This Post should have been telling you all about our cruise from Portsmouth to the Channel Islands and Isles of Scilly. Well, I should have told you about it in 2024, when we went all the way from Portsmouth up to Aberdeen, taking in the Channel Islands, Isles of Scilly, Lundy, Skomer, Rathlin, Outer Hebrides and the Shetland Islands.
As you might have guessed, neither of these took place, even though I have always wanted to visit the Isles of Scilly. The first was cancelled by us due to my knee operation, and the second by the cruise company due to a problem with the ship. This is the Hebridean Sky, which took us around the Seychelles (Post 156 of March 2024) and which should have taken us from Portsmouth this year.
Now I won’t get to see the Tresco Abbey Gardens
https://www.tresco.co.uk/enjoying/abbey-garden
Or the place where Prime Minister Harold Wilson is buried, St Mary’s Old Church on St Mary’s Island. There are three mass graves from 1835 when the SS Schiller, a German ship, sank off Scilly and over 300 people were drowned. I do love a good graveyard (just call me a taphophile, Post 23a of April 2019).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-65197190
https://www.submerged.co.uk/schiller
More details on all these if I ever get there, I don’t want to use up all my information. I’ve also added some ‘new places’ to my list: derelict military sites where you can spend the night. I’d never heard of Host Unusual but just look at what they have, I must research them more. Staying with the military theme, I’m not sure about a ‘glamping helipod’, even if it is in Skegness (where we used to stay as kids in our parents’ static caravan), but I wouldn’t mind one of the bunkers, or even (hint hint) the Tower in Panama, as I never got to go there when our Clipper Race was on.
I knew about the Landmark Trust raising funds to restore RAF Ibsley, in Hampshire. Landmark have another in restoration, Bofors Tower at Dunkirk, planned to be ready this autumn. I have already stayed in the Martello Tower in Aldeburgh, Suffolk but it doesn’t feel as immediate as staying in one used during the Second World War. There’s also the last remaining Semaphore Tower, in Surrey. We’ve not been to a Landmark property for almost a year (see Post 180 of 27 July 2025).
https://www.landmarktrust.org.uk
There were 103 Martello Towers built around the UK coast, from 1804 to 1812, to prevent invasion by the French. As Napoleon never invaded, we don’t know how effective they would have been. There are fewer than 50 left now. To read all about them, this link gives you more details than I think you’d ever want. I’ve discovered there are even ones in foreign countries such as India, Sierra Leone and Italy. I cannot find how they got their name, although in 1794 a stone watch tower was captured by the British from the French at Mortella Point in Corsica so it’s possibly a corruption of that.
More recently, for the 2012 London Olympics, we stayed at Prospect Tower in Faversham, Kent. This was built as a folly in about 1808 by (later) Lord Harris of Seringapatam for £400, on the edge of his Belmont estate, bought with prize money won in India. In those days, you had to have a folly in your grounds if you wanted to impress your pals. The fourth Lord Harris was a cricketing enthusiast, creating a pitch just by the Tower, which became the changing room for the teams. You can’t see it in this photo but the weather vane is of, what else, a cricketer.
Enthusiasm obviously ran in the family; the fifth Lord Harris was a horologist who had one of the largest personal collections of clocks, which you can see in a special tour. We were too busy going to the Olympics to visit the actual house, maybe that should be added to my ever-growing list of things to do. I can see no mention of the Tower here, so if you want to book it, you’ll have to go onto the Landmark Trust website.
Talking of enthusiasts, I might possibly be considered one. For the Olympics, forgotten until I came across this photo, I had my nails done!
Before we headed off anywhere this year, I finally got around to the ‘lipstick experience’ that G and Y had given me last year. I was really not sure whether I wanted to do this or not; who needs personalised lipstick? However, it was great fun. There was another lady who’d been given the same thing by her daughter so I was not alone. First, you’re asked when you’re likely to wear it: during the day, special events etc. Then, what sort of colours do you like? I chose a dramatic plum, the other lady a more subtle daytime colour. When you sit down there are some scary-looking colours in front of you.
I forgot to say, they give you a glass of sparkling wine before you start. What’s not to like? The person looking after you starts mixing the colours in seemingly random proportions, then once you’re happy, puts the mix into a centrifuge then into a press and hands over your personal lipstick, with a card showing the exact mix, so you can go back and get a refill when needed.
What do you think? I might need to go back and get a less ‘loud’ version, plus another glass of fizz. (Sorry if me smirking at you puts you off your breakfast).
Anyway, no more holidays to tell you about for a wee while. So, what (else) am I to talk about today? I can catch up on missing items I had thought you might like. I’m not sure there will be many photos though, sorry, you’ll have to read all the words instead.
Sad news last month was the death of Anthony Head, a good excuse to listen to him in the BBC Series ‘Cabin Pressure’ by John Finnemore. I have mentioned it before in Posts 85 (April 2020) and 153 (September 2023), but forgot that Anthony Head starred as well in the later parts as ‘Herc’, a love interest for Caroline (Stephanie Cole). It is reported to have broken all (BBC) records with over 22,000 people applying for tickets for the last episode recorded. Unfortunately, most were disappointed as the studio only had a capacity of 200 seats. It’s no longer available on the BBC Sounds website but you can find it on YouTube or the Soundcloud app.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44565410
For a change, listen to ‘Conversations From a Long Marriage’ by Jan Etherington on BBC Radio 4 if you can. It features Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam (who also stars in Cabin Pressure). It’s so true to life (for those of us of a certain age anyway). The last series, just finished, was about them moving to a place by the sea. More on that in another Post.
