My workshop appearing.

After so long there is finally real progress being made down in the shop. At the weekend Mark and I painted the walls with a second coat, it may still need a third, and yet again shuffled all the stuff around so that this week Bob can build me a workshop. ts interesting how things seem to evolve. Originally I thought the other back corner would be better but after seeing how the lights reflects into the shop off the buildings opposite (there is no direct sunshine) I realised that this side of the shop is much brighter. The aim of the partition and roof is firstly to contain all the dust and chippings and also to provide a lovely high storage area for the bulky rolls of foam and the sheep fleeces. The electrician rang today and will come and restore the power and bring it up to date so, wow, it will really be a functioning space.

Noggin Arrives.

Monday was a big day for us. We had planned to sail Noggin round from Poole to Portland but what should be a pleasant day's sail was assuming epic proportions. None of her potential crew was in full working order and nor was Noggin, too much winter wet had scuppered the engine and her mast was down waiting for the new rigging to be fitted, and also it has been impossible even to reach her down the swollen River Frome where many of her fellow boats have come a cropper riding up onto the banks where the flood tide has lifted the moorings, so Mark got what must be one of the more unusual Birthday presents,the services of  a big lorry!
Noggin was towed down the river to Ridge Wharf and lifted onto her big friendly lorry....

....and then driven in fine style down to Portland where Mak, Ross and I waited to greet her and watch an even bigger machine lift her off and launch her in the amazing clear greeny blue...um, aquamarine even..waters of the harbour. The Frome is very clean and healthy but so silty that you couldn't see more than two inches below the surface so it is extraordinary here that you can look down several metres and see the fish and seaweed, more like a really chilly swimming pool.

  It was the sort of very grey day that Portland doesn't do that often but does very thoroughly once it gets started!

Then she was towed yet again by a boat with two seventy horsepower outboard engines!!! Noggin's full complement of horsepower is eight, even supposing they were working! Now she is settled on her pontoon in the extremely smart marina with the unimaginable luxury of a step aboard mooring. Mark and I have been popping down every day to open her up and just to chat to her. After years of horse ownership it felt awful to be responsible for something that was in a risky place and that I couldn't check up on for months at a time. Now there really is precious little excuse for not doing all the little jobs we have put off, not to mention the more major ones of getting her mobile again both under power and under sail. Roll on spring and roll on the re opening of The Boat That Rocks.

We toasted her arrival with Prosecco and will soon have the gin installed ready for those sunny summer evenings onboard!

Making spring birds.

It was so lovely and sunny today but I have had to resist the urge to get gardening or go for a long walk since I must be careful of my back just now so I designed a simple felt bird with the idea of making enough to put up a Spring display in my shop. Great fun even if the felt was weird incredibly cheap stuff from Tesco, the tails are made form the ribbon off some lovely Christmas chocolates. I think we have Cath Kidson to blame for the fact that we now find pink and red an acceptable colour combination! I did the pink one first so the yellow one has had the design tweaked slightly to give him a rather smaller head. Ijust now need to get some pale blue and lime green felt so I can make the flock.

Spot the difference.

I couldn't resist putting these two photos together. The first, which I've shown before, is of a fisherman waist deep in the shingle trying to dig out the chain attached to his winch for bringing his boat back up the beach after fishing. The second picture I took today in about the same place, the chains are dangling uselessly down the concrete steps. It is so surreal down there, almost as though its the lost architecture of some vast communist civilisation.

Sea defences

Just a few photos to show how the beach has been eroded, and also how massive our wonderful sea defences are, though they will need serious work now to fix areas where the waves have eroded them, thirty or forty feet at least below the usual beach level. Look carefully and you can see some daft person is actually STANDING inside the hole at the bottom of the wall! Also this shows our newly discovered sandy beach.

I'm glad there are plenty of people around just to give a sense of scale. Normally only the top bit of wall and the top of the first concrete step. Until this winter we didn't even realise the two lower slipways existed as they had never been uncovered, now the lower end of the one in the foreground dangles uselessly about six foot above the shingle. There won't be any fishing here for a bit until the men work out how to get the few undamaged boats anywhere near the sea.

