On Wednesday, parked at Yaverland and marched off along the esplanade towards Sandown, getting as far as somewhere between Sandown and Shanklin, before turning back into Sandown, where I had plans to buy a Guardian and get some cash, this last failing on account of my having failed to carry a bank card with me.
In the event, turned into Daisy's bakery and tea rooms for tea and fruit cake, an establishment run by middle aged ladies and seemingly catering mainly for retired people such as ourselves.
We had a Daily Mail experience there in that the large table in the middle was taken up by three young men, rather brown in colour, possibly from families once from Pakistan. And as is the way with young men, they seemed to take up a lot of space, fiddling with their telephones, while they waited for their food. We were all rather aware of how unlike the rest of the clientèle they were, and one of them seemed to be gazing around at the rest of us in a rather challenging manner, asserting his right to be there. Unfortunately we were sat rather too far away for me to make some light, ice-breaking remark and I would not have been able to carry off getting up and going over to them for the same purpose. So I didn't and in due course we left, an opportunity to be friendly to strangers missed.
But I did buy a small fruit cake to take away which turned out to be eatable but a little heavy.
Morton Manor
After a picnic in a bus shelter like shelter above the beach at Yaverland, the next stop was Morton Manor, a little to the south of Brading proper, which we had arranged to visit that afternoon, the place no longer being open to the public in the ordinary way, although they did do weddings (and were to do one yesterday, see reference 5) with the idea being to visit the handsome gardens.
The Manor looked rather like an older house of the sort one might find in rural Surrey, but which did contain some seriously old bits. Grounds maybe in the five to ten acre range, including outbuildings, car park, hill and various ponds. It had been owned for many years by a Polish family who probably came over at the time of the second world war and was now owned by a chap who had started out as a lecturer in computer science but who had made his money selling command and control systems to the likes of coast guards and firemen, before selling out to the Capita of reference 4. A chap who knew all about the CCTA for whom I had once worked. A smooth and friendly host for our visit to his very handsome gardens, including some fine trees, including one very large London plane.
The Manor also came with a long-term gardener who had seen off several owners, a gardener who had trained at Kew, had done a stint at Disneyland near Paris and divided his time between gardening and rock climbing. It seemed that he was a big enough cheese at this last to get his flights to his climbs paid for business class and his gear supplied by a climbing shop in Wales. We learned from him that at Disneyland the topiarised trees were kept in rotating pots to make sure that they got the sun in an even way. I did not think to ask whether the rotation machinery was visible or invisible. Made a feature of or hidden? Also that plastic ropes were springy and much better for falling than natural ropes, now not much used by climbers.
The hosta illustrated above was just one of the many interesting and good looking plants to be seen (and/or smelt).
Heima
Brading has moved onto serious fine dining, with a newly opened establishment, run by an Estonian couple, just up the road from where we are staying. See reference 1. Serious fine dining in the sense that the evening menu is a fixed, seven course tasting menu. Which we thought rather good, if by the end, at three hours or so, it had gone on for a little too long. Brown bread with lumps, served in a sort of cloth cap and with some kind of (excellent) frothed butter involving smoked tomato. Broccoli soup. Pastrami. Mussels. Mushrooms. Game ravioli. Sorbet. Tartlet with ice cream. All very prettily served, nicely goo lite and plenty of taste, as befitted a tasting menu. First course taken with a little Italian white, the rest with a French Chablis, premier cru, see references 2 and 3. Took the first sip to make the change from Italy, but after that it was very good. To all of which BH added some kind of a cocktail to start, a cocktail which was an orangey-pink and made her a little pink.
The catch being that they only change the menu once a week and one might not always want a seven course tasting menu, so it is not a place one is going to want to use that often. The evening we were there, maybe three other couples, including a birthday girl around my age, a girl who bubbled with life and seemed to have been about a bit in her time. Will they still be here next year?
PS: so only a Yaverland day in that we did park there. Having had cake in Sandown we did not have the necessary waiting hour to spare, a waiting hour which would have enabled swimming.
Reference 1: http://www.heima-iow.co.uk/.
Reference 2: http://www.bersan.fr/.
Reference 3: http://www.bersan.fr/bourgogne/category/chablis-et-chablis-premier-cru/?submit=Voir.
Reference 4: http://www.capita.com/.
Reference 5: http://www.isleofwight-weddings.com/.
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