Further sad news was the death of the Welsh pop singer Bonnie Tyler on July 8th, following a stay in a Portuguese hospital after an operation in May.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c9326rq1509t
I decided we had to have a tribute night to her so I found some 1980’s cocktails to go with the music. The cocktails from that era, for those of you who remember that far back, were somewhat lurid, many with suggestive names such as ‘Sex on the Beach’ (vodka, Archers peach liqueur, orange, cranberry and pineapple juices), ‘Between the Sheets’ (rum, brandy, triple sec and lemon juice), Harvey Wallbanger (vodka, Galliano and orange juice), Pina Colada (rum, coconut and pineapple juices or liqueurs). I decided the last of these was possibly the least alcoholic, plus it enabled me to finish off a few bottles with an inch or so in the bottom. I’ve spared you any photos.
More recently, Bill Oddie has just died and Carly Simon reveals she has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. I don’t think I can spend a night watching ‘The Goodies’ in tribute to Bill, a total of 76 episodes were shown between 1970 and 1982. However, we can listen to Carly, who has a new album coming out in August.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjejw8pq5elo
Way back in February (just think of the cool weather then, lovely) we had a weekend in Spain visiting the E’s and F’s. One place we explored was a massive bookshop with a piano and a bar: oh yes please! Perfect for me. It was so large I cannot show you the bar and books in one shot. You’ll have to imagine it for now.
Mention of the weather (so hot in the UK for the last month or so), I note in Post 186 of 20th March, I was complaining about the rain. How quickly we forget! We’ve now had more than a month with no rain, the fields and gardens are brown.
We’ve also exposed ourselves to some culture this year.
The Tate Britain (or, as I call it, the Proper Tate) had an exhibition comparing Turner and Constable. We’d not really studied them before so going round comparing their lives, styles and development gave an interesting afternoon. I could probably give you a whole Post about it, but let’s be sensible. Both were born 250 years ago, Joseph Mallord William (JMW) Turner on 23rd April 1775 in London and John Constable on 11th June 1776 in Suffolk. They were rivals, being constantly compared to each other in their lifetimes (and now, obviously). The exhibition had over 170 works by them but I’m only showing you the favourites I had on the day.
Turner’s painting ‘The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St Vincent’s Rock, Bristol’ was his first exhibited painting, when he was 17 years old. You’ll not be able to see the exact same scene now as the Clifton Suspension Bridge (opened in 1864) is there, plus I suspect the building, of a spa and pump house, is long gone. It was loaned to the Tate for this exhibition, being in a private collection and last seen by the public in 1858.
The Constable painting is dated 27th September 1810, so he was 34 years old. It shows a scene of the River Stour in Suffolk, where he was born, and is simply called ‘The Stour’. Other Stour rivers are in Dorset, Kent, Worcestershire and Warwickshire, so if you want to visit Constable’s stamping grounds, make sure you get the right county. The word Stour is thought to derive from the Celtic for strong or powerful, meaning these rivers would be pretty fierce if you tried to cross them.
If you’d like to see more of their paintings, I think the best website to visit would be the National Gallery (or go in person, just around the corner from Trafalgar Square).
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/john-constable
We saw the exhibition in March, when we had a weekend in London with pals. The previous night we went to the Old Vic to see Arcadia, reported to be Sir Tom Stoppard’s greatest play. He died at the end of 2025 aged 88, having been born Tomas Straussler in Czechoslovakia (as it was then) in 1937. His parents fled just before Nazi occupation to Singapore, when he was still a baby. Tragically, his father died in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp: his mother fled to Australia then India with Tom and his brother.
This production had (to me) no ‘names’ playing the parts, which I think made it more enjoyable as you didn’t associate any of the actors with other better-known roles. I could be wrong, as some have appeared in television series.
After the Tate, we went to a performance by the Firebird Orchestra. I have mentioned them in Posts 152 (August 2023) and 181 (August 2025). I should really have left this for next month! Too late. Both of those performances were at St George’s Hanover Square. This time, the concert was in St John’s Waterloo, which I have referenced in Post 161 (July 2024). It’s easy to get to, walking distance of Waterloo Station, and a restful feeling to it, as you’d hope to get in a church.
We listened to Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture (you’ll recognise it if you find it), Beethoven, Puccini and Haydn’s Symphony No 96, The Miracle. It acquired the name due to a chandelier falling into the audience on its first night in London. Thankfully we had no such excitement at our performance.
https://interlude.hk/haydn-miracle-symphony/
The pianist was Ariel Lanyi, a young Israeli based in London. He was superb. You can hear him on various YouTube recordings, including some when he was only seven (on the violin).
I could mention other events we’ve been to this year but I’ll stop now as it could be a very long Post. More soon. My attention is required elsewhere.
George and John's boating trip no longer 