Photo Scavenger Hunt :: February 2021#1... Lovely Memory

Hi there everyone 😀

The photo scavenger hunt hosted by Kate over on I live, I love, I craft, I am me is continuing through February on a weekly basis, and will do so until our lives get back to a bit more like normal. This is great for me as I tend to post a lot about trips out and holidays so it will be good to have a prompt to get me thinking about other things, whilst we can't really get out and about much.

This week's prompt is ... Lovely Memory ... and whilst I had a lot of pictures to choose from there was always only going to be one subject ...

Sadly we lost dad a week or so ago, after a fairly short illness, and whilst I will always remember the rotten time he had of it over the last few months ... I will also remember all of the lovely times that we had ...

This photo is from September 2019, when mum and dad came and joined us on our holiday on the Isle of Wight for a week. It was at The Needles on one of the windiest days ever and we just had the best of times. ...

You may not be able to see much of The Needles, just tiny little bit to the right of Martin's shoulder, but you can certainly see how windy it was. It's one of my favourite photos of us all and will always bring back lovely memories of dad, the Isle of Wight and all of the lovely times that we spent together 😊

***********************************************************************************

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 😁😁😁

*********************************************************************************

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 😍

*********************************************************************************

Isle of Wight Holiday Diary #14 - Sunshine at Sandown

Hello there everyone 😀

We are so very nearly on the last leg of our Isle of Wight break last year and it is so lovely to look back and see glorious sunshine ...

Day 19 - Wednesday
We woke up to bright sunshine and deliberated what to do for the day. We ended up deciding to make the most of the good weather and headed to the seafront at Sandown and we were so glad we did.

The last time we visited Sandown we'd been a bit underwhelmed. It had been wet and grey and didn’t leave us with a good impression at all. Today it couldn't have felt more different. It was glorious warm sunshine, clear blue sky and we had a lovely walk along the beach ...

The views were just fabulous ... in all directions ... along the coast towards the pier ...
Looking back the other way towards the Yarborough Monument on Culver Down ...

Even inland ...

We found plenty of shells and other bits and pieces on our walk along the beach ...
... and even had our own small romantic moment ...

We wandered as far as the pier and were sad to find it closed ...
... apart from the amusement arcade ...
We walked back along the prom ... hardly believing our luck with the weather ... after how dull and grey it had been for the previous few days ...

We found the most perfect spot for lunch ... The Driftwood Beach Bar & Grill ...
... and found a table with the most fabulous view ...
... and the pizzas! Well they were some of the best either of us had ever had ...
Some days ... life is just grand! You really couldn't ask for more 😀

*********************************************************************************