved every single moment of it.
My local beach – Llanrystud
Sidmouth
For sunbathing Alcudia, Majorca. For interesting family walks and seeing different rocks and stones then the Pembrokeshire coast is amazing x
Barry Island, South Wales
Luskentyre, Island of Harris. Loved reading this
The Northumberland or North Yorkshire coasts for long bracing walks 🙂
Love Bedrutthen Steps near Newquay, Cornwall
England has some great beaches, Fistal beach in Newquay, if abroad, the white sands of Dominca Republic, unspoilt beauty
I love ullapool on the West coast of Scotland <3
especially Arisaig
Sunny Scotland has some of the most beautiful beaches I have seen
Woody Bay, Isle of Wight
The Gower
i love rockpooling with my child. starfish are my favourite, a are treat to spot them
The isle of Skye
lincolnshire and devon
At the bottom of my street – Whitley bay beach!
My Local one it’s not a big seaside but it is lovely. Hope one day I can get back there
Bridlington in the UK
I have to say Northumberland, we have such a variety of coast beautiful beaches and lots of castles
Bournemouth, Beautiful beach and town.
sandbank 😀
Brighton
We love Whitesands Bay in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
Perfect surf, rock pools for the kids to play in, and stunning coastal walks! 🙂
We have always liked going to the seaside at Bournemouth. Have fond memories as a child as well
I’m glad you have been sharing the lovely summer sunshine too. I bet it is stunning up in Shetland in the warmth. Your pictures always look so inviting and the coastline full of interest. Mousa looks well worth an explore too. Thank you for sharing with me on Country Kids
We were on holiday recently in England (I will be linking up with Country Kids again with those adventures!) and the sun shone the entire time we were there, and then we brought it back to Shetland with us! It’s been a lovely summer so far – we’ve needed it! Thank you for your lovely comment and I agree, Mousa does look like a fab place to explore. One day!
This was lovely, I adore rock pooling and crabbing. So interesting and loved the little video.
What a gorgeous part of the world you live in.
I love New Quay in West Wales, I think it is the best beach I have been too.
Thank you, I am glad you enjoyed it 🙂 I’ve only been to Wales once, Fishguard, many years ago. Such a beautiful part of the country!
Why can’t I live there! I don’t suppose you have a spare croft house or something I can squat in? I am very good at living in a draughty house in winter! Love the view of Mousa Broch. I wish I had gone there at night to see the storm petrels.
I wish! I think we’d get on like a house on fire 🙂 Fancy a swap – no wait, you don’t live by the sea do you.. I don’t think I could do that!