Portsmouth Kite Festival

This weekend is the Portsmouth Kite Festival, which featured some crazy kites and even crazier kite flying. We made it down for the afternoon and, as well as The Flying Fish, saw quite a few teams flying routines, including a couple of nine kite displays. (The photo below features French team, Cerfs-Volants Folies.)

Highlight of the day had to be the last set, however, which consisted of various quad line kite displays. “Revolution” four-line kites can do ridiculous things in practiced hands, including flying in basically any direction and spinning on the spot. The Japanese pair, Team Karasu, did a couple of very entertaining displays (one to a Captain Scarlet/Thunderbirds medley). The Decorators were also really impressive, with their “Come Together” routine.

Craziest of all, however, was the final 24 kite Mega Fly (below). I’m still not really sure how they managed to keep so many kites up in the air at the same time. Having said that, Carl Wright (I think) from Team Spectrum flying three kites in formation by himself might have been even more impressive!

(There are a few more photos on Google Plus if you want to see some more. You can also read Flying Fish's take on the festival.)

Lymington market rules!

It's another rainy Saturday in July, which has me wistfully thinking back to recent Saturdays that were not so wet - and catching up with some queued blog posts before they are completely out of date.

The week before our friends left for America (and after they had sold their car), we asked them if there was anywhere they wanted to go one last time, and Lymington was that somewhere. I thought that I had blogged about Lymington before but it seems that I haven't. It's a lovely little town on the south coast of Hampshire in the New Forest district. In addition to some nice walks nearby (particularly around the mudflats to the west), a large open air saltwater swimming pool, and a ferry to the Isle of Wight, Lymington has a market on the High Street every Saturday.

We'd been looking for some salad hands for ages and that Saturday, we found some! (Of course, now that we have some (a) they seem to be everywhere and (b) the weather has refused to provide any decent salad weather.) The stall from which we bought our salad hands had loads of lovely carved products and was just one of the local craft and food stalls. The market also features a load of general household goods stalls but rather than (or, perhaps, in addition to) the usual tat that I associate with such things, they tend to be selling really useful stuff at great prices. As well as our beautiful salad hands, we also managed to get half a dozen other odds and sods between us that we had been looking for elsewhere.

My favourite eatery in Lymington, the Vanilla Pod cafe, has sadly closed down, so I can no longer recommend a trip incorporating a fantastic brunch. Nevertheless, there are plenty of nice places to eat and the sandwiches and cakes in the Driftwood Cafe - a small takeaway-only cafe in the cobbled are of the town centre where we got some coffee - looked particularly good. If you are in the area and the sun should ever decide to grace us with its presence again (or, I suppose, the clouds decide to let it), I thoroughly recommend a visit.

The cream of cream teas

The sun has come out to play. Hooray! To celebrate, we paid another visit to The New Forest. The target: an afternoon stroll around Wilverley Inclosure. The motivation: a highly recommended cream tea!

The weekend before last, we tried out Walk #12 from Jarrold Short Walks in the New Forest National Park around Lepe. This week it was Walk #11. I really like this book. It fits nicely in the pocket and the walks are all well described. (We've not got lost yet, anyway!) They also have a little bit of local knowledge embedded in them including, in this case, a top cream tea recommendation with a detour to The Station House.

For those not familiar with the concept, a cream tea consists of a scone (or two) with cream (usually clotted) and a jam. And tea, of course! (Although you can have coffee if you want - the scone with cream and jam is the star of the show!)

The Station House, it must be said, does a mighty fine cream tea. I opted for the "Porter's tea" - one plain and one fruit scone, with clotted cream and jam, plus a pot of quality tea. Well worth the walk!

The walk itself was a pleasant 4 mile round trip through the trees. Following a few days without rain, the route was not too muddy (unlike last week's in places) with the exception of one point where we had to "ford the Avon Water" - if you are going to do this walk, make sure you have waterproof shoes! (Or a change of socks, I guess.)

New Forest alpacas

The New Forest is famous for its ponies but these are not the only ungulates to be found there. In addition to deer, cows and some fat, spotty pigs, there are also some alpacas, including this one that we saw on our recent Lepe walk. I don't really have anything to say about it - I just wanted an alpaca picture for reference next time I get alpacas and llamas mixed up.

Lepe Lighthouse - small but perfectly formed

Today, we went for a little walk near Lepe and one of the landmarks was the Lepe lighthouse. This is not a giant fence or a trick of perspective, the lighthouse really is tiny! Quite pretty, though. The odd thing, it's set back in the trees, so isn't very visible. I thought that maybe the trees had grown up since it was built and it was no longer in use but it was actually only built in 2000. It could be deliberate, though. It was built to help boats get into the narrow entrance to Beaulieu River, so I guess it only needs to be visible from a specific direction.

The Master Builder's masters of fish and chips

The sun finally came out this weekend. Hooray! To celebrate, we went for a walk near Lepe from the book Jarrold Short Walks - The New Forest National Park. It was a lovely stroll (if a bit damp in places) and I can recommend the book if you live in/near Hampshire.

The highlight of the day, though, was lunch. Back in April, we stayed for a night in The Master Builder's at Buckler's Hard, and had a very tasty dinner in their restaurant. In the Yachtsman's bar before dinner, I had spied some impressive portions of fish and chips being served to other patrons and made a mental note.

The last stretch of today's hike was along the beach near Lepe Country Park, which left us very much in the mood for Fish and Chips, so we thought we would find out if the Master Builder's fish and chips tasted as good as they looked. They didn't. They were better.

