The weather didn’t start off looking very promising but the fog soon cleared and the sky above it was gloriously blue…which was excellent because we were off to the Isle of Wight.
Portsmouth
Fiona bought Mirinda a new handbag for Christmas and it had it’s christening today. Here’s the photographic evidence:
Matching reds
Sophie and Tom met us at Ryde Pier Head as usual and we headed south to their house where delicious tapas followed by an Italian steak awaited us. We had a crazy time popping Christmas crackers and being extremely silly. The usual entertaining meal, in fact. Tom proved an excellent DJ in finding some Chopin for Mirinda and Puccini for me while bravely ignoring his own need for Little Kid Pop.
We then headed off for Freshwater so we could re-visit Julia Margaret Cameron’s house (Dimbola Lodge) where Tom played dress-ups while we looked at her wonderful photographs.
Captain Tom
During the year I’d seen two exhibitions of her work at the Science Museum and the V&A and it was lovely to re-visit her house. There was the added advantage of the Alice Liddell photograph being there as well which wasn’t in either of the London exhibitions. I don’t know why.
Afterwards, we had a lovely stroll down to Freshwater Beach just in time to watch a glorious sunset which bathed the chalk cliffs in a beautiful orange light.
We then had a trip back to Ryde for the ferry, though not before stopping off at a convenient pub (the Blacksmith’s Arms) for much needed liquid libation.
For reasons known only to him, Tom thought we’d enjoy a bit of maniacal laughter on the trip so he didn’t stop laughing for most of the drive back.
That would have been a lovely day out and a great bag to.
love mum xxxx