Nearly a fortnight ago now, a quiet day at Sandown to recover from the tyre day previously (reference 1). The day on which the good ship Queen Elizabeth got sent out to the Nab Anchorage for overstaying her time at berth, as noticed at reference 2.
Before driving to Yaverland, we took a quick look inside Brading church, empty after Divine Service. I was rather amused by the serious looking and quite modern padlock applied to the very old chest, 1637 if the carving is to be believed. Whatever do they keep in it? Or is the point to stop the curious disturbing the pots above? With the pot top left, more or less contemporary with Clarissa, presently of interest. From the famous Verwood potteries of Dorset, in business from 1250 to 1950, so not a bad run. Perhaps something to investigate next time we are in Dorset. See reference 3.
From Yaverland we strolled along the esplanade to the far end of Sandown, taking in a side-car'd Lambretta on the way. The owner explained that it was a bit of a cheat in that the side-car and main-car had been bought on different occasions. Not even sure now that the side-car was the genuine Lambretta article. From where I associate to a former colleague at the Treasury who had a large collection of Lambrettas, a collection which I believe was valuable, tens of thousands valuable.
Took a bacon sandwich at the Beach Shack Bar, a place we have used and liked in previous years, taking crab sandwiches there. But the plague has rather cramped their style (if not their website at reference 4) and so it was bacon sandwiches outside. Furthermore, while there was plenty of bacon, what should have been a white bap was actually a yellow brioche or something of that sort, probably involving both egg and sugar. Where was the cook brought up?
The outside tables appeared to have been moulded in one piece, presumably from some brown fibre or other, then finished off with this layer of plastic wood. Serviceable, but entirely fake.
We had a talk with a young lady walker, into the second day of a two day round the island walk, that is to say anti-clockwise from Cowes. None of her party, including her partner, wanted the walk, preferring to save themselves for some important football match in the evening, so she went alone. She seemed to be OK, but was glad to stop and char and did admit to sundry feet and leg complaints. Particularly knees as I recall. She also told us that she had done some training on the downs in Kent where I think she lived, but that some more hardy types did it more or less non-stop, just grabbing the odd hour's sleep here and there. She seemed a little manic, so I wondered whether this was down to fatigue, to caffeine tablets or something more exotic. We saw some forty or fifty of them. The main site (reference 5) is rather future orientated, but I did track down this particular challenge at reference 6.
No jet skis, which was nice. Plenty of bench time, in the sun, also nice.
Having had a fairly easy day, I took a turn down Vicarage Lane in the evening, a little the north of the Eagle path we had taken a few days previously.
Crossed the railway, then found myself in a large field, with thick grass rather less than a foot long, path just about visible running diagonally across it, roughly north east. So nothing had been grazing there for some weeks. Plenty of buzzing insects (unseen) and buzzing grasshoppers (seen).
Through to the next field, or rather area, which the RSPB had given over to brambles and dog roses. Which, curiously, was much more attractive to the swifts and swallows than the other field had been.
Two washers to add to my collection in the course of the day.
Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/07/a-tale-of-tyre.html.
Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/07/covid-news.html.
Reference 3: http://www.verwoodpotteries.co.uk.
Reference 4: https://beachshackbar.co.uk/.
Reference 5: https://ultrachallenge.com/.
Reference 6: https://ultrachallenge.com/participant-area/isle-of-wight-challenge-participant-area/.
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