Flour from the water mill

One day last week we had a trip out to Calbourne to visit the water mill, the last working one on the Island.  Specifically, we wanted to buy some of their stone-ground flour to bake bread with.  Although we weren't there at the milling time, we did come away with a wonderful selection of their flour.

We have a malt flour (wheat, malt, spelt and rye mix), a large-flake wholemeal, a fine wholemeal and a biscuit meal - the latter two are also organic.  The other bag (with the photo of the mill on the back) is porridge oats, and it wasn't until we got home we realised we hadn't bought any strong white!  A return trip may be needed.  Anyhow, yesterday I tried the soft bread roll recipe using the large-flake wholemeal with great success.  The bread is so tasty and certainly not heavy in any way.

The dough came together very well and has a good colour

 

Delicious served with cous cous and ratatouille using courgette and tomatoes fresh from the garden

The weather has been lovely again this week, so we've made the most of it.  This afternoon we took the grandkids to the beach for the afternoon, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, paddling, digging holes in the sand and trying to play beach tennis (not very well!)  I had forgotten that sand gets everywhere, and sand and suncream is not a good combination.  However, fun was had by all, especially Grumpy Grandad ;-))  

This morning N had two fruitless trips into town to find a new watch strap, so after a few minutes' discussion and a bit of searching around, he fashioned a replacement piece of leatherette from an old glasses case.  

The new piece on the right-hand side - I suspect the other side will need replacing in due course

A little bit of machining to hold things in place, and he succeeded in saving himself £11 for a new watch strap.  He was quite chuffed!

Yesterday afternoon we had a lovely walk along the front to Dell Cafe, which sells, in our humble opinion, some of the tastiest ice-cream we have sampled this year.  And just to prove that we take ice-cream tasting very seriously ....

Rum and raisin and rhubarb crumble - by Kelly's of Cornwall - we're slowly working our way through the varieties!

(Taking 'selfies' usually has us in giggles :))

Catching up on sleep

The sunflowers continue to grow, but no sign of a flower yet

Monday again!  How did that happen so fast?  

For some reason, N and I have struggled to get a good night's sleep for nearly two weeks now, and by the weekend we were beginning to struggle.  Sleep deprivation is no fun at all, and takes us back to when we had to do nights at work.  Everything becomes a chore; simple things become difficult.  By 7 o'clock last night N gave in and went to bed, and I followed shortly after.  I'd like to say we both slept for 12 hours solid, but the 5 or so uninterrupted hours we managed is considerably better than the 2 or 3 hours we've been getting by on recently.  Not too sure why exactly we've had problems sleeping - certainly there have been a few things we've been mulling over - but it has brought home to us the benefits (or not!!) of a good night's sleep.  Sleeping tablets are not the answer, although I did resort to them in desperation, so I shall have to find alternative remedies.

The new water-harvesting system on the shed front has proved very successful!

FIL has returned safe and sound to Manchester, and although it was unfortunate that he was a little under the weather during his stay with us, for him the most important thing was having company and having someone to talk to and interact with.  His visit has given N and I quite a lot to think about, and we have talked at some length about aging, and how some people seem to be able to accept getting older whilst others seem to fight the advancing years.  I think there is a lot for us to consider and learn from, especially how different generations deal with old age.  Perhaps it is to do with how content and satisfied you have been with your life, goals achieved, being happy with your lot.  Maybe if you feel you have missed out on 'something' in life, the prospect of time running out leads to panic and the need to search out whatever it is you feel has eluded you.  I don't know, but it has made me think.

These are the grape hyacinths I rescued from DILs garden at the beginning of the year.  They flowered in Spring then died right back.  Now the little bulbs have split and spread and new shoots have emerged.

Anyway, a (relatively) good sleep had us up and about this morning, trying to make up for lost time.  Phone calls made to sort out travel insurance - and money saved in the process, so major ticks off the list there!  Washing on the line and dried by the afternoon.  My on-going project is finally making good progress so I'm pleased with that, too.  We've replaced a couple of pans in the kitchen and N has fixed a batten to the kitchen wall for storage.

