Here’s some extra added info about what our holiday cost, for anyone thinking of exploring the Island too.

Pre-paid Return Car-ferry - £58

The Two Bedroom Holiday Bungalow - £700 (£350 a week).

We had the Christmas Day meal out which was our big treat – so no cooking or washing-up to do – that was rather an extravagant treat at £45 each.

We’ve booked again at the same Holiday Bungalow for May, but more about that later.

Sheila and Barry

Winter jasmine. "jasminum nudiflorum" This bonzai needs to be kept alomost frozen durning winter . and would enjoy it.. What usually happens is in the winter when u get a warm spell "32f," is when the tree will flower. it only flowers in winter lol...its a hardy plant. minum temp is 15f it flowers at 32f-38. does not like prolonged exposure to sun when tepts are constantly above. 86f. hope it helps lol..
P.S they dont need bee.
Winter jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum) starts flowering on the first warm January day, only to be beat back by the freezes that are sure to follow. It’s the earliest shrub to bloom in the garden in our climate. Blossoms are scattered from January ‘til March with peak bloom in February. The Chinese name is "Yingchunhua," or the Welcoming Spring Flower, an apt name for this early bloomer.

Winter jasmine is a little mounded plant that grows a couple feet tall with green, arching stems that cascade over walls and embankments, creating a mounded, sprawling form when allowed to grow unimpeded. It has small, lustrous, trifoliate leaves that fall with the first frost. Though deciduous, the green stems give it an evergreen appearance.

The cheery, solitary trumpets are bright yellow and about 1 and 1/2 inches long. Fully opened flowers are the size of a nickel with five or six petals. Winter jasmine never makes a single flush of flowers like forsythia, so seldom makes a show-stopping display. It belongs to the olive family, but unlike the white flowered winter jasmine and other members of the family like lilac and osmanthus, it has no fragrance.

Winter jasmine is hardy as far north as St. Louis, making it the most winter-hardy jasmine. It was introduced from China in 1844 when the English plant collector Robert Fortune sent the Royal Horticulture Society plants he had purchased from a Shanghai nursery.

There are many trees widely available for smaller gardens, in all shapes and sizes, evergreen and deciduous. Given that many of us have limited space in which to garden, it becomes important that any trees chosen are right for their surroundings, in terms of proportion as well as for their decorative value. You can also choose the Redbud. It is valued for its outstanding display of pink or white flowers in spring, redbud is an easy-to-grow small tree with delightful heart-shape leaves that turn golden-yellow in fall. It thrives in sun or partial shade.

My first dog was a collie mix, we had tomatoe plants in the yard and one day my mom gave him one. He carried it around they yard for awhile and then gave it to me. Not a single mark on it. I think he knew we were supposed to eat it and he was very careful with it and brought it to me like it was his job to bring it to me. he was so proud of himself. he was one smart boy.

I planted my garden in April. Since then, my cucumber plants have died. The stems had been hollowed through and there were ants crawling all over them. I have been told that the problem is probably slugs eating through the stems and the ants eating their slime.
Now it looks like my kale plants are infested with ants as well. Could this also be a slug problem as well? I'm not sure what to do about this. I'm going to replant my cucumbers and kale plants that have been destroyed, but i'm scared that they will get eaten again. I'm also worried about my other plants (I've got carrots, beets, a variety of lettuces, peppers, strawberries and more) will be eaten away too.

If you're growing herbeceous peonies, it is probably a lot easier to buy the roots, or get them from neighbors because they propagate very easily and are not expensive like tree peonies.
Herbeceous peonies do work the same way as tree peonies so even if they are kind of dried up, if you plant them in a garden bed now, some of them might sprout next spring, but bet on more of them coming up in the spring of 2013. You can rush the process by germinating them in a zip lock bag with vermiculate, once they root well, stick them in a fridge to develop buds, and then carefully taking them out and planting them in the spring to get seedlings to sprout.
I like planting them straight out into the garden beds because that way, I don't risk losing some due to handling since they do have pretty fragile roots.

Hi all

We’re home again, all safe and sound.

We got up at 7.00, we’re packed and away by 9.30, on the ferry 10.00 and home by 11.00.

Yesterday, Friday, we went out to lunch at the Vine Inn in Freshwater, who do a great lunch as was witnessed by it being so busy. Then we went across to Yarmouth to visit my favourite second-hand bookshop on the island where we both bought books.

The weather was not great, very grey and squally occasional rain or drizzle but very mild.

The question of whether to go on holiday at Christmas-time arose while we were on the holiday.

