Final island of the year?

 

Paddling pool - Ventnor

Our hectic couple of months drew to a close with a trip across the Solent to the Isle of Wight at the weekend. We’ve been talking about going for literally years - but had always been deterred by the cost of the ferries over when looking at taking the car. More recently though we watched a Vlog from a YouTuber we like - Steve Marsh - where they just went over for a day trip and explored a bit using public transport, and for the first time we realised how doable the island was in that way - we researched a bit more and then promptly booked a weekend there! 

We opted for travelling down to Portsmouth on Thursday night after work - I hopped on the tube to Waterloo to meet MrEH, then it was the train down before dropping our bag off at the very conveniently situated Premier Inn and then a bit of a pub crawl organised by our good pal Graham with a couple of other friends as well. Lovely to see people, and to be introduced to some new pubs with some really tasty beer. After breakfast the following morning we made the short walk to Southsea for the Hovercraft to get across to Ryde. We had chosen the Hovercraft for its ability to get us across in 10 minutes, which was slightly scuppered by the poor weather conditions meaning a trip across at well below normal speed and a late departure to boot! Even allowing for that though it still felt like a really exciting and different way to travel - we'll absolutely be doing it again!

The Needles from Alum Bay

The local buses on the Island are excellent, and the 48 hour tickets we bought for just under £20 each proved to be great value as they let us ride any of the local bus services. We quite rapidly realised that almost wherever you go means routing via Newport, but that wasn't a problem, and having dropped our bag off at the hotel for the next two nights (in Sandown, right on the seafront) we headed off across to Alum Bay and the Needles - somewhere I have seen many times from the mainland but never of course from the island side! Not the greatest of weather conditions unfortunately with strong blustery winds, and we didn't linger there long before getting a connection back to Yarmouth and finding a pub! When we came out and headed along for a walk up the pier (£1 donations requested towards the upkeep) the weather turned even worse, and having got soaked we rapidly decided that the bus back to the hotel was the best option! Events took a slightly bizarre but very welcome turn after that, when the chap in the seat in front on the bus suddenly turned round and addressed us both by name...turned out that it was a friend from over 20 years back who we literally hadn't seen since 2003! Really lovely to catch up, and we ended up spending the evening in the pub with him too, catching up on all the news! He also let us know that there was an event running over the weekend called "Wightrider" organised by the Isle of Wight Bus & Coach museum, and involving somewhere around 70 vintage buses running round the island for passengers to use free of charge, which seemed like an added bonus!

Saturday however was designated as a "train day" with first the Island Line with its refurbished underground trains, and then the Isle of wight steam railway. First stop was Shanklin which we were both utterly charmed by - we did a quick circular walk involving the main high street, down the steps by the Chine, then back up again on the Cliff lift before returning to the station - and then through to Ryde for the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted at The Chocolate Apothecary…

…formerly a chemist's shop, and still with its internal fitments remaining, a really  beautiful environment and we were delighted to sit in and enjoy our drinks and the ambience. A loop up to East Cowes, across to West Cowes via the "floating bridge", and then back to Wootton Station at one end of the Isle of Wight Steam Railway and a Steam Train ride on to Havenstreet for the Beer Festival. A small but good selection of well kept beers, although we weren't there for long we thoroughly enjoyed what we had. Back onto the train through to Smallbrook Junction, changing there to the Island line back to Shanklin, and a bus on to Ventnor to enjoy another quick beer and another short circular walk as the light faded, before heading back to Sandown and back to the pub of the night before - no food served there but they were happy for us to take in a takeaway and even supplied plates and forks. 

Looking towards Sandown

Sunday was our last day on the island, and we knew having the bag with us for part of the day was going to complicate things a bit, so we made the most of our time by leaving it at the hotel for the morning. We were able to catch one of the Vintage Buses down to Shanklin, and enjoyed a bit more wandering there before walking back along the coast to Sandown to collect the bag. Unfortunately there had been a big fire in the town overnight (in a derelict building) meaning that buses were all disrupted - fortunately on both occasions helpful locals let us know and confirmed where we needed to go instead of the usual stops! Another vintage bus ride through to the Museum itself at Ryde, and we were able to buy a programme - we felt that the £10 was well spent to support the event allowing for how much we had enjoyed seeing and riding on the various buses! Our last few hours were spent exploring Ryde a bit more - a delicious ice cream sundae from a kiosk on the seafront, MrEH had another hot chocolate although that was too rich for me after the ice cream - I had tea instead, and we even tracked down one of the buses that looked like it could have taken us all the way home...! 

