From a wet Island

Lovely to get the rain after weeks of drought, but now we want the sun back - funny lot aren't we? The Water butts are all full and we even have spare rainwater in case it gets too dry again. Yes Gem, we would love you to stay with us - any time. The August Bank holiday or before would suit us also. Look forward to it! Yes, we did see the programme on Portsmouth and we are looking forward to the Grand Opening and maybe to our trip to the top of the Spinnaker. They say that the top shelf will be a restaurant, like the one on Canada. We are going over to Gunwharf one day next week, if the weather is fine.

Nic, I am not sure about messaging as I leave the phone in the car, but I will have a look. Why message us - we are on the phone! and it is lovely to hear from you any time in spite of the time difference which can be confusing. It takes me ages to find the right message, but I try sometimes. Yes next year is the big five-O for Cathy so we will have to sort something out.

Last night we had a Lions boules evening at the newly improved Fleming Arms in Binstead. Although it was a rather heavy drizzle, about thirty of us, including a group from Newport, braved the rain and in teams of four we gradually got to the final - I say we when I mean Mum - she is really good and her team won, with her getting the important shot on two occasions. I didn't realise how much fun we could have. We finished up at 10.30pm after a very nice buffet neal, still playing under floodlights. We went home during the Newport/Ryde challenge cup - a couple of warming whiskys for Mum seemed to have been the answer. She is such fun when she loses her inhibitions!

Nice to have you back Pete - now we can start blogging again and now that Nic has a computer in front of him perhaps blogs from another small Island. See you soon love from Dad