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The off season
Nov. 10th, 2009 11:15 amThe trouble with summer-holiday destinations is that they completely give up in the winter. Yesterday, I tried to take ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
evilmissbecky and her mother on a tour of the delights of the Isle of Wight. Carisbrooke Castle was open, shrouded in fog and full of rooks, and even had the donkey show running, but that was it. Osborne House, which we'd hoped to visit, is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays in winter. I checked the website of the Needles Pleasure Park to make sure we could park at Alum Bay. "Pleasure Park open all year round!" it said, though it added in small print that some of the attractions might be closed in winter. What it meant was that the tacky souvenir shop would be open, but absolutely nothing else. The bus stop for the bus up to the Needles viewpoint listed all the bus times, but didn't consider the whole "next bus not due until Easter" part of the timetable worth mentioning. Even this morning, down on Cowes Parade and Cowes High Street, most of the shops were closed.
Still, we had a nice visit to the castle, and the fog lifted enough to give moderately pretty views from the Military Road along the attractive south-west coast. We walked up to the Needles viewpoint in the bracing cold, where the kestrels were out in optimistic force. Because of the slope of the land, one hovered at our eye level about ten feet away from us, and stayed there for about five minutes without moving. I don't think I've ever seen a hovering kestrel so close. I was torn between willing it to find some dinner before bedtime, and willing the mice to stay safe and uneaten. Nature red in tooth and claw makes for such complicated emotions.
evilmissbecky and her mother on a tour of the delights of the Isle of Wight. Carisbrooke Castle was open, shrouded in fog and full of rooks, and even had the donkey show running, but that was it. Osborne House, which we'd hoped to visit, is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays in winter. I checked the website of the Needles Pleasure Park to make sure we could park at Alum Bay. "Pleasure Park open all year round!" it said, though it added in small print that some of the attractions might be closed in winter. What it meant was that the tacky souvenir shop would be open, but absolutely nothing else. The bus stop for the bus up to the Needles viewpoint listed all the bus times, but didn't consider the whole "next bus not due until Easter" part of the timetable worth mentioning. Even this morning, down on Cowes Parade and Cowes High Street, most of the shops were closed. Still, we had a nice visit to the castle, and the fog lifted enough to give moderately pretty views from the Military Road along the attractive south-west coast. We walked up to the Needles viewpoint in the bracing cold, where the kestrels were out in optimistic force. Because of the slope of the land, one hovered at our eye level about ten feet away from us, and stayed there for about five minutes without moving. I don't think I've ever seen a hovering kestrel so close. I was torn between willing it to find some dinner before bedtime, and willing the mice to stay safe and uneaten. Nature red in tooth and claw makes for such complicated emotions.