1951 AEC Regal in Greenline livery

A truly enjoyable weekend. Carefully budgeted - we consciously booked the budget hotel chain where MrEH is a shareholder in order to make the most of the free breakfast we get there, meaning we could fill up on our first meal of the day each day and not need lunch. I confess I had my doubts about MrEH's actual inclination to skip lunch when it came to it, but allowing for snacks in various places - cake, hot chocolate and ice cream - it actually worked as planned to my surprise! The tickets for the boat on the way back were partly paid for with Tesco clubcard vouchers, we bought the 48 hour bus tickets, and bought Island Line Rover tickets for Saturday which gave us unlimited travel on those trains for £7 each. the Vintage buses on Sunday meant that we didn't incur extra fares for the final day after the bus tickets had expired, although as mentioned we did buy the event programme. 

Looking across Shanklin Chine towards Ventnor

We’re already firmly set on making a return trip, and if it is possible we may well try to make it the same weekend next year, but with a couple of extra days added ideally to give additional time for more exploring. The island isn’t huge, but nevertheless we were never going to be able to do more than scratch the surface in the time we had. The bus event was a real bonus and if we do that again we will aim to make far better use of those over the two days. 

Robyn

Airshows 2026....DONE!

 

The first weekend in October saw my final two airshows of the season - Duxford on the Saturday with their "Flying Finale" and Shuttleworth's "Race Day" show the following day. I enjoy both these shows - Duxford often offers a final chance to see the RAF Red Arrows and Typhoon Display with this year being no exception, and Shuttleworth also always seem to pull out the stops for their shows, so it is nice to have that as a "last show of the season". 

There were four of us for Duxford - Adam, Mark W and me, plus my pal Tim who had come all the way down from Yorkshire for the show. The Reds also had a tent and the pilots were attending the show on the ground in the morning so I bumped into a number of pals around the tent, including several people who had been at our incredible Waddington visit a couple of weeks ago. Caz and I grabbed a chance for a selfie with outgoing Red 1 Jon Bond…

...and I also had a nice chat with Reds PR Manager Andy - having not seen him all season it was funny to see him twice in just over a fortnight! Lovely to see the boys one last time for the season too. 

As well as a nice Reds display, we also had the usual Duxford massed warbirds, a Typhoon display where he found an astonishing amount of vapour in the air, and plenty of other assorted WW2 era aircraft including the not that often seen P-40 Warhawk and the Hawker Nimrod Mk 1. Not the longest of displays, but still good viewing, although as always with Duxford it is a shame that everything displays quite so far away from the crowdline, and they let themselves down by allowing the car park to turn into a free-for-all on exit too, Tim and I were a full hour getting out, and believe it or not, that is actually good going! 

Shuttleworth the following day was a stark contrast in that there was relatively little need for the longer end of my 100-500mm lens, everything flies far closer to the crowd, with stunning topside passes. (They also manage to deal with their car park emptying rather better too - a far more palatable 15 minutes and that got me all the way to the main road, which must be around 1.5 miles from the car park rather than Duxford's few hundred yards!)  I was with Mark W and Richard for this one, but again bumped into other pals while there too.

Highlights for me were a first display for a while by the collection's Percival Mew Gull - recently out of deep maintenance - and  the lovely three-ship formation involving the P-51 Mustang with the Grumman Bearcat and Hawker Fury, three aircraft which turned out to be surprisingly well matched. The light and conditions throughout the day were lovely, with the golden light of late afternoon being particularly spectacular.

Icing on the cake was the wind being light enough at the end of the day for some really special aircraft to display. The English Electric Wren is a favourite of all regular Shuttleworth attendees - it seems to get into the air as much via the will of the crowd as by the usual methods, and it is the only aircraft I've ever seen display that gets a hearty cheer simply for leaving the ground! The Bristol Box Kite is actually a replica of the 1910 original - this one was built in the 1960s for the film "Those magnificent Men in their Flying Machines". These only fly when there is pretty much NO wind, so seeing them is always a treat! 

