May 2021… COVID lockdown restrictions had eased, so Mrs Treaclechops and I headed to the Isle of Wight for a few days. The weather in May is always variable… the sun may shine, the rain may fall, we may get frost, it may hail, it may be wild and windy. Well, in true British style, we experienced all of those.

     First time on the island. It’s like the rural mainland: rather hilly with quaint villages here and there, and tourist traps around every corner. Many of the roads are narrow and winding. I was reminded of words from an old poem, ‘a rolling English drunkard made the rolling English roads’. No motorways or sprawling housing estates. A relaxed way of life and a nautical feel everywhere.

     On the second day, we visited The Needles which jut out from the western extremity of the coast, and took a cable car ride down to a secluded beach in glorious sunshine to see some coloured sandstone cliffs. It’s amazing what geology can do over a few millennia. After about 20 minutes, black clouds rolled in from The Solent and blessed us with a heavy shower, so we jumped (ha ha) on the cable car for the return journey, and got battered by hail on the way back up the cliff. Undaunted, we popped into the Alum Bay glass shop to watch the skilled glassmakers do their stuff. Fantastic craftspeople! We bought 2 small glass elephants… always good to support artisans whenever you encounter them.

     Another day, we visited an alpaca farm. Weird-looking creatures… somewhere between a sheep and a camel, but very friendly and affectionate (especially when you feed them). Fortunately, none of them spat at us. There was a mother with a very young baby who was growling quietly, which was probably a warning not to get too close to her little one. Can’t blame her… we humans are a volatile lot. I bought a zany T-shirt with scary-looking alpacas and the logo, ‘ALPACALYPSE’ printed on it. I do like a bit of ‘zany’ at my time of life.

     We stayed at a holiday camp in the town of Yarmouth. The food and service were great, although the accommodation was passed its best, but the staff were excellent. Most had been furloughed for much of the previous year due to the pandemic and were glad to be back at work. One young waitress became emotional when she told us how she’d struggled to cope during lockdown. We gave her a nice tip after our final meal and advised her to visit the alpaca farm on her day off. Encountering alpacas has got to be good for the soul.

     They had live indoor entertainment and the artists were mainly very good. The house band was fronted by a glamorous young lady with a good set of lungs who did excellent renditions of songs from Karen Carpenter to Tina Turner to Whitney Houston to Amy Winehouse. They also had a duo who sang a medley of Adele songs. On the final night, a quartet sang songs from popular musicals. It made us smile when a menacing phantom sang to the heroine. He was a slightly built 10-stoner, and she was a generously proportioned young lady about twice his size. Both good singers though. Welcome back, live music, the world has missed you.

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primeval sunset…

a mother hums a lullaby

to her fretful baby