Out in the garden, we're starting to think about preparations for autumn and winter - beds being cleared, fed and dug over.  The cabbage seedlings have had mixed success, some are doing well but some have been nibbled at.  We may have to supplement them with established seedlings from the nursery.

Still plenty of tomatoes in the greenhouse  

I had lovely phone calls with both my children yesterday evening.  I caught up on their news and we had a good old chat.  Lots of exciting plans to look forward to over the next few months.  Talking with them always puts a smile on my face :-))

Work vessels

These two little sailing dinghies caught my eye 

We had a very pleasant walk along the front at Cowes yesterday, and although the water was much quieter after the excitement of racing during Cowes Week, there was still plenty to see.

This is the Seaclear, the work vessel belonging to Cowes Harbour Commission.  One of her tasks is to lay, maintain and recover the moorings (like the orange one in this photo) that are used during Cowes Week.  It was really quite interesting watching the crew winching the mooring bouys in board and judging by the number already hauled in and stacked on-board, there were a fair number that needed recovering.

The black plastic shapes the Seaclear is displaying (to the left of the mast) are part of the International Maritime Navigation Rules of the Roads.  The configuration of ball-diamond-ball is Rule 27, 'vessel restricted in ability to manoevere'.   N used to be in the Merchant Navy and he tells me he used to know all the rules, but we had to check up on this to make sure we were correct!   I find it interesting to learn little snippets of information as it helps me understand a bit more about the boats and their activities.

Baby robin

Just had to share these photos of a very young robin who joined us for morning coffee at Quarr today.  He seemed oblivious to all the visitors, and hopped around, very close to our table.  He has the beginnings of his red breast, and we were delighted to watch him for several minutes.  A simple pleasure and a real joy.

Ramblers' gates

As so often happens, life has not panned out quite as we had planned these past few days.  FIL has been a little under the weather so we have taken things easy.  However, beforehand, we did manage a lovely walk along some green and pleasant paths and lanes:

We admired a wonderful old oak tree .....

.... and spied little acorns forming.

Our route took us through fields, and on previous walks this way we had had to negotiate some rather rickety stiles, so we were delighted to find that the local Ramblers Association had replaced those stiles with some lovely new 'kissing' gates, as part of their 'Donate a Gate' project:

These gates are so much more accessible for all walkers, and we were all very impressed and grateful to all those people who had donated gates along the way.  Thank you, we appreciated them.

We are harvesting veggies most days now.  Not vast quantities, but every bowlful gives us a sense of satisfaction.

The first carrots - very crunchy indeed!

The potatoes on the left were the ones, left over from last year, that we found growing up among the veronica plants

A selection of our tomatoes - stripey, orange cherry, and chocolate-coloured

We are carefully recording amounts and weights of our vegetables and it will be interesting to see how much we produce this year.

Although we have had a few hard, sharp showers recently, it has been fine but just a little cooler than the high temperatures we enjoyed in July.  Having a few clouds in the sky has resulted in some pretty skies, especially around sunset.

A break in Manchester

Walking along the pier to catch the ferry, the sun just caught two of the forts in the Solent (it was quite early in the morning!)

We've returned from our short break in Manchester, and have brought FIL back with us to give him a little holiday on the island.  

We managed to get out and about in between rain showers (a bit of a feature in Manchester) including a day out in York.  I've not visited there before, and I would love to spend longer another time.  It's full of wonderful quaint lanes with wonderful interesting little shops, and lots of tea rooms serving very nice cakes!

York Minster

Beautiful row of half-timbered Tudor buildings

The view down Shambles - the houses look as though they are leaning towards each other

We went for a couple of nice walks through Heaton Park, one of the largest areas of parkland in the country, and spotted this little chap beside the path, obviously quite used to people.

We travelled back home yesterday, and by the evening two loads of washing had been hung to dry in the shed.  The lettuce was looking a little wilted so it must have been quite dry here.  N and FIL had a dead-heading session this morning and the garden looks a bit better for a little TLC.