All four of us had the fish and chips and the general consensus was that the fish was perfect - light, crisp batter and perfectly cooked chunky fillets of fish. Probably the best I have ever had and, growing up in a seaside town, I've had my fair share of fish and chips! The tartare sauce was also spectacularly good. I'm not sure how they made tartare sauce taste so nice but they nailed it. The chips were not quite so spectacular but certainly nothing wrong with them. The only slight let-down was the mushy peas. I love mushy peas and these were a little on the hard end of the spectrum. They weren't the worst I have had, though, and the fish and tartare sauce more than made up for it. Highly recommended. (Service was quick too!)

Chocolate of the gods (or kings, or god-kings)

I have posted about Montezuma's chocolate shop in Winchester before but it's so good that I could not help but write a second post, especially during this most chocolatey of seasons. (Plus, the original post was over two years ago.) On our recent trip to Winchester, we popped in to Montezuma's for a bit of Easter chocolate, having failed to be inspired by the usual Easter Eggs in the supermarket. Never afraid to challenge tradition, I opted for a bar of Dark Chocolate Orange & Geranium rather than an egg or bunny and, boy, is this stuff good! That is all!

Water meadows, water voles and watering holes

Today, we got some good fresh air on the Water Meadows walk in Winchester, returning along the Itchen Navigation. This is a lovely (and flat!) stroll of about 7-8km or so, the highlight of which was a water vole that swam along right next to us before having a quick preen and disappearing into his hole.

As an added bonus, we arrived back in Winchester at the right time and place to try out a new watering hole for lunch, in the form of the Bishop on the Bridge pub. This is a pub that I have managed to overlook on my many previous visits to Winchester but it does a good range of beers and has a good menu too.

I'm a big believer that you can tell a lot about a pub's fayre from its burgers and, after a nice stroll along the Itchen, I was in the mood for a good burger; I was not disappointed. I opted for one with cheddar and mushrooms and it really hit the spot. Although the shrooms were not outstanding and got a bit lost, the burger itself was very tasty; even if it was shaped a bit too perfectly to be hand-made, it was very meaty and juicy (and good value for money). The chips were also great and I think the tomato relish was up with the nicest I have had, all washed down with a nice glass of Leffe blond.

It may have taken over four years to discover both the walk and the pub but I don't think it will be another four years before we repeat the itinerary - highly recommended if you're in the Winchester area.

The Drift Inn, New Forest

Today, we met my parents for lunch at the Drift Inn, a New Forest pub attached to the Beaulieu Hotel. We first visited this pub in January, when my brother was over from Ireland for a conference in the hotel and we met him for a pint and some dinner. The pub was cosy and the food was really tasty and we made a note to return. The atmosphere in the pub was really nice, with locals and their dogs as well as city folk like ourselves. As they say on their website:

Local ales, good food, cosy fires and friendly staff... Wellies, walking boots and dogs welcome.

I'd certainly agree with all of the above. The menu is a mixture of classics (burger, lasagne, fish & chips etc.) and some more interesting dishes (bubble and squeak burger). They also have daily specials, that always includes a pie and a steak of some sort. That first night, tempted as I always am by a good burger, I had game pie. It was delicious and bode very well for the other menu items. My starter - bubble and squeak topped with an egg and mushroom sauce - was also good.

A couple of weeks ago, we went back, this time for Saturday lunch. Tempted as I was again by the burger, I was in a bit of a fish mood and went for the beer-battered fish and chips. It was every bit as good as my memory of the pie and the chips were fantastic - crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle; they must be at least twice-cooked. The mushy peas were a little disappointing, being mushed actual peas, rather than the usual processed kind. They were still nice, just not what I expected (or fancied).

Two successes out of two meant that it was natural choice for an (early) Mother's Day/Birthday/St Patrick's Day lunch with the folks. Today, I succumbed and went for the burger. (Although the Beef & Guinness pie was a close second choice.) Although not quite up to the standard of the Dandy Lion in Bradford-on-Avon, the burger was really good; juicy and meaty and full of flavour. Mmmmm. The chips were fantastic again and definitely get my seal of approval. The allure of the starters was too strong and my wife and I (unnecessarily) shared some smoked mackerel with celeriac remoulade. Good as it was, next time I think I'll save room for a chocolate brownie! (Although the potato skins my parents shared for a starter also looked tempting.)

Stuffed to the gills, we skipped dessert and went for a bit of a stroll after lunch before heading back home for the England-Ireland rugby match. A future pub walk beckons, I think.

Winchester

Today we had a little day trip to Winchester (on the bus). Winchester is lovely - a good mix of fairly narrow streets and old buildings, with great shops and nice places to eat. We'd been once before, to the Christmas Fair in the Cathedral grounds, but it was raining that day, so not quite so good for wandering around. Today was lovely a sunny, so much better for aimless meandering.

We had lunch in the Pitcher & Piano - part of pub chain that I last encountered when I lived in Nottingham. The Winchester Pitcher & Piano was not quite as grand as the Nottingham one, which is in an old church, but the food was very tasty. I had a lamb burger. Yum. Good chips too - you could tell they were once potatoes.

Instead of dessert, we got some lovely chocolates from Montezuma's. This shop is great and sells really tasty chocolate. I can particularly recommend Montezuma's Revenge (Dark chocolate, lime & chilli) and Tiger Tiger (Dark chocolate & vanilla).