Monday, 30 March 2020

Isle of Wight Holiday Diary #16 - Our very last day and the Newtown Nature Reserve

Hi there everyone 😀

Well here we are ... a week into three weeks of some serious social distancing, it's raining and last week's warm temperatures have dropped a fair few notches, but never mind all of that ... Welcome to the last of my Isle of Wight Holiday Diary posts. Whilst I am glad to finally have shared all that we saw with you ... there is a hint of sadness. It has been lovely looking back over a fabulous three weeks spent on the island and I have no doubt whatsoever that it won't have been our last visit.

For now though, here's how we spent our last day ...

Day 21 - Friday
Whilst we wanted to make the very most of our last full day on the island before heading for home we didn’t venture far from Bramble Cottage.

We were back off the beaten track and got to visit the Newtown Nature Reserve. It's a funny little spot ... with a tiny National Trust property, though the town hall, with no town was closed again ...
I am beginning to wonder if we will we ever get to visit this property.

Our mission was to have a good walk, picking up the clues we needed for a Geocache. We parked up on the small car park and had a look at the map ...
We were going to pretty much take the orange route which took us down past one of the bird hides and out to the old salt pans and quay ... but not before having a bit of a closer look at the old Town hall ...
We booted up and left the car park, passing one of the pretty cottages in the tiny village ...
... before heading a bit more 'off piste' ...
Our first stop was the bird hide ...
... where we stopped for a quick warm up and a look at the view ...
It was totally different to anything else we'd seen on the island ... beautiful, but pretty bleak and there was one heck of a chill wind blowing.

We left the relative warmth of the hide and continued on our way to the quay on the old salt pans ...
It wasn't long before we came to the gate of the boardwalk ... leading off into the distance ...
The boardwalk was fascinating ...
I was quite pleased with my photos ... but after we'd returned home and received this year's National Trust magazine I was even more impressed with these shots ... which are most definitely not mine ... but it was pretty cool knowing that we had walked in those exact same footsteps ...
Down at the quay it was grey, it was very exposed, windy and cold and it boy was it bleak ... but it was beautiful ...

It was also really interesting, with lots of evidence of the activity that used to take place here ...

The footpath took us along the edge of the quay ...
... and there were some cracking views to have looking back across the marshes ...
The path then starts to head back inland and away from the cold wind, across the Coastguard Meadows ...
and brings you back into the village by the pretty little church ...


From here it was but a short walk back to the National Trust car park and back to where we had started.

It was a really interesting walk, pretty exposed and windy down by the quay but we'd really enjoyed it and were so glad that we’d finally got to explore this last bit of the island coast before it was time to leave for home.

So that was pretty much it for us ... one last night back at Bramble Cottage, packing and getting ready for the off on the following morning. We'd had a fabulous three weeks exploring the island ... we'd seen lots of places a bit more of the beaten track than we'd seen before and we'd loved all of it.

We were both said to wave goodbye to the island as we took the ferry from Yarmouth back to Lymington for our drive home ...
Thank you Isle of Wight ... you were amazing ... I only hope it's not too long before we are back 😁😁😁

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Wednesday, 25 March 2020

Random Ramblings :: Stay Safe

Hi there everyone 😀

Whilst this was never my intention it seems that, for the time being, my 'Random Ramblings' have turned into our very own personal Coronavirus update and there has been an awful lot happened since I last 'Rambled' ... just a week ago today.

So what's been happening over here then ...

Friday, 20 March 2020 was the Spring Equinox, Gardeners' World was back on the TV and we had three days of bright sunshine forecast ...

We were supposed to be visiting Jess, Lesley & Tom's daughter for our traditional birthday fish and chip night. Whilst we were in the early days of social distancing we decided we shouldn't go and I was so sad to be missing it.

What made it even worse was that she’s just moved out of home and into a flat with her boyfriend so, as well as fish and chips, we were looking forward to the big tour. We ended up coming to a pretty good arrangement though and had a virtual look round on FaceTime and I did still drop off a birthday cheesecake, minus our chunk of course ...
As it stood on Friday I don’t think there is anyone I know that hasn’t been touched by this virus, though as I write I’m relieved that so far, no one we know seems to be suffering with it. 

My youngest God Daughter and another friend's son are both 18 this year and celebrations have been pretty much postponed until goodness knows when ... and they are both feeling the impact of having worked hard for two years to take ‘A’ levels to be left with no exams to validate the work they’ve put in ... added to that a swift exit from school. No prom, no end of term celebrations and a lot of uncertainty about what will happen next.

We had managed a last lunch out on the previous Saturday though, ahead of my God Daughter's birthday, though we were all a little bit nervous about what looked likely to be coming and Martin and I had already decided that this would be the last bit of socialising that we did until everything is back to normal ...

