Jersey Calling....(meeting old friends again in Jersey)

Victor Hugo famously described the Channel Islands as ‘...jewels scattered across the English Channel….’ Having just returned from an all too brief visit, I am reminded of this truism. Despite inclement weather it really was good to get my feet back on home soil.

For me, trips home are usually a whistle stop tour of family and friends so this time we decided to keep a low profile so we could relax and enjoy ourselves. I arranged to meet up with my old friend Tom and his partner Sharon and for the next day or two we were entertained Jersey style. A ramble along the north shore towards White Rock and onwards to L'Etacquerel fort with a flask and sandwiches, a mooch down to Egypt returning stranded sea slugs to the sea, dining at Chez O’Driscoll and eating out at a quaint Italian restaurant.

Wifey and I even found some time to head off to a deserted Ouaisne bay and we sat by the rocks and whiled away a lovely sunny afternoon on the beach watching the ebb and low of the tide.

Later, we met up with another old friend Darren and we headed into town on a dead quiet weekday evening for a couple of cheeky beers. It didn’t matter that town wasn’t busy of that there was no-one out. It was great just to hang out and have a beer with an old mate, catching up on what we had been up to and sharing a joke.

Next day I met Tom and Shar for a spot of fishing at a place called petit Plemont, 300 ft down the cliffs to the rocks below. Casting out from rocky crags with a running swell and sea crashing all about us, the tingle of sea salt sun-baked on my face, the sounds of the gulls overhead; spectacular. The sun was out and the sea was clear down 20 feet. I was spinning away into the bay and with the skill of a true Jersey Bean I managed to catch a big mackerel.


Its always good to spend time in company of my friends, sharing a few beers and laughs.

And as for the mackerel? Later that evening, Wifey and I cooked it on a bbq at Green Island beach and scoffed the lot.

Below are pictured some snaps of me Wifey Tom and Shar (and some jersey cows and some rescued sea slugs).

Feeling blue (nature in colourful bloom)

I am somewhat predisposed to bouts of moody muttering when something distresses me. So having to leave Jersey once again to return to the mainland after a far too short hit-and-run holiday is a sure-fire way to get me in the doldrums.

On the return home, we dropped in on Wifey’s Gran’s house. We took Gran and Sam, her loveable old mutt, to this wonderful bluebell wood she wanted us to see down the road, in the heart of the Dorset countryside.

It isn’t a walk across a deserted sun-dappled beach.
It isn’t an effervescent stride along secluded coves and cliff paths
But it was just the tonic to help soothe away the homesick blues.
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Check out these birds....

I popped up to the local trading estate for some good old fashioned highway robbery the week before last.

This is how it happens...I need something for the garden and so pop into our local garden centre (which shall remain nameless to negate any potential libel threat). I select what I want, then I go to the counter, put my hands up and get casually fleeced by the woman in the Dick Turpin mask. Like sipping tea through a tramp's sock, it always leaves a slightly bitter taste in my mouth.

Not today though. For hiding in the bushes, unpeturbed by the rampant theft all around, sat these little robins. I was reminded that even in this hectic modern world in which we choose to immerse ourselves, there still is always room for a bit of love for a fluffy bunch of birds
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