And now that will be that for shows until 2027. Soon enough we can turn attention towards Red Arrows winter training, which is always enjoyable although I never seem to get up there as much as I would ideally like. In spring next year the BBMF workups will start too - always a highlight - and Typhoon as well, although they tend to rarely do practises on a Friday now which is a shame as of course that's the day I can easily do. Until then though it's an opportunity to save up for tickets, and process the masses of pictures from this season I still  haven't got to! 

Robyn

Looking back…

 

A 2019 visit to Aldeburgh and yet another picture of the stunning Scallop Shell sculpture on the beach.

I’m endlessly fascinated by the interaction of the light with the metal - it somehow never looks the same from one visit to the next, the but golden late afternoon light is hard to beat. Another curious thing about the sculpture is that even on a hot summer day it still feels cool to the touch. 

 Visits to Aldeburgh then to follow a fairly traditional pattern - they usually happen after a visit to RSPB Minsmere, and generally include a bit of a walk, followed by fish & chips. If we are there in time then there might be an ice cream too! 

Robyn

September reading…

The month began of course in the Hebrides and with the end of Elly Griffiths  A Room Full of Bones. Like the others of hers I have read I enjoyed this, although perhaps the storyline felt a little too contrived even for a series involving a Druid,  the character of Bob in particular felt rather far-fetched although the subject matter - that of UK museums etc holding on to items which should probably have been returned to their ancestral homes - was thought provoking. That one ended up heading home with us as MrEH was still reading it when we left. 

A very unusual hardback read for me next - I’m not a fan of a hardback, finding them unwieldy and uncomfortable to handle, but I was willing to make an exception for Lee Child - The Affair, a Reacher series book which as far as we could recall when we spotted it on a supermarket charity bookshelf in Stirling, we didn’t already have. A spectacularly wet and windy Sunday saw us spend much of the day reading, and indeed I demolished over half of the book in that one day, finishing the remainder the day after. Usual Reacher fare of course - although this one perhaps even slightly more far fetched than usual - but as always extremely readable and entertaining. This one will head home with us and join the others. 

Charity book shelves on the way up provided rich pickings for us on the Reacher front - as well as this we also found two others we didn’t think we already had, so our plan of only taking home books we were currently reading appeared to have been scuppered early on! 

On to another book I took with me specifically to read while away -  Molly Green- The Wartime Librarian’s Secret. Quite the culture shock going from Reacher to this, I confess! The story here was a decent enough one, albeit a fairly classic boy-meets-girl tale, but some minor errors which should really have been sorted out in the editing process let it down rather. The ending too felt rather rushed - the death of a main character generally merits more than a brief mention in a letter, for a start! It was interesting to read the authors notes regarding the setting and certain aspects of the book, but ultimately I won’t be seeking out anymore of Ms Green’s work. Left behind in a book exchange on Uist. 

Back to a favourite author - TV’s Fern Britton adores Cornwall, knows it well, and this shows in her novels which are at least mainly set in the county. I picked up Daughters Of Cornwall from a book exchange in the first few days of our arrival in Uist, and it ended up waiting until the end of the trip to get started. I tore through it though- a fascinating story of three women, Mother, Daughter and Granddaughter - and how through various circumstances their lives mirror one another. This one was finished at our hotel where we broke the journey on our way back, and will be passed on to Mum who also enjoys Britton’s writing. 

As you will be aware by the time you see this, I then found myself needing to select another book - or books - that I could take away and not have to worry about bringing home - this time for my trip to Lundy with pals. Thankfully one of the features of the Marisco Tavern on the island is plentifully filled bookshelves - you take a book to read and leave another behind - with limited mobile signals lots of reading tends to get done - along with various silly games, and jigsaws - and so it works well to have a good supply of books available. Initially I selected Linwood Barclay and Find You First - an author who while I enjoy reading is not one we keep, they are excellent thrillers (this one being no exception) but don’t necessarily lend themselves to being read again particularly soon. Tech millionaire Miles on discovering he has a terminal illness sets out to track down his offspring from a fertility clinic donation he made in his youth - a simple enough concept but one which quickly turns quite dark. A good read but somewhat spoiled by a very implausible ending, for me. Left behind on Lundy. 

