Ryde Marina

We left the flat just after 1 pm, heading for the bus station. The sky was blue, and the weather was nice and mild. Today’s photo shows Ryde Marina during high tide, taken en route. The marina is filled with leisure boats and yachts moored to floating pontoons. I prefer it when the tide is in so that I can watch the vessel movements. Sadly, I didn’t see any today. The boats range from small fishing vessels to larger sailing yachts with tall masts, but it’s a tiny marina. The industrial skyline of mainland Portsmouth can be seen faintly in the background across the Solent. The water is calm and reflects the clear winter sky above. It was one of those clear, blue, crisp winter mornings which are lovely and contrast with the usual grey of winter.

We got off the bus at Kite Hill and attempted a country walk. Unfortunately, the first part was down a narrowish country lane. The lane, however, was busy with cars travelling far too fast for the visibility afforded by the hedges and sharp bends. We felt very exposed. We jumped off the road at one point in an attempt to get away from the traffic but found our route blocked by a deep-sided stream. We abandoned the walk and ended up at The Sloop Inn for lunch. Mine was a fried chicken burger, and it was excellent, although the portion of chips seemed measly. PY had the scampi, which was a bit overcooked.

We headed back to Ryde. The bus was on a diversion and dropped us off near the library. We were able to easily get to the Co-op to buy some ingredients for the air-fryer stuffed pepper recipe that we’re making for dinner. I spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening dozing on the sofa