There is nothing so lovely as the seaside just after the summer season has ended. The weather turns from bathing-suits-and-sunscreen to sweatshirts and rolled-up jeans, and we spend the mornings playing horseshoes on the beach and flying kites. The gulls swoop and wheel across the sky and run along the sand as my youngest child chases them without fear of getting lost among countless umbrellas and strangers. Both boys run a great distance yet are still within my view, and they revel in their freedom as their bare feet leave tracks in the cool, wet sand. We see few others on the beach on this day, and it is divine.