Moonset.

Every morning when we get up we look to see what the sea is doing and amazingly this morning the full moon was just setting as the sky was starting to be coloured by the dawn. The windows are so salty after the storms that Mark had to hang perilously out of the window to get the shot!

Look for the happy seagulls on the middle group of chimneys, they are so enjoying being able to fly forwards and land where they want to today.

The first picnic!!!

Today I had my first picnic down on the beach. It was so warm and sunny with the newly sandy beach full of families and happy dogs. I am so lucky to have this five minutes walk away, on days like this it seems like a dream.

Storm Three!

This storm was far worse than the others but although the sirens went off for each high tide so much of the beach has been moved away (hopefully only temporarily) that the waves couldn't actually get over the wonderful sea wall. When people are surprised that Portland doesn't suffer too much damage in all this pounding its because folk here really know how to batten down the hatches...or even tie down the summerhouse!

 There's the Cove House Inn somewhere under all that spray...not to mention some really rather nicely designed little seaside gardens!

Storm Two...so far!

It speaks volumes about the recent weather that already by the 8th of the month my photos of today's monumental waves are filed as February:storm 2. We spent much of the day wave watching in lovely sun, between a few sharp hail storms. The wind has gusted to 58 knots according to the anemometer in the harbour but the waves didn't breach the bank today, just the foam ran over and the spray was amazing. We are braced for more wind at high tide at midnight tonight so the sirens may go off again then. The local Methodist Church is open all the time in case anyone needs to seek refuge.
Scarily I looked at the week ahead on Wind Guru and the weather on Friday seems awful with winds of Force 11 (it was Force 9 today) and waves in excess of 6m. Not a day to be trying to leave the Island. It is exciting, there were large crowds out with us at our safe viewpoint today, but it is also getting scary.

Ready and waiting.

The sandbags are up down in Chiswell and all the cars are moved out of the car park there and there is a generally tense feeling out and about but lo, we are prepared...

Romance is in the shop!

Today it was a lovely sunny day for once and also, for once, I could be out and about so I got out my extending window wiper and cleaned the windows from their thick layer of salt, look there are even reflections in the photo.
I set up a romantic, well at least a pink and red theme, display including some pretty primulas, my solitary sheep and a lurid red furry heart shaped cushion which I got years ago for Em as a joke, its never seen so apt.
A lady popped in asking if things were for sale, she looked a little surprised when I said it was just for fun at the moment.

Snowdrops

I picked these from Northdown where they have spread all along both sides of the garden hedge and bank. Mama and I first found these lovely double scented ones growing in the Rectory garden in Middle Chinnock.I must collect a few clumps from the ditch and bring them down here after flowering. I always forget to move them until it is too late and the nettles have grown up over them.It is beautifully sunny today making it much easier to photograph the flowers without resorting to the flash.

Table top Springtime.

While the weather has been so grim outside, I have been developing my own spring garden inside. Soon the table will  have to be extended to make room for them all. Freddie is very good with the daffodils but can't resist having a chomp on the crocus leaves when he thinks I'm not looking!

Pretty in pink!

Yesterday I wrapped up like Christopher Robin in my great big waterproof boots and coat and went for a walk around storm tossed Portland. It really is very grey just now and there didn't seem to be any signs of spring, just a few left over fuschia and hebes flowering, then down on Queen's Street near our little public garden I found a perfect combination. It was inn a row of 1930's houses with big curved bay frontages, a cream one next to a pale pink one and in front of the cream house there was a huge pink camellia in full unfrosted glory. It would have been too much to have had it in front of the pink house but the combination of ice cream colours was glorious. It was very sheltered there but even so a few of the blossoms had fallen onto the pavement. I rescued one and carried it home, getting icy fingers, and have floated it in a blue willow pattern bowl. It looks so pretty I just had to share it.