March 2022 – Page 5 – derrickjknight

A Knight’s Tale (109: Ferry Across The Solent)

A 1968 Isle of Wight holiday featured in https://derrickjknight.com/2021/10/12/a-knights-tale-49-shanklin/

It will soon become clear why a day trip taken with Elizabeth, Rob, Adam, and Danni in the mid 1980s is somewhat hazy in my mind. In fact given the haziness of my mind on that occasion this is probably an accurate presentation. Jessica, Sam, Louisa, and I were spending a weekend with my sister and her family at The Firs, in Hampshire’s West End, when we decided to take a ferry trip to the island.

I woke in the morning feeling decidedly groggy and nevertheless, not prepared to put the kibosh on the day, insisted on continuing with the plan. It was probably on the journey over that, wrapped in a blanket I dozed in the bar downstairs – probably on the way back, too. All I remember is a quartet of children queuing to ask for money to feed the food and drink dispensing machines. Head buried beneath the blanket, I would stretch out an arm, on the end of which was a handful of coins. This was gradually stripped clean.

When we arrived wherever we found ourselves I staggered into the nearest churchyard, fell onto a generously proportioned gravestone, and slept soundly until the others returned from whence they had wandered.

We next stayed with our friends Sarah and Howard at Bembridge in August 2000. On their local beach

Jessica and Heidi towed Emily and Oliver in our dinghy;

Howard helped Jessica into their small yacht,

while Michael took over dinghy duties.

While there we took a trip to Sandown’s Yaverland Beach. Is this a special stone Emily is displaying?

Jessica tows Emily and Oliver in the dinghy;

then Oliver romps on the sand with his Dad who rows him out to sea.

Although we now live so close to the Isle I have never visited it since.

“It’s The Second Of March Today”

Another drizzle day, and Jackie’s cold, kept us inside today.

One of the consequences of retirement for me is that I often don’t know what the date is. That is my excuse for what follows, and I am sticking to it.

When I descended from our bedroom this morning I found this photograph had been moved from its shelf at the window and placed on the table between my chair and a sofa in the sitting room.

“What’s that doing there?” I asked Mrs Knight.

“It’s the second of March today”, was the smiling reply.

“Ah”, said I, rapidly realising that it was the 54th anniversary of our first wedding in 1968. Jackie won’t be well enough to dine out today, so we’ll have to take a rain check on that.

I also have the second one, on 17th October 2017, to remember. Life can become complicated.

This afternoon I began scanning the pages of Charles Keeping’s illustrations to Charles Dickens’s ‘Bleak House’.

The Frontispiece ‘Fog everywhere’ and the next two illustrations demonstrate Keeping’s masterful depiction of elemental precipitations.

‘That leaden-headed old obstruction, Temple Bar’ invites the viewer to peer into the fog.

‘The place in Lincolnshire left to the rain’ makes me wonder whether the artist was inspired for this image by the sight of his car wing mirror on a rainy day.

‘We drove through the dirtiest and darkest streets that ever were seen’

‘Nobody ever was in such a state of ink’

‘A large grey cat leapt on his shoulder’

I will comment on the book as soon as I have finished the task of scanning the rest of these pages, which I hope to achieve by the beginning of June.

Last Saturday, thinking she would be going to Elizabeth’s event without me on account of my indisposition, and that I would have wanted something bland left for me, Jackie had begun preparing a pot of chicken stewp. In fact I accompanied her to my sister’s and she retained the gentle meal for another occasion. Now she had a cold it was just the job for her. I was on jankers today and got off lightly because all I had to do was heat it up and prepare the crusty bread. I finished the Malbec that had been open for nearly a week. It was still drinkable.

Decidedly Bedraggled

Albeit lightly at first, yet with increasing heaviness, steady rain fell throughout the day.

Jackie has woken developing a cold, so late this morning we drove to Hordle Pharmacy to buy some Day and Night Nurses and pain relief.

Another tree has been destroyed in Sway Road.

Afterwards we took a short forest drive. Our section of the A35,

up to the land of the Oak Craft company, has been partially closed for a couple of years, and partially so for a good six months.

This is to permit the widening and strengthening of the road bridge over the disused railway near Holmsley. The anticipated completion date is now early in April, which, if effective, will be a relief to us and to many more who have received far more traffic of all shapes and sizes trying to find alternatives to this major route through the forest. We have at least three times the vehicles passing our front door on the A337 than usual, and regularly come face to face with mechanical monsters on our small winding lanes. Everywhere signs crop up pleading for care and reduced speed because of animals on the road. Confusing diversions proliferate, and affect even our short journeys.

On our way to Bisterne Close there was hardly a pony in sight – they sought shelter where they could.