Piano 108

Piano No.108 was captured in what was once the Wesleyan Chapel in Nelson Street in Ryde, which was erected in 1832 and which is presently looking for a new tenant. A junior relative of Central Hall in London.

The gift of the Oxford sister-in-law of the lady who was showing us around.

A Young Chang, a brand last seen back in May, in the luvvies' church in Covent Garden, as noticed at reference 2. They had a black grand rather than a brown upright. Quite a fancy bit of cabinet work for a relatively modern piano, nonetheless.

And while I am on, a partial list of the things that we have failed to do on holiday here on the Isle of Wight follows. That is to say things that we often do, or might have done, but didn't.

Crab salads at either the 'Best Dressed Crab' of Bembridge or the 'Fisherman's Cottage' of Shanklin.

The chip shop or the convenience store in Brading.

Shanklin Chine.

Make any use of either the buses or the trains which serve Brading. This despite having carried out senior persons' bus and train passes over to the Island.

Culver Point or Culver Haven.

Bembridge lifeboat station or the next door café in a caravan.

Brading church. Home to piano No.17, unnamed but captured six years ago, as noticed at reference 5.

Brading Marshes. I am reminded by reference 4 that we once saw a hobby sitting in a small tree on the edge of Brading car park. The first and only time. Oddly, no mention there of the white tailed sea eagles which we were told about last year by a twitcher. Or perhaps the year before that.

Brading Down.

Brading Roman Villa.

Ashey Down and its sea mark.

Borthwood Copse at Queen's Bower. With some of the fine beech trees there being snapped above.

Osborne House or the nearby Whippingham Church.

Ventnor Botanic Gardens.

The fine second hand bookshop at the top of Ryde - or the Catholic church over the road. Unlike other churches in Ryde, likely to be open. Also, as I recall, the first Catholic church to be built on the island after the reformation.

Godshill Model Village. Maybe home to a model piano?

Michelangelo's, the long established Italian restaurant at the bottom of Union Street in Ryde.

The fancy new café in Ryde at reference 3.

On the other hand, we did make a lot of use of the big Tesco's at Ryde and we did buy a lot of cherries there. Most recently 600g of Karina cherries from Kent. Not a variety I think we have taken before: not as sweet as most on offer and a little thin on the palate. But they did well enough.

Bing tells me that it is a 'cherry variety of German origin. Vigorous tree that branches very well. It produces fruits of a slightly beautiful shape and heart, of very intense color. Rather long peduncle [stalk] which facilitates collection'. So not one of the many cherries invented in British Columbia.

However, further search fails to find anything else about this variety. There is a lot of stuff out there about cherry breeding, a lot of it open access and a lot of it from Romania, but none of it seems to mention this one. Most of the cherries found in the big stores are easier to track down.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/07/piano-107.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/05/piano-104.html.

Reference 3: https://www.robertthompson.co.uk/rt-cafe-grill.

Reference 4: https://www.rspb.org.uk/days-out/reserves/brading-marshes.

Reference 5: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/07/piano-17.html.

Group search key: pianosk.