Jonathan really loved looking at the birds and even sketched a few.  We liked the wintery tree skeleton feathers adorning one of the birds, and Jonathan liked sketching the little ones.

I liked the stripes around the parrots eyes.

Jonathan thought that the fish might eat his finger!

We also had a chance to stroke an armadillo and saw a ping-pong ball of a tortoise egg.

]]> http://wightweirdos.co.uk/ww/2012/01/amazon-world/feed/ 0 http://wightweirdos.co.uk/ww/2011/12/needed-a-day-like-this/ http://wightweirdos.co.uk/ww/2011/12/needed-a-day-like-this/#comments Sat, 24 Dec 2011 10:24:19 +0000 Susan http://wightweirdos.co.uk/ww/?p=2370 Martin had been saying for a couple of weeks that he needed a holiday so at the end of November I decided that even though we didn’t have time to have an actual holiday we could manage a night away.  We could do the Saturday night, we have no duties at church the next morning, there were no kids activities going on that we need to get people to and from it was just a case of finding someone to have the children and a hotel with a swimming pool that we could actually afford!  Luckily we have good friends and after a couple of false starts the children were farmed out to various friends (thank you Elaine and Andrea).

So we had all day Saturday and Sunday morning to ourselves to fully relax in.  We had been feeling pretty stressed again, particularly Martin and a grabbed afternoon in the pub the previous Saturday had only highlighted to us that we had moved away from the ideas of including plenty of idleness in our lives and were heading towards manic over business and ineffective activity yet again.

So when we got into the car to head out on Saturday morning and the track playing in the car was Needed A Day Like This by the lovely Paul Bell we really felt we were doing the right thing.

No alarms today
No phones to ring I’m just…
Waking up with the sun and my love
No work today
No bills to pay
It’s just you and me my love.
And today, the world just melts away

I needed a day like this
I needed a day like this

No demands
And no firm plans
We’ve got all the time in the world my love
No plots to hatch
No trains to catch
It’s just you and me my love
And today, the world just melts away
And today, the world just melts away

We had lunch at the always tasty Chale Green Stores  and then headed out towards Sandown and our hotel.  We were passing the Botanic gardens and decided to stop there for an afternoon walk.

There were brilliant colours and amazing textures and we relaxed, chatted and took photos.

We headed to the hotel (Melville Hall)  where there were two unexpected bonuses – a four poster bed in the room and much more impressively an outdoor hot tub. We nipped straight into the hot tub (it was closing shortly) and lay in the hot water watching the stars gradually come out and feeling very very relaxed! We didn’t feel in need of a restaurant meal and it was a nice evening so despite the time of year we headed out to eat fish and chips on the beach.  Back to the bar for a drink and a couple of games of crib (only a couple we won one each and weren’t going to risk marital disharmony by playing another).

We were very impressed that the hotel room also had proper wine glasses and more importantly a tea pot!

We headed down to Quarr Abbey for morning tea and cake and after an exceptioanlly long wait got a very attractive set of drinks and a somewhat disappointing slice of shortbread.  Nerissa assures me that their cakes are lovely though so we’lll have to go back and try again another day!

So we were happily relaxed when we got back to the kids and determined to make sure we had some time each month when we spent at least an afternoon to ourselves just relaxing with no agenda.

The woodland skills people helped with the grotto and cosy fire area, as did a few other volunteers.

There were decorations to make and lanterns to hang – once I’d set fire to my hair lighting some of them!!!

The grotto was ready – Rebekah was taking photos and Jonathan was being attacked by little girls – people listened to Sue Bailey tell stories and sang songs round the camp fire.

We got back to Quarr and enjoyed listening to the pigs squealing.

In the morning there is a spore print.

As such I noticed the sunrise over the power station in East Cowes.   For my birthday martin bought me a camera which is actually capable of detecting colours in sunrises so I had a go at capturing it.

You look around

find some fungi

Yell “fungi” at the top of your voice and a crowd comes running

and Sue tells us what it is we’ve found.

We didn’t find an awful lot at Parkhurst.

Then as we neared the end we found a few more interesting things, and then just as we were about to head back to the cars some one spotted a huge fly agraic, then they spotted more, and more.  there were loads and loads of them, it was like entering fairyland.

1. it was free

2. it was educational

Unsurprisingly then we bumped into a number of our HEing friends at this event.   One did comment that it only mattered that it was free as anything can be educational!

It was slightly disappointing in that nothing seemed very clear – where you needed to go, who could help you etc. etc.  However once we had found some friends we were all happy enough to hang about for a couple of hours.

Jonathan and friends spent ages watching water rocket (something we are going to have to have a go at at home).

A team of apprentices and engineers from Astrium demonstrated pulse jet rockets.  We had come across Astrium before as we had had a couple of workshops from some people from there in our HE grp.  Sam got an explanation from ex-local scientist Lucy Rogers on how it worked.

There was a far bit of just lurking about, but the views are nice and there are walls to walk on.

We even got to see a model rocket being launched and some lanterns taking off.

And obviously there are the unintended things to see like fury caterpillars and how good the famous Alum Bay multicoloured sand looks at dusk.

There are some places that have the same effect on me, just getting there gives me a rush of peace and contentment.

One of the places in the past that had that effect was Westonbirt Arboretum just because of how glorious it is.

Another place was the Pancake House we visited in the Netherlands.  It was  a perfect cycle distance from our holiday park and had wonderful atmosphere and we ate pancakes in the sunshine while the children played happily in the large and lovely playgroud. This makes me feel like that because it was one of those unexpected times where everything went well and right and there was no conflict at all.

But the place that does this to me most often and with the most depth is definitely Thorness Bay.  Now this is relatively an inaccessible little area with mostly mud and rocks and a steep climb down to the beach which I can’t manage without either Martin’s help or my walking poles or sliding inelegantly on my bum.  But there are some beach huts there and some of our friends own some of them and we have spent lovely lovely times there.  And I think the reason I love it so much there is because every time we have spent there has been happy.

We have done Cardboard Boat Regattas, Shakespeare Readings, Sloe Chilli Walks, Cards, Dressing Up, Playing Games, Pizza Eating, Cooking on Fires,  Sleeping Over and lots more besides.  We have been so grateful that we have had friends who were willing to share what they had and so this place has taken on so much more significance than it really should.  We also spent for us a significant Sunday there.

So last week when we were going to a BBQ and to meet up with some friends who had moved off the island I only had to step out of the car to experience that Bath Tub feeling.  The kids ran off and arrived well before me, we BBQed and chatted - the kids headed for the beach and I sat on the sheltered veranda by myself for a while knitting and  loving being there.