Honeymoon on the Isle of Wight

The weather was brilliant all week, which was amazing given the afwul weather which preceeded the wedding! Our cottage in Whippingham was lovely, there was a nice outdoor pool (which we didn't in the end make use of, as we were out every day) and red squirrels in the garden (very camera shy ones).
The nearest pub, the Folly Inn on the River Medina, is quite a famous pub amongst yachties, and it does excellent food - so we made good use of it in the evenings. Other favourite pubs included the Bargeman's Rest (huge meals and good beer - we missed out on the live music this time, but usually that's very good too) and the best beer on the island, "Long Willie" at Fat Cat Bar round the back of the Sandpiper Hotel in Freshwater (rumours of it's closure were thankfully unfounded!).
The Isle of Wight Cycling Festival was on, so we hired a couple of bikes and joined in on one of the rides (the Around Chale Pub Crawl, of course!) as well as our own rides around Yarmouth and the river Medina.
Patrick couldn't believe his luck as, cycling down the disused railway from Newport to Cowes, he learnt about a shipment of wind turbine blades about to be shipped from the River Medina to Marchwood - he completed our cycle ride to West Cowes then rode back like the wind to photograph the barge ("Bladerunner 2") with his posh camera! I was quite happy, I just went shopping in Old Cowes for a while and met him later :)
Walking was good too - a walk from Freshwater Bay to the Needles in perfect weather was completed by a visit to the Needles Old Battery and their little tea room.
My treat of the holiday was a trip to the Alum Bay Sweet Factory, where I purchased my favourite Rhubarb and Custards as well as Blackberry and Apples. Yum yum! I also made a sand frog at the sand souvenir place, well it had to be done. A good childhood nostalgia experience!
Returned relaxed and happy to home - bit tired though ;)