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Island Seasons
December 2007
Who doesn’t love Christmas and New Year? All those chances to meet old friends, try your hand at home baking, drink mulled wine in front of the fire and watch a panto. Well, we do agree that it can also be an opportunity to empty your bank account and to be creative with turkey leftovers, but those things can be easily managed!
If you want to escape tinsel and tinny carols in the shops, now is the perfect time to blow away the cobwebs with a windy beach walk with your two- and four-legged friends. Some of our favourites are:
1. Brook Chine
2. Hamstead beach and Newtown creak
3. Bembridge
4. Ryde and Puckpool
5. Woodside and Kings Quay
Some of these are more accessible than others, and they provide a mix of beach combing, fossil hunting, kite surfer watching and bird twitching opportunities. Get out there!
We're out and about
We’ll be at the old bus station for Ventnor Christmas fair on 8th December. Come along and say ‘hello’ – we’ll be serving mince pies and mulled wine and selling small Christmas gifts from all of your favourite Island food producers. It’ll also be one of your last opportunities to order for Christmas meats before the deadline on 11th December!
In the hedgerows
The first winter wheat is coming through and many fields that were ploughed in September are now green again. You can see sheep fattening on beet tops and cabbage stalks, and cattle are either in the barns or getting extra feed in the fields.
My favourite Brent geese are back in Thorness Bay, along with oyster catchers, curlew and the odd egret. Time to go for a walk along the old railway between Freshwater and Yarmouth to see which other visitors have arrived. This is a great excuse for visiting the Red Lion or Kings Head at either end of the walk!