While the site itself and the island in general were quiet the amount of daylight hours meant that we couldn’t explore as much as we wanted.

So, it’s just a case of another box ticked off on our things to try list.

The next holiday looks like being in March when we hope to go up to Lancashire to see the family.

Bye for now and Happy New Year to all.

Barry and Sheila

Hi all

Back with the last report before the ferry home.

We spent all day (Thursday) exploring the Military Road which runs from Freshwater along the south-west coast to St Catherine's Point and on to Shanklin and Sandown.

We stopped in all the car-parking sites to take in the views and watch the crazy surf-boarders riding the rolling waves.

We went in the I.O.W. Pearl Factory and had a cup of coffee and a hot scone each. There were lots of Japanese visitors come to look at the thousands of pounds of pearls on display.

There were some wealthy people in today too, taking advantage of the Christmas Pearl Sale that was on.

www.iowpearl.co.uk

We visited Brighstone Holiday Centre which has an 80 metre long swimming pool and one, two and three bedroom chalets, both self-catering and bed & breakfast.

It first became a holiday camp in the 1930's and is a former army camp and a large hanger is home to the swimming pool.

The place looks good for a try-out, a bit more expensive than what we have now, but Sheila loves to swim and there are coastal paths in both directions along the cliff-tops to explore.

www.brighstone-holidays.co.uk

Last, we rummaged through the shops in Sandown before making our way back to Freshwater before it got dark.

More soon from Barry and Sheila

Hi all

Back again with another report.

After a quiet Christmas Eve we also had a rather quiet Christmas Day, only going out at lunch-time to make our way to the Highdown Inn at Totland where we had pre-booked our Christmas dinner.

There were lots of people there and had a good old chat after the meat. The subject of the mysterious island that has appeared off the coast it turns out not to be so mysterious after all as in summertime people row out to the island - a long shingle bank - and play a charity game of cricket on it.

Yesterday, Wednesday, we went to Arreton Barn Craft Village where we spent the afternoon. On Tuesday we had an exploration drive to West Cowes and Gurnard. We also had a bracing walk from Colwell Bay towards Alum Bay while the tide was low.

Only two more days to go before going back to ordinary life again on the mainland.

Bye for now

Barry and Sheila

Hi all and we hope you all are having a good time on this Christmas Day.

Thanks, Dalerite. You got that spot on when you say to do it while you still can. That's exactly how we feel. If you've got legs that work still then keep 'em working as long as you can.

Here's the latest news from our Holiday:- Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were rather uneventfull apart from the usual fresh grocery shopping and the daily walk.

Fridays walk did prove to be first for us, though, for we saw our first red squirrel, in a park in Shanklin Old Village.

On Saturday we decided to go and see the Christmas Eve Street Carnival at Sandown.

On arrival we found that the High Street was completely closed off to traffic in order that the street party could take place.

We found a parking space just inside the High Street which was very fortunate.

But, as we were parking, along-side our parking space we found an elderly lady in rather distressed state.

She has been staying at a Hotel on the seafront opposite the pier with a coach party of pensioners from Crawley in Sussex.

She had left the hotel with her walking frame to do some site seeing and shopping but had tired and phoned for a taxi half-an-hour ago and it hadn't arrived.

So we phoned another taxi for her on our mobile but when it turned up we found it was the wrong type of taxi that had too high a step for her to get up.

From that point we insisted on taking her in our car, instead. Her name was Holly and she was the grand senior age of 89.

She was very relieved and grateful for our help.

But when we negotiated our way to the sea front we ended up going the wrong way up a one-way street to get to the pier and her hotel.

All good fun really. There was only a couple of cars going the right way and they easily got round us.

We finally parked on a wide pavement and escorted her to the hotel safe and sound.

We walked to the High Street to take in the street carnival. There were fire-eaters, people on stilts in fancy dress, dinosaurs with people inside, three bands, a local radio station putting out a live show and loads of stalls.

At the end of the High Street there was a cafe so we went in for a cuppa and a cake. We met a lady in there who had, only eight days before, given birth to twin boys.

One was asleep while the other was being fed.

We then went back through the carnival and as we needed some fresh milk and bread we went in a Sainsbury's store.

As we walked round the store I spotted a coin upon the floor of the shop which I picked up. It was one of the smallest coins we have ever seen.

It turned out to be a Canadian One Cent. Who'd have thought in - to find a coin on the Isle of Wight all the way from Canada.

After such an eventful and enjoyable day out we made our way back to the bungalow to find we have new neighbours - a really nice couple from the city of Lincoln.

Bye for now from us and we'll be back soon.

Barry and Sheila