South coast of England for ten days and a trip to the Mary Rose

Sunday lunch with the family: Harry, Becky, James, Jenny & Fiona

Ted started with no worries, the new solar controller seems to be working well, and was then serviced and passed his MOT with flying colours.

Sunday lunch on Fiona’s birthday with her and James, Jenny and Becky and Harry was great fun.

Tuesday we set off
bright and early for Warsash, between Southampton and Portsmouth. Our journey time wasn’t too bad, but we were aware our hosts were heading to East Anglia. Lovely to meet them and be introduced to Hendrix cat named after Jimi not the gin. It’s lovely to be so close to the sea, we’ve done a couple of walks so far, the second of which came inland through Holly Hill and was very pretty (see our 'Relive' short video: click here). We didn’t get our timing quite right though, we ended up back at the Rising Sun, right by the harbour, an hour and a quarter too early. Not for pub opening, but for the “Straight from the Boat” fish van arriving. We could have spent that time in the pub obviously, but whether I would have than felt inspired to cook anything from the fish van is debatable, so we came back to Hendrix before popping out again.

Look at this fabulous painting Becky did for her mum's birthday

Our fabulous tapas dinner

Very glad we did, I had in mind a little tapas, satisfied with some cooked shell on prawns to which I then added moules mariner, pili pili king prawns and scallops with chorizo, a little bit of work, but with the main issue everything wanted cooking all at the same time! It was worth it though, it was yummy. Brian’s craving was satisfied last night with a bream cooked with Asian flavours and served with noodles and stir fried vegetables. He does love a whole fish.

Yesterday was spent visiting the Mary Rose at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. The Mary Rose was King Henry VIII flagship, sunk in the Solent in 1545. She was raised in 1982 and has been undergoing restoration and preservation ever since. There were so many artefacts also found, of which only a tiny portion are on display, but they do give a great view of Tudor life. Fortunately we visited the dockyard three years ago with mum and Charles and Caroline so we didn’t feel duty bound to visit anything else, which was probably just as well, as we were both ‘full’!

Here's a section of the OS map showing where we are. The water bottom left is The Solent, the sea that separates the Isle of Wight from the mainland. 

Today, Saturday, I looked for markets, events and suchlike near us, but nothing, so we had to make do with more couch to 5k and a sausage sandwich. Not to worry, the forecast is rubbish, but actually hasn’t been too bad, so far! Hendrix is pleased we are in, although we are not ‘his people’ we are OK as staff for door opening and treat giving. He did bring us a gift the other night, a slow worm (actually a lizard) which we’d have taken a photo of before putting it out, if we’d realised it was a protected species! He’s got a lovely temperament and doesn’t mind sharing his beautiful garden with at least four other cats, along with sharing our bed for short periods in the middle of the night.

This photo is taken bottom centre on the above map and looks out over The Solent. In front is the Isle of Wight, the chimney just to the right is on the mainland at Calshot, beyond which is the New Forest

Now here's an interesting fact: this is the jetty by the Rising Sun Inn at Warsash (it's shown on the OS map above on the left just above centre. There's a triangle of roads, a beer mug showing the pub and 'Jetties' marked). The notice board on the right tell us that, from this point on 5th June 1944 the British and Allied Naval and Commando units departed for the D-Day landing on Normandy

Imagine the scene here on that day, many never seeing home again

A copy of Eisenhower's letter to those taking part

The historic clock tower in Warsash

The little Pink Ferry that takes people from Warsash across the River Hamble to the town of Hamble

Old sunken boats on the mud flats along the Hamble River

Inland towards Holly Hill, you can see a short 'Relive' video of our hike by clicking here

Saw quite a few of these in the extensive salt marshes along the Hamble River. Not sure what it is

And huge quantities of these. Wish we were more knowledgeable on birds!

We're off to see the Mary Rose in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, and who should be at the entrance, King Henry VIII. He was quite happy to have his photo taken with Jackie (he was a real walking, talking King Henry VIII)

Walking through the dockyard we went past HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar. We toured that a few years ago, our target this time was the Mary Rose

Ships docked at Portsmouth. This is an aircraft carrier, but I'm sure not the Queen Elizabeth as I think that's in the South China Seas at the moment (I may be mistaken) Late news: Alan V. tells me it's HMS Prince of Wales the UK's second aircraft carrier

So this is the amazing Mary Rose, King Henry VIII's flag ship. It went into battle against the French on 19th July 1545, having been launched in 1511. It fired a broadside into French shipping, who were attempting to invade England and had advanced into The Solent. King Henry VIII was watching from Southsea and saw the Mary Rose turn sharply to re-engage the enemy. It is believed a gust of wind at that moment caused the ship to list, take on water through it's gun turrets and sink within minutes with huge loss of life. It was raised and brought ashore in 1982 after laying buried in sand on it's side. The sand helped preserve the wood due to lack of oxygen. Buried along with it were many thousands of artifacts and skeletons giving a fascinating insight into life on board a ship in Tudor England. The range of objects on display and the quality of their preservation is truly stunning. It is truly a 'must do' visit and is absolutely fascinating 

The dark brown is the section recovered, the lighter outline is what was believed to have been the full ship. Further discoveries have been made since the original raising and, it is hoped, the bow or stern section may yet be located under the sand

Here's a couple of cannons on display opposite the actual ship and placed in the mirror image position as found on board. This is a breech loaded wrought iron cannon. The stone cannon ball is loaded in, the cylinder on the floor is filled with gunpowder and placed behind in the gap and the wooden wedge shown is hammered into position. Beyond is a newer bronze cannon and King Henry had ordered a quantity of these new cannon to be installed on the Mary Rose. They were more accurate and had a longer range, but they weighed over 3 tonnes each and required the Mark Rose decks to be strengthened to support them. There were so many things on display including peoples personal possessions, medical equipment, carpentry equipment etc.

This is the section nearest the bow. See those angled lengths of wood making a triangular shape? Those were the strengthening modifications required to support the bronze cannon

Here's a few photo's of Hendrix cat, our charge for 10 days

He thinks it's his garden, but so do the other three or so other cats who visit here. He doesn't seem to mind, we haven't seen any fighting

He seemed to like the film, here he is watching it (it was 1917, a heavy but really good film, we can recommend it as long as you're not feeling too depressive!)

He hasn't done a lot of sitting on us unfortunately, he is very much his own cat

But he's a lovely natured boy. Great name too (not sure he can play the guitar like Jimi though)

Yes, you're a lovely boy!

This is the back garden of the lovely house we're staying in in Warsash. It feels like it could be somewhere tropical