View from a castle

Carisbrooke castle, on the Isle of Wight (England, UK) was our destination for this afternoon. I'd wanted to go there for a couple of years, after seeing my sister TMLHereand There's photos, taken on her visit in 2010. It's a very castley castle; some parts are Norman, and it is possible to walk right around the ramparts, and up to the Keep. it's a steep climb, and even with my head for heights, I thought twice about it. Luckily there are rails to grip on to, because the stone steps are uneven in height, and worn to a smooth polish. This shot was taken from the ramparts (not the keep) and though it shows nothing of the castle walls, I liked the wild valerian, and the hay bales in the distance. Having grown up in Ireland; the West coast of Scotland; and holidayed many times in West Wales, where the weather is somewhat wetter than in England, it never ceases to amaze me that the English hay regularly gets made, and baled, and stored, in July, with little talk of having to make haylage / silage instead, because of the wet weather! Hay in England just happens, it seems.

So here is a field full of hay, to feed the animals for the winter, and meanwhile, back at the castle... a storyteller in Mediaeval costume was entertaining the children; families were picknicking in the grounds and in the new Princess Beatrice garden; and donkeys were on display pulling up water for the well (they only do it for a few minutes' demo time now, the water supply has been updated). Children were attacking each other with wooden swords; and kights in chain mail were putting on a mock battle, featuring hand to hand combat. Sir Carlos, from Barcelona, won, and gave the other knight a good kicking, once he had floored him.

The only thing missing, for me, was a second hand book stall and a Women's institute cake stall, but we're not in Wales now...

After we had eaten our lunch and sunbathed on the green sward outside the castle walls, we set off for the beach. The wind, unfortunately, blew in our faces when we got there, and the location was not the romantic little horseshoe shaped cove I had hoped for, so we left and came back to Freshwater bay to sort out our posessions, and photos. We leave tonight, and will be back to reality some time tomorrow.

B and M visit us regularly in Stroud, but we haven't been here to vist them for years. For us, this has been the most marvellous, dreamlike holiday, and I hope there will be many more to follow.


P.S. This is not the image that I edited in iPhoto, but the original. I have a card reader with the borrowed camera, that is causing some problems when I upload to iPhoto, and in turn when I upload to blipfoto. So, it's a little washed out...