Pigs

After a busy day at Ventnor, we thought a quiet day, starting with the pigs of Quarr Abbey, last noticed at reference 1.

For some reason the car park was very full, rather fuller than the number of people inspecting the pigs would account for. Perhaps there was a conference - perhaps of the faithful, perhaps of local arts & crafts people. Perhaps it was just a big day for dog walkers - with the abbey providing walks, free parking and cafeteria. This last including an outdoor option for those with dogs.

The pigs were in good form, with a good number of piglets about, some with their mothers. Some people had bought bags of pellets to feed them with which provided a bit more action. Plenty of small children and dogs. Crows on the lookout for leftovers. There were also shaded benches from which we could sit and watch the goings on.

Into the abbey for a sit in the quiet. I had forgotten what a handsome church it is inside, even if there is provision for rather more monks than I think they have now. A far cry from the comparatively gaudy interiors of Catholic churches in London or even, for that matter, of Buckfast Abbey - despite both abbeys belonging to the Benedictine Order.

The snap turned up by Bing above is a little bright, but it does give something of the idea. The sort of serious church I do not like to take pictures of when there are other people about: I like to show a bit of respect, even if I am a card-carrying atheist.

Onto the cafeteria and from there to Ryde, taking full advantage of our new found knowledge of the two locality codes supplied for each car park. Veterans even.

The first sight of the day was a small black hovercraft coming up the beach. Occupants jumped out to busy themselves with the skirt or something under the skirt. Who were they? Military or what? It turned out that they were test drivers from the Griffon Hovercraft Works, across the water at Portchester. Hard to see what such a small hovercraft might be used for and I did not like to pry - not least because the test drivers looked a bit ex-military to me. Maybe for select and heavily armed landing parties across the Sandown beaches at the dead of night.

And the sailing yachts, missing on the day of our visit to Bembridge, were back. Nothing big nor particularly noteworthy, but a good number of them, mostly on the other side of the Solent.

A rather striking bed, one of several, of bedding plants. BH was not sure whether the white corner was due to having some white left over from something else or to some new fashion culled from the pages of the pictorial journal of the RHS.

The rest of the day has already been adequately documented at references 4, 5 and 6 so no need to say any more here.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/07/quarr.html.

Reference 2: https://quarrabbey.org/.

Reference 3: https://www.griffonhoverwork.com/.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/07/big-boat.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/07/bottle-cooking.html.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/07/fake-165.html.

Reference 7: http://hampshirenotes.blogspot.com/2013/04/quarr-abbey.html. The source of the first snap of the abbey above.