This afternoon we drove to Cowes with the intention of parking up and walking along the front to watch the yachts racing in the Cowes Week regatta.  Well, that was the plan.  Unfortunately it seemed everyone has the same idea - I have never seen it so busy, and there was simply nowhere to park at all.  It was a little disappointing as it is always exciting to watch the racing.  However, we had a detour on the way home, and stopped off the see the remains of the PS Ryde, a much-loved, but now sadly neglected and rusting hulk of a paddle-steamer that used to ply the local waters.

Many residents remember the days when the Ryde was used as a floating disco!  There have been several attempts to raise funds to salvage her but to no avail.   It is so sad to see her in this state, and it is only a matter of time before she disintegrates completely.

This evening we glimpsed the Red Arrows performing their breath-taking air display in the skies above Cowes - from time to time we saw the coloured vapour trails and caught sight of them in various formations.

Vapour tails in the sky show where the Red Arrows had been - the planes were just too quick for me to get a photo of them!

Listening to the radio

For the last few weeks, we have been following the fortunes of the England cricket team in 'The Ashes' series against Australia.  We don't subscribe to Sky TV, so up to now N has been using his iPad to check on the score.  The second test match was during that lovely hot spell of weather, and one of our neighbours had his DAB radio on in the garden, so we could hear the commentary from time to time.  We did wonder if we could ask him to 'turn the radio up, please', but we felt it was a bit of a cheek, so we have splashed out and bought ourselves a digital radio of our own.  

We took it into the garden yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed the commentary, much better than watching TV.  With radio, the listener has to make a bit of an effort (although we found the commentators so entertaining that not having televised pictures to watch certainly wasn't a hardship).  They are very knowledgeable and always have plenty of little anecdotes to keep us interested, and the banter in-between overs is fun to listen to (and, dare I say, occasionally more interesting than the cricket itself ;)  The third match is being played at Old Trafford in Manchester, which is where we will be heading this weekend to visit N's family, so we've been sorting out things here before we go - washing, plants, cleaning etc.

The sunflowers are making good progress against the fence

After a couple of days of good steady rainfall, which has filled to water butts nicely, yesterday was incredibly hot again, and very humid after being so wet.  It really was quite tiring.  I think we may now be in for 'changeable' weather - otherwise known as sunshine and showers.

There were a huge number of bees in the garden yesterday; I counted 14 at one point, all busy flitting from flower to flower.  It has been interesting that we've not seen any wasps to date - there was an item on the news recently commenting on the same thing.  Perhaps it has something to do with the really cold, wet winter we had.

There is always a bit of dead-heading to do, but it encourages more flowers so it is worth it

This morning, as N and I were sat at the table enjoying a cup of coffee, a sudden flurry outside attracted our attention, and to our amazement, we watched the sparrowhawk fly into some nearby trees with a young blackbird in it's talons.  It perched on a branch and proceded to pull the feathers off of it's prey before flying off again.  It was a bit brutal to watch, but also fascinating.  The sparrowhawk is obviously a regular in this particular territory, as this is second time we have seen it in as many weeks.  The swiftness with which it took its prey was quite impressive, and yet again N and I appreciated how much there is to see if you are patient and simply watch.

We had thought about visiting the New Forest Show this week; it's an event we have both wanted to go to but never managed and we haven't managed it this year, either.  One of the problems of living on an island is the cost involved if we want to get off it, not to mention having to plan trips according to ferry timetables.  Most of the time it doesn't bother us at all - we simply don't think about it.  But then something like a special event crops up, and the planning involved, and the cost, gives us something to think about.  We have acknowledged that we are lucky to live where we do, in an area of such beauty with close proximity to coastline and woodlands, but occasionally we admit it would be nice just to be able to get in the car and drive to our destination without the cost of additional transport to take into consideration.  It curbs spontaineity a little!  However, it has got us thinking and mulling over a few ideas for future travelling ideas ...