The second book I took with me to Lundy was Anita Burgh - Clare’s War. I thought from the title I’d read this one before but the first few pages told me that was wrong. Burgh’s books are usually a good read, and a foggy day on Lundy saw me tear through the first half of this tale set in wartime France, by which time I was hooked enough to read the rest the following day! If I had to make any criticism of the book it would be that the ending was slightly telegraphed, but it really didn’t spoil my enjoyment at all. A great read from a solid author- left on the Tavern bookshelves for someone else to enjoy. 

Time to move on to a book that L had  finished - we tend to swap books between us while here, before raiding the Tavern bookshelves when there is nothing else that appeals. L absolutely devoured Harriet Tyce - Blood Orange, going through it from start to finish in one day, so I was expecting good things. I wasn’t disappointed - a main character who becomes more likeable as the story goes on, cleverly interwoven stories with parallels between the characters, and a huge twist in the tail which neither of us saw coming.  Couldn’t recommend this one enough - and our copy was immediately passed to S to read! 

Time for a raid of the Tavern bookshelves then - and a distinct change of genre as L recommended Spider Woman - the autobiography of Lady Hale. I wouldn’t describe myself as a regular autobiography reader but every now and again one does grab me, and this one certainly did. Hale has an engaging way of writing, and a wonderfully descriptive turn of phrase, and she has also lead a very interesting life! I thoroughly enjoyed this, and it was no chore to shoehorn in time to read the final few pages before leaving so it could be returned to the Tavern shelves. 

Final Lundy book was another that L had read and enjoyed - How to kill your family by Bella Mackie. I started this one on our final day, reading the first few chapters in the pub while we waited for the boat, and a good few more on my journey home. Oddly enough I did only have someone in the adjacent seat on the train for a single stop while reading this - maybe the title was offputting?! This is a cleverly written book with a seriously dark, twisted main character - likeable is certainly not a word that could be applied to Grace, but she is definitely fascinating! This one carries forward to October. 

A couple of late additions to the “To Be Read” shelf via a little book exchange box I pass near to work - the Rankin is one I haven’t read, and the Pullman is the first in the His Dark Materials trilogy - the third in the series is already awaiting reading.

With 9 books during the month, this is certainly the most I've read in a month for a very long while - and the amount of downtime facilitated that of course. It's also a very eclectic mix isn't it, and one where my reading choices were very influenced by circumstances of course! 

Robyn

Frugal Friday...

 

Kettle Cottage - North Uist

After a busy few months, we've agreed that it is very much time to get our eyes back on the financial ball. While we're not careless with money - we've spent too many years ensuring that our income works hard for us for that - nonetheless it would be fair to say that the past little while HAS been spendy - albeit mostly planned and budgeted, and the unplanned bits were necessary and have been covered by our emergency fund of course - the reason we have it! Even budgeted spends can start to feel a bit much when they all come one after another though and we definitely need to feel that we have a level of financial control back again!

Starting point has been the allocation of funds from a couple of maturing regular saver accounts - and the replenishment of our short term emergency fund. We had also borrowed some money from our Christmas budget pot to pay the deposit for next year's Lundy trip, and that too was replaced. The long term pot had of course covered the costs of our beautiful new front steps, and the balance of the regular saver money  was returned to the ISA where that money came from, leaving us all squared away there too. 

The Old Light - Lundy

We discussed what to do relating to Regular Saver accounts, and have opted to re-open one where the interest rate is still of a level to make it worthwhile - that will be funded from monthly income going forwards. The other one which ended has not had a new one opened as the provider no longer offers the same product or anything similar at a sensible interest rate. Another - in Mr EH's name - matures next month and that will go straight into a holding account to fund a couple of new Regular Savers that will be on the go then. 

