On The Island

The birds were singing for breakfast again! We had great tits as well but they were too fast to be photographed!

We also watched the red squirrels.

We went to Quarr Abbey, sadly no piglets there only adult pigs so Ellie wasn’t interested!  We went into the shop and looked around the art centre but quite frankly everywhere you looked there were card machines for you to make donations!! A good day out…not!

So, we drove into West Cowes, had a wander around but it was really cold and so we ended up in The Union Inn. Another very dog friendly pub. Along with our two drinks brought to the table, a small glass full of gravy bones for Ellie! Won’t do her diet much good.

Back to the lodge with an early evening walk through the woods. We intended going for a short walk but no, Ellie makes the decision how far she wants to go and she decided it was down to the beach!

The birds arrived for breakfast. Lots of blue tits but they are too quick and the red squirrel was too quick as well!

These are obviously the birds who are used to being fed from the lodge.

We heard from Margaretha – it is snowing in Cyprus!  February is a horrible month over there, definitely their winter.

We went to the Donkey Sanctuary in the morning, so that we could see the donkey Hannah that we sponsored for Mal’s sister. Of course Ellie loved seeing the donkeys.

It was very cold there and so we drove into Shanklin to warm ourselves up with some lunch at The Steamer Inn. I had their chowder which was delicious and they are very dog friendly in there.

We then had a walk along Shanklin beach.

This is our lodge, so close to the beach, so an early morning paddle for Ellie.

It is so nice that the birds have visited us this morning. A little robin keeps singing to us if we don’t put enough bread out!

We went off to the Garlic Farm to buy some Garlic pickle (Rhys loves it too!) We had a walk around the extensive grounds as well and then had lunch there.

Back at the lodge we had a couple  of games of Rummikub.

Later we had another beach walk and then watched Exeter v Notts Forest. A stunning performance by Exeter, only to go out on penalties.

We packed up and headed for the Isle of Wight, stopping at Ripley for our lunch. There is a lovely dog friendly cafe, Pinnock’s that  we go to.

Then on to Portsmouth  to catch the ferry and our well travelled doggie enjoying herself!

We have a luxury lodge at Woodside Bay retreat. We have stayed before and it is lovely as it is amongst the wood and just a couple of minutes from the beach. We even have two bathrooms with our own baths and showers!

Our terrace is huge.

For future reference, we had lodge 14 , in the vicinity of the tree house.

In the evening we had our supermarket delivery. That was easy!

Raining and so we just went along the Rope Walk (shelter from the trees). Even so Ellie was very wet.

I did notice watching the FA in the afternoon that it was sunny in Plymouth!

WOW well done Plymouth – for those who don’t know what is going on – They beat Liverpool!!! Then rubbish, Spurs are out.

Wow, a much colder day so Mal had a run over the field with Ellie!