High tide ameliorated by wind direction

What a wet few days it’s been;  this together with low air pressure produced a high tide tonight in Cowes.  Fortunately the strong, blustery wind seemed to be coming from the South, blowing waves away from the areas of Cowes and East Cowes that are vulnerable to flooding.  Even so, each end of the floating bridge’s chains were submerged tonight.  Further high tides are forecast into early next week, things could get interesting!

Oops….. am I a bit early?

A rather jaded looking inflatable Santa has appeared at the Fighting Cocks crossroads, can’t someone tell him to push off until we’ve at least had Halloween and Bonfire Night?

They come in threes

A publicist couldn’t dream it up!  Poor Paul Sivell, chain saw sculptor to the Isle of Wight has not had a lot of luck this year.  First his hare sculpture is stolen from it’s roadside position at Arreton, only to be found abandoned some weeks later.  This week the county Press reported on how Paul had been commissioned to sculpt a fallen tree in someone’s garden at Luccombe.  Duly completed, the sculpture remained in situ for just a week before the cliff collapsed and it ended up on the beach below!   So if it is true that things come in threes, what’s next?

5 Star treatment

So how many 5 star hotels do we have on the Isle of Wight?   According to an article on the BNP’s own website, the owner of one such Island hotel provided them with facilities for a pre-election planning session and a meal afterwards, free of charge.  I wonder if other guests are aware of the owner’s political sympathies?  Obnoxious comments follow the article, which can be read here.

 

Starting ‘em young

What a great way to start one’s musical education, watching Dick Taylor and the Hillmans as part of Ventnor’s V-Bay Festival’s music day!   Wighteye took in a range of acts and had a great afternoon, thank you organisers!  Below are a few snaps taken of acts seen, including the irreverent Larry O’Toole who referred to the event as ‘B-day’;   incidentally, this was the second chance that Wighteye has had to listen to Larry O’Toole and the Hooleys and I must say that familiarity helps a great deal, the lyrics were largely decipherable this time!  Wighteye’s favourite, Dick Taylor, really came alive as his set wore on, a real pleasure to hear.  From rhythmic world music, through folk, blues and smooth jazz, the day had something for most people.  It would be nice to see a few more younger acts next year, to draw  in a younger crowd, though not at the expense of the oldies, of which Wighteye is one!

Wildlife

With Ventnorblog publishing an opinion piece today about Tory plans to repeal restrictions on hunting if they are elected to power, Wighteye was reminded of a recent walk in the Niton area.  Mrs. Wighteye had started to moan about route choice, leg ache etc, when suddenly foxes were spotted, probably young and tussling with each other. One of them seemed as curious about us as we were about him as we stared at each other across the field for several minutes. 

Perhaps a hundred metres along we spotted a red squirrel up in an oak tree; having reached a height at which he felt comfortable, the reciprocal staring process started again.  Result:  No more moans from Mrs. Wighteye.

Bucking the trend?

A few weeks ago, Wighteye, along with perhaps a hundred others, enjoyed a showing of Woody Allen’s ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’ which was starting off a season of films being shown by the Ventnor Film Society.  The season features a range of foreign language and art films that one is unlikely to find on show at Cineworld.  Over in Freshwater, a new film society is embarking upon it’s first season.  Wighteye finds this very encouraging in a time of recession and a good indicator that there is interest if the right films are shown.  The omission of cinema at Quay Arts this period therefore seems to buck the trend, perhaps recent programming may be to blame (how many times have we seen ‘ 2001: A Space Odyssey’?).  It’s a real pity, because the venue has good acoustics and is purpose made for the job.

Digging up the roots

It’s not everyday you expect to find roots music in church, but Niton Church did the island proud recently with their ‘Digging up the roots’ evening.   With a sell out crowd, including many in the congregation over retirement age, it was great to see the wonderful reception that there was for such music.  First up were The Hooleys, an Irish band featuring Larry O’Toole who entertained with good music and barely decipherable lyrics, Larry was clearly a little freaked out by appearing in a church setting, good fun though!  Second on the bill was the amazing Dick Taylor, backed by the Hillmans (some of the Hooleys) who entertained with a range of old blues numbers and some great soloing.  Dick was the highlight of the evening for natural feel and authentic blues sounds.  Topping the bill were JC & Angelina, they played and sang a range of jazz and blues tinged songs, Angelina in good voice and JC’s  talented musicianship on guitar and mandolin.  The evening finished with a get together of all musicians, save for Larry, to end on a high.  I’m sure it was a very late night for some of the audience, but a great do, and all for £5, light refreshments included.  More please!

Going blueish green

Don’t worry, Wighteye is not converting political allegiance!  As Autumn starts to take a grip here on the Isle of Wight, the winter crops are growing, bringing beautiful greens and blue-greens into the landscape.

Vestas: our blades, our power, our jobs

Today being a day of action highlighting the plight of the ex-employees abandoned by Vestas, Wighteye was interested to see the reports of action being taken in Southampton around this issue, see savevestas .   A recent visit to the Marine Gate of the Newport, Isle of Wight plant found a group of protesters readying themselves to deter or delay attempts by Vestas to remove completed blades and a mould via Bladerunner on the river Medina. 

Down at Venture Quays in East Cowes there is a blade and two larger but shorter sections awaiting the Bladerunner, see photo.

With the Government announcing financial aid for manufacturing off-shore blades in the North East, surely now is the time to compulsarily purchase/nationalise the Vestas properties on the Isle of Wight and to make full use of the pool of skilled labour whilst it is available.  With Ventnorblog reporting that unemployment on the Isle of Wight has doubled in the last year, it must make sense!