isle of wight

in remembrance of old holidays

it’s seems ages ago since we had our isle of wight holiday. probably because it was.

click to inspect

there’s a model village on the isle of wight and it’s a photographer’s paradise (according to the sign).
it’s built to quite a big scale (1/10) so the buildings come up to your waist rather than you ankles. which i found satisfying as you can see more detail.
here is the (full sized) sign at the entrance:

here is a model of the village church:

and here are some dinousaurs going by on a train:

click for big

when we were on holiday we went to a sweet factory and watched these two chaps make sweets. at the end they brought them round to the drooling spectators to consumer.
esther and kezia watched with wide eyes. they were like kids in a sweet shop.

the shop next to the factory sold all your classic boiled sweets and you could even buy the big jars of them:

i was amused to note that nearly all the jars had the same ingredients, no matter what they contained. they should have just had a generic label at the door saying “all our sweets are made out of the same stuff, it’s only the artificial colours and flavours which vary from sweet to sweet):

and of course, there is always chaos near the pick ‘n’ mix.
did you know the phrase ‘fall out’ (as in nuclear fall out) comes from this very ‘fall out’ of sweets on to the floor next to pick ‘n’ mix dispensors?

more photos from our holiday in the isle of wight. this was the windiest day when you could lean back against the wind without falling over !
click them for big versions

here is a pretty little thatched church on the isle of wight near where we stayed. i stumbled across it on a walk one evening:

to my delight it was unlocked and could experience the calm within:

there’s a bit of the isle of wight which has fantastic coloured sands all in the same area. there’s a place where you can make your own coloured sand memorabilia.
esther and kezia made these:

here is the cliff from which the coloured sands come:

click to do a geological inspection)

click to inspect

now here’s a strange thing. jane found it in a cupboard in our holiday house on the isle of wight. it says:
STARTER PACK for ‘R’s sheep
do not insert at once – familiarisation first !
we didn’t dare open it up.

these kids spent about half an hour trying to drag this lobster pot off the beach. i bet their parents were very pleased when they got it home.

on our recent holiday on the isle of wight i discovered that fudge would make an ideal chocolate substitute. so we bought some traditional isle of wight clotted cream fudge.
however, the postcode of the place of manufacture showed it was made in Exeter ! still tasted great though.
we haven’t got a dog, but i got this rather nice ‘thanks for looking after my dog’ box ‘o’ fudge for my mother. doesn’t she look pleased with it ?

clickety click

there is a problem with things, particularly bits of signs, getting washed away/falling off on the Isle of Wight.
here is a good example. it’s a ‘big eye’ which is the symbol of the Isle of Wight tourist board. but most of it’s worn off so it’s just a big eye.
not to be confused with Big Eye Tony of course.

i was very nervous about travelling to the isle of wight because you have to go on a ferry. and i’m not good on transport. which is why i walk everywhere.
it was a wet and windy day and the boat was quite rocky. but it’s only a short distance over a secluded bay. i thought isle of wight was near france. but it wasn’t.
here is someone else’s ferry:

and here we are enjoying luxury corned beef sandwiches on the luxury ferry:

when we arrived i was dissapointed to discover that they drove on the same side of the road as us, used english pounds and even spoke english. how frightfully british.