Best dressed crab

Following the rigours of Carisbrooke noticed at reference 1, we decided that a soft day, centred on a visit to the best dressed crab people at Bembridge was the way forward. People to be found at reference 2. With one of last year's two visits being noticed at reference 3.

Started off with a gentle stroll in Brading Marshes, marshes now largely under the control of the bird people (that is to say the RSPB) and gentle because the path we use used to be the railway line from Brading to Bembridge.

Or, to be more precise, we started by checking that the church piano noticed four years ago at reference 4 was still there, as it was. A fine piece of century-old oak joinery. Pity that they did not bother to make the music holder in something that matched better. Very tatty compared with the piano proper. Still no sign of a maker's mark.

And so on into the marshes. Where as well as immature blackberries we had one egret, three herons, two buzzards and one other large raptor, neither buzzard nor kite. Sundry crows, magpies, blackbirds and pigeons. Skylarks heard but not seen, which was frustrating.

On the way back we came across an enthusiastic tweeter, who may have been a care worker taking his charge (a young male) for a country outing. He also had quite a fancy camera and knew all about the white tailed eagles put up by the RSPB. He offered a picture on his telephone of a heron trying to eat a coot but I forget whether the heron managed to get it down.

Snapped the pound in Quay Lane. While here in Epsom we have a Pound Lane but no pound.

Then in the churchyard we came across a Bazalgette tomb, containing, as it turned out, the mortal remains of the father of the Bazalgette of London sewage fame. Listed as Captain Joseph William Bazalgette, RN, but according to reference 5 he was actually only a commander. On retirement at the end of the Napoleonic wars, he seems to have lived in London and it is not clear how he wound up in Brading, although the island has for a long time been home to plenty of retired naval folk.

And so to the crabs, where we took much the same meal as last time, that is to say crab salads with Chablis. I did not feel that I had had quite enough after my salad, substantial though it was, and took an extra crab sandwich, on white (rather the brown, considered proper), without all the trimmings. This certainly filled me up, but from an aesthetic point of view, taking an off-menu sandwich did not really work.

Staff all very friendly and we learned that they did well enough at lunchtime that they did not need to open in the evening.

The field behind our cottage, the source of the occasional braying. The sort of messy field that, back in Epsom, one would associate with travellers.

PS: I close with a railway puzzle, from the aforementioned line from Brading to Bembridge. What is the point of turning the locomotive around, given that one can't turn the whole train around? And given that it has travelled backwards to Bembridge, why not let it travel forwards back to Brading?

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/07/carisbrooke-priory.html.

Reference 2: https://thebestdressedcrabintown.co.uk/.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/07/nunwell-clockwise.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/07/piano-17.html.

Reference 5: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Naval_Biographical_Dictionary/Bazalgette,_Joseph_William.