My eldest God Daughter is expecting her first baby in July and, whilst it is a very worrying time, has been fortunate enough to be able to work from home until she has the baby ... but no baby shower, no afternoon teas or shopping expeditions on the cards ... though we did manage a very nice video call where she managed to give me a tour of her new kitchen and I showed her round our garden.

My nephew and his girlfriend are also very early on in the stages of pregnancy in what is a very worrying time.

My other good friends will be missing their first granddaughters first birthday.

Of course all of these things pale into insignificance when you think about what could happen if we don’t all get to grips with this social distancing business. Celebrations can be held later as can most things ... that may not be the case with social distancing ... we probably only really have the one chance to get that right.

As for us ... we are pretty much sitting at home counting our blessings. We are both in a very fortunate position ... for me being retired and not needing to go out to work and Martin off work for the next three weeks ... we have everything we could possibly need, though we will miss our time with friends and family ... but the internet is fabulous for making it easy to keep in touch.

Like everyone else I am sure ... we are seeing both the best and the worst in people ... those pretty much fighting in the supermaket aisle to take the last of everything and those prepared to share and take care of the more vulnerable around them. We are certainly in very strange times.

So much has changed since Friday ... We are now pretty much on, what lots are referring to as, 'lockdown' ... I feel a bit like I'm on a retreat. The weather has certainly been helping with Spring having turned up to the party just at the right time.

We have been chipping away at the Spring jobs in the garden and have done far more than we would ever have expected ... with all the borders tidied and the brick edge weeded. It is starting to look more like the garden we know and love again with plenty of signs of life ...




 


We've also managed to rearrange our visit to Scotland, which was supposed to happen next week ... that was a real weight off of my mind ... in my mind going on holiday was definitely not 'essential' travel ... as has now been confirmed by, what is turning out to be, a pretty strong and decisive Prime Minister ... I do appreciate that all may not share this view!

We really seem to have got over our Winter lethargy and have even cleaned all of the inside windows and Martin is currently out back working on a project that he has had on the cards for ages ... sanding down and re-oiling all of the chopping boards ...

For now our days seem to have settled into a nice routine ... a nice breakfast ... today's was in the garden ...

... a bit of gardening, a bit of work inside, a bit of downtime and then cooking something nice for tea ... I am so glad that I shopped for two weeks when I did ... though I will be braving the supermarket for us, the elderly neighbours and mum and dad tomorrow.

Keeping in touch with people has become a key part of the day with plenty of 'meme's being shared ...
... photos of the family practicing social distancing ...

... keeping up with how mum and dad's lawn looks after using the new scarifier ...
... and seeing what everyone else is getting up to ...
We have even managed to have a very successful school governors' meeting on Skype ...
So, whilst things across the world are looking pretty bleak we are really trying to do our absolute best to do what we've been asked to do ... we are staying at home, we are protecting our NHS and we are trying to look for positives, as a result of which we are finding that we still have lots to be thankful for.

Take care everyone, look after each other, be kind and keep safe 😀

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Monday, 23 March 2020

Isle of Wight Holiday Diary #15 - Ventnor & Shanklin Old Village

Hi there everyone 😀

Well it may seem a bit frivolous but I did promise a post completely free of the 'C' word so here we go ...

This is the penultimate post in my Isle of Wight Holiday series, so only one more to go after this one. We are on day 20 of the most fabulous three week break on the island, where we were blessed with plenty of sunshine and blue skies ... though there we did also get to see our fair share of rain ...

Day 20 - Thursday
Today was a fair bit duller than yesterday, when we'd spent the day walking on the beach in Sandown and we ended up heading back to Ventnor. I wanted to have a wander round the town centre and have a look at the view along the coast from up by the Winter Gardens.

On our way there was big excitement as we saw the first and only red squirrel that we'd seen on the island. It just belted across the road in front of us and if we'd have blinked we'd have missed it ... we were both chuffed to bits.

We parked up in the centre of town and had a wander, ending up by the Winter Gardens, where the views were just lovely ...



We decided to head back via Shanklin Old Village for lunch at Vernon Cottage, somewhere that we'd liked the look of when we visited a few years ago ...
We both had fish and chips, and it didn't disappoint ... leaving us with no room for cake 😀

Of course, we couldn't leave Shanklin without a bit of a wander to look at the pretty thatched cottages and tea rooms, which looked as lovely as ever ...

It was our last but one day on the island and neither of us were ready to head for home quite just yet. We were both really determined to get a visit in to another more off the beaten track spot that we hadn't visited before, but I will tell you about that next time 😍

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