Homegrown produce is enabling lower shopping bills at the moment - but of course that will begin to tail off shortly. That said, we won't be needing to purchase garlic, tinned tomatoes or pesto for the near future! The aim with the food account is now to build up a healthy surplus in there ready to cover the extra food costs that come along with Christmas, and we've made a good start there with £50 left over from the September budget, even after taking £100 of the month's budget towards holiday food spending!

White Tailed Eagle - Ronay

On a personal level, another focus has been ensuring that money is claimed back where it is due to us. MrEH is able to reclaim the costs of his newspaper subscription for the copies he didn't get while we were in the Hebrides, and my Delay Repay claim for the late train on the way back from Lundy has also been made. That won't amount to very much - probably £6.25, although I may be fortunate and get paid at the higher level, but it is still money I am entitled to have, so I wasn't planning on missing out!  I will now be setting my sights on replenishing the money in my own short-term savings that I "robbed" when I bought my new camera - I like to have a basic emergency fund of £1000 sitting there and at the moment it is several zeroes short of that level, so the majority of any surplus from my personal funds will be diverted there for the foreseeable. 

Joint account surplus will revert to being sent across to a combination of the "end of month" mortgage overpayment which usually takes the form of clearing down to the next £100 level to leave a tidy figure for end of month, and we will probably send anything spare after that to the Stocks & Shares ISA which forms part of our very long-term financial planning! The drill there is that any money sent to it is there for the long haul, so is sent and effectively forgotten about. More than likely an odd £50 here and there will head into Premium Bonds too, although we're never likely to win the million, we do pick up enough wins here and there - particularly when the holding size is larger - to make them worthwhile. 

Beach Huts - Eastbourne 

We've also been focusing back on the small financial habits - bank accounts which have renewable bonuses have had those bonuses renewed - it makes sense to keep them as up to date as possible to get the maximum benefit should they be discontinued! Checking the banking most days to check everything is in order. We'll be returning to meal planning and shopping from a list, and of course load-shifting our electric use to the most cost effective times on our Octopus Agile tariff - although those seem to be few and far between at the moment! With the costs of fuel for the cars escalating hugely we have been careful to shop around there - with a petrol station near to my work proving to be a good bet at anything up to 10p a litre cheaper than close to home.  In the interest of saving fuel, I’m using a free trial of a supermarket delivery pass to cut down on the cost of getting shopping - and yes, a reminder has been set to cancel it before the end of the trial! Although those are all seemingly small things, over time they do mount up and are relatively low effort to help us keep on an even financial keel, 

Robyn

September in the garden…

 

Well this has been an odd month. We were away for the first couple of weeks of course - but a fortuitous change in the weather combined with our irrigation system ensured that my lovely Mum didn’t have to do anywhere near as much watering as we (and she!) had feared. She did prove to be an excellent tomato harvester though! 

Ahhh…tomatoes! One of the tubs in this picture was harvested by Mum, and there was still enough ripened on our return to fill the other two!  An awful lot split and spoiled too - which unfortunately is what happens when the weather is as erratic as we have seen this year. 

Another little glut was courgettes - they were only producing slowly before we left, we suspect partly due to the very hot dry conditions. As soon as though conditions changed it seems that  the plants ramped it up a gear! As much as these are tasty, I think we will be inclined to go back for traditional shape ones once these seeds are finished as the flat fruits are far less easy to chop up into sensibly sized pieces.

Another effect of the change in the weather is that all of a sudden we are seeing fruit ripening without end rot on our remaining few Roma (San Marzano) tomato plants. We had taken the decision to thin these plants out hugely as we simply weren’t getting the fruit to ripen no matter how much we tried to keep the watering consistent - it just wasn’t possible in the drought we were experiencing, and we reached the conclusion that it wasn’t worth the time and water trying to keep them all going. 

The runner beans too are suddenly producing - the beans just don’t seem to set in very hot, dry weather. 

The Tromboncino squash we left at quite a small size was enormous by the time we got back- after leaving it on the plant to cure we finally harvested this one at the very end of the month - that will hopefully store for a few months to give us a boost of fresh homegrown produce in the early winter. 

