On The Island

A much nicer, sunny morning!

Lunchtime was time for Pilates and Gemma started showing us how to do Pilates 100… I say started! Yes one day maybe.

Thought for the Day – “If you don’t make time for exercise, you’ll probably have to make time for illness.”  ~ Robin Sharma

Yesterday was the first beach dog freedom day! Dogs are now allowed on the beaches, so we took Ellie to Minnis Bay. Rain wasn’t forecast but we got very wet! It didn’t matter, Ellie loves going in the sea and really enjoyed it.

Thought for the Day – “Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.” ~ Bob Marley

The temperature had certainly dropped for our walk which was around King George park.

It warmed up later and was 42 degrees in the conservatory!

A bit of a lazy day, ‘Praised Chicken’ for lunch, so easy, just cooks itself and the leeks were from the allotment. Actually, we both were a bit croaky and sore throats, a sure sign summer has come to an end.

We had a 60’s music channel on and the conversation was guessing how many were not with us any more! That’s sad.

We watched the Spurs v Man U match. Yeah Spurs won 3-0 but I have to say what I thought was a bad decision meant Man U had 10 men.

Thought for the Day – “Lighten up while you still can, don’t even try to understand. Just find a place to make your stand, and take it easy.” ~ Eagles

After walking Ellie we drove over to Whitstable to meet Tris and his new girlfriend. Rhys works in Whitstable and told us about the “charity” car park. I had never heard of it before and so we used it. It is actually the junior school car park, right in the centre of town and it is huge. They have a bucket you just put a donation in. Half the money goes to the school and the other half to a charity. Today’s charity was Guide Dogs, which obviously was really appealing to me, so we added a bit extra! We chatted to the volunteers who were there with their gorgeous guide dogs. A brilliant idea and far better than the council getting it!

We were treating Tris to a meal at Wheeler’s Oyster Bar for his birthday.

Tris and Nathalie…

We had a really delicious meal, a lot of lobster. Ollie came out and served us the first courses. I had scallop.

Followed by Lobster lasagne and so much lobster

We had a lovely time. Ollie was very busy so we didn’t have much of a chance to chat.

Thought for the Day – “Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.” ~ Maggie Smith

Our Red Hatters lunch. Today held at Grove Ferry. The owner came out to chat to us, because we are ‘ Kent Lavender Ladies’ and informed us that there used to be a lavender farm on the site of the pub., many years ago.  …..

“Did you know?
Lavender was once grown commercially in this
area and its oils distilled at Grove Ferry. The
quality of the lavender water was praised by
the actress Ellen Terry.”

Well, every day is a school day! The landlord then wanted to take a photo of us all for his promotions!

A nice lunch with good company.

Thought for the Day – “Time doesn’t take away from friendship, nor does separation.” ~Tennessee Williams

 

Lou, Rhys, Oscar and Josie came for lunch. Mal brought a huge squash from the allotment which he was going to roast along with everything else. We had meat and salmon, so a lot going on in the kitchen, along with starters and desserts.

A long story short, Mal cut the squash and continued on to his finger. Blood was everywhere in the kitchen and I was trying to get him to go to the bathroom as it was pouring everywhere  while he wanted to check the roast potatoes.  Needless to say we gave up with the squash and I tried to bind up the finger which continued to bleed heavily. I had visions of the hospital but eventually after the third tight dressing and a plastic finger covering, it seemed contained! I just about sorted Mal, cleaning everywhere and had lunch ready when Rhys and co arrived.

We had a lovely afternoon.

We had lunch outside then we all walked the dogs around Sandwich and ended up in The Crispin Inn when it started to rain. Our next door neighbour works in there and welcomed us in, obviously they are dog friendly.

Thought for the Day –  “The family is one of nature’s masterpieces”

A day out in Canterbury with the Kent Lavender Ladies. We were all arriving by different buses (parking is horrendous & expensive in Canterbury) so we decided to meet in Spoons. I was the first one there. Penny’s bus got held up, as they always do somewhere because of the continuing road works.  We had our lunch and then walked round to the theatre to see “Now That’s What I Call Music.” We were in the circle to one side (cheap seats!)and it seemed the whole of the first half was on the side of the stage so that we could n’t see it.

Thank goodness we hadn’t paid £80 a ticket as it was awful. In the interval we all just looked at each other and made comments, some of the show out of tune, music not in time etc etc. So, we left!!! We decided we could have more fun somewhere else.

We walked past “My Cafe”, having never been in there, we decided to give it a try and pleased we did. The waitress was really lovely and we all ended up having tea and pancakes, justified by the fact we didn’t have desert after lunch! Such a nice place, we will have to go back.

In spite of the show, we really enjoyed our day out.

Thought for the Day – “Friends offer free therapy.”