Subject: Fwd: Response to your Query :  - Ref:DE00000678581 - FOI - Risk Register

Do I walk with pride or slink away vanquished ? My 16 year old has just planned, organised and executed her birthday party for 20 odd kids with finesse and precision that would shame an experienced organiser. She has organised 2 parties-day and sleepover- with bouncy castle, outdoor and indoor music, 2 lots of food and drink, decorated the lounge respectfully, organised games and pre-empted all poss. blunders. All by herself with no adult consultation or involvement (save a trip to transport food). Phew, I have been made redundant as of today !

 

 

 

 

 

 

This summer, Mark and I decided to take a breather from work, by staying in, chilling and exploring our island. But as it turned out, the met office's forecast was grim, with predicted showers throughout the week. However, on the one morning, when the sun slowly emerged through the clouds, we bolted out as fast as we could, to the western part of the island. This was clearly an unseen part of the island- particularly for Mark.

As I drove along Military Road (along the motorcyclists post orgasmic fag-stop), we frenetically raced ahead of the looming dark clouds that threatened to move towards our destination. Tennyson Downs. Fortunately, with the clouds heading south, we made it to the base of the downs, parked up and walked.

The vast expanse of green on Tennyson Down, culminated in the sheer chalk cliff along the south called Highdown Cliffs. As stories go, Lord Alfred Tennyson, during his residence at Farringford House, often walked along the Downs for his " constitutional". With the cliff drop of around 482 feet and the wind speed of around 25 mph, I staggered around like a drunken thing, trying not to fall down the already crumbling cliff face. Getting up the Down certainly flexed my rather contracted lungs and got my heart pumping at a rather alarming rate. Still, I learnt something - more exercise needed for this old body to work efficiently.

Mark was in his element, having wanted to walk along here ever since we moved to the island. He found the time and was steady enough to take over 80 photographs just along the down.

As for me, just staying on the ground and warm was at the forefront of my mind, although I did manage to sneak in a few photos now and again.

 Fresh salad from my garden

 

 

Right, so I use corny colour phrases but, what the hell, that is how I feel sometimes. So here are some quick shots of early summer flowers in the garden.

Verbena which grows wild in the garden

My bold and lush red Poppy

Gorgeous cerise of the Rose

Bright pink Rock Roses

The modest displays of the Marguerites

Wild blue Irises

Ohh .. cannot remember the name.

Sometimes when the rural solitude wears me down and work seems tedious, I take a lunchtime walk along the Downs that backs onto my house. Last week, as I pondered upon "life, the universe and everything" the varied hues of blue in the horizon riveted and somehow reined me onto a brighter space. Here are a few captures on my iphone, though I don't think i have done justice to the colours.

Ok, seriously, my little island, that I take every opportunity to moan about as a culture-less, benighted visual paradise has suddenly risen in esteem. Here is a little something about my past neighbours.

So, there is old Charles Dickens's summer home, south west from my house, where he lived a couple of months every year, wrote a few chapters of David Copperfield but quit the Isle of Wight, fed up of the "phlegm" that clogged his nose. ( Oh, I sympathise with this man ! The rape seed flowers fill acres of land and are deadly for hay fever sufferers like moi ! ). Algernon Swinburne, his neighbour lived in a large sprawling house  with turrets and gardens that roll onto the sea. Just up the road was the former residence of Stacpoole, yes, of the "The Blue Lagoon" fame. A few streets down is the residence of John Macaulay... and towards the beach are former residences of Turgenev and music composer, Elgar. These summer residences formed a neat party circuit for the wealthy elite of London during the Victorian period.

Further afield, lived the great Lord Alfred Tennyson near Freshwater, and was visited by Charles Darwin who was a good friend of Julia Margaret Cameron, a progressive female victorian photographer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Margaret_Cameron). I do believe that one of her portraits of a young girl may have inspired Lewis Carrol's "Alice in Wonderland". I must also admit that I was unaware of the islands Darwinian connection till my geneticist sister chided me for being ignorant of Charles Darwin's legacy here.

And then in the same area lived J.B Priestley, whose essays I poured over as a English Literature Graduate, pale, bland a bit English I thought, being a vocal and fiery Indian student.

But the icing on this pretty frothy island cake is the discovery that Robert Hooke, yes, the man who coined the term "cell" to denote a basic unit of life (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hooke), was born on the island and spent a good many years here. How exciting is that ? And now our island has the enthusiastic Dr Lucy Rogers, (http://www.lucyrogers.com/1/Who.html) the passionate Astrophysicist who tweets about stars, galaxies and space exploration to all interested islandfolk. I can say that that I wouldn't have spotted the glorious ISS zoom across the sky were it not for her tweets. And I can name quite a few stars on a dark night too !

So I must concede that the growing number of writers, artists and scientists past and present, who have lived and live on the island, is steadily bringing a little excitement to my otherwise slumberous rural life.

A smattering of English spring flowers in the garden.

Forget-me-not, Tulip, Daffodil, Grape Hyacinth and Primrose in that order.

Ok, it isn't often that I read a blog that makes me smile all day. Ok, I don't read that many random blogs..... but good ones, I do. This one just about about ticks all the right boxes. Got to love it, alot :)

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/