Just under a week after getting back from the Hebrides I headed off again to Lundy, leaving MrEH looking after the garden of course.  He was also in charge of of rather a lot of vegetable roasting at that stage too - the courgette, squash and tomatoes have mostly been being prepped into sauces or just cut into pieces, roasted and then frozen - we should be well set up for some tasty meals from the freezer running into the winter. He also made a massive batch of ragu using home grown toms and courgettes as well- freezer 2 is now switched on and in good use, and we’re looking forward to a good supply of home grown food!

First thing I noticed when we got back was these lovely bright pink Asters - we must have sown them earlier in the year and forgotten about them! At a time of year where there is less colour and prettiness than the summer provided they're a lovely splash of joy!

We have the promise of more courgettes - not sure this is a good thing though as we already have 4 in the fridge, and they’re a size! The tomatoes are still producing like crazy too - another two big trays were roasted off the day after I got back from Lundy, plus another large tray of mixed mostly home grown veg. There are still two big boxes in the fridge as well! I think the next batch of these I want to process will be turned into sauce - or even passata if I can be bothered to sieve them.

Maybe the most exciting news at the end of the month was that our pointed peppers have started to change colour. We haven’t done well with peppers and chillies this year sadly - the plants started well but the majority then simply didn’t thrive, and I have a suspicion that as much as they are hot weather plants they didn't enjoy the hot and dry conditions this year. We will enjoy our small harvest, and try again next year! 

It looks like there will be a garden post for October at least as there is still plenty going on - although no doubt it will also see us beginning to clear things back for the winter too. 

Robyn

More September excitement...

 

The fun just kept on coming in September, from spending the first half of the month in Scotland, to my lovely week on Lundy, and then on Monday after I got back from that trip I hopped on the tube after work to go to the Roundhouse at Camden to see Queen drummer Roger Taylor playing a solo gig! 

Those who know me will be aware that I'm a huge Queen fan, and that I've seen Roger play many times in the past, right back to 1992 with his original solo band The Cross, through his "Happiness" & "Electric Fire" tours in the mid 90's and more recently of course as part of "Queen and Adam Lambert". I love his music, he has an amazing voice, and even at the grand age of 77 he still puts on an amazing show!

I joined what was already a fairly lengthy queue on Chalk Farm Road not long after 6pm, and the first excitement was seeing a lovely pal from years ago, Brenda - I think we were both quite impressed that we recognised one another instantly - it must be around 20 years since we've last seen each other! She confirmed that the rest of the gang from back in the day would be there too, which was great to hear! 

Finally the queue began to move into the venue - credit to the door staff for keeping things moving, and by shortly after 7pm I was in! A quick size-up of the spread of the crowd and I decided to head for the right hand side. To my surprise I was able to grab a space right at the front albeit off to one side, and given my lack of height that seemed like quite a win! At this stage rumours were circulating that Brian May was in attendance - this sort of rumour often does the rounds but on this occasion there did seem to be some substance to it, and a few minutes into the gig a chap behind me spotted that Mr May was indeed on the balcony just above us, with various members of Roger’s family too.

The setlist featured the usual mix of older solo material and Queen stuff alongside songs from Roger’s new album. A version of Queen’s “Rock it (Prime Jive)” featured drummer Tyler Warren on vocals while Roger took a brief break, and band member Tina Keys joined Roger on vocals for “Surrender”  and “Under Pressure”. The first of the night’s special guests were the Ndlovu Youth Choir from South Africa - they also feature on the new album and performed several tracks alongside Roger plus doing the most beautiful version of Bohemian Rhapsody - partly sung in Zulu! Roger also took to his drum kit while the choir did their thing on one of the album tracks too - always a treat! 

With the end of the show looming fast, I don’t think too many in the audience were massively surprised when Roger introduced Brian to the stage - and the cheer that went up practically lifted the roof off! We Will Rock You got everyone clapping and stamping along, and then Radio Ga Ga wrapped things up with Rog & Bri encouraging us all in the appropriate clapping on the chorus! 

Final treat for the night was catching up with Brenda (again), Allison, Helen and others on the way out - an absolute joy as the years rolled back as we exchanged hugs and excited shrieks of how brilliant the gig had been! 

Photos from this were obviously limited to what I could get on my phone so not great quality but they’ll do me as great reminders of such a fabulous evening!

Robyn.