Our Family Picnic

Ninety-four members and guests made - by routes and means as various as they were effective - the trip to Hurst Castle for our by-now annual Family Picnic day. Sean Crane and his team at Hurst Ferries made us warmly welcome, the Friends of Hurst Castle kindly loaned us their giant barbecue grill once again and Jason cooked the assorted offerings, from good ole 'burgers and snags to the Stork's rather upmarket marinaded fresh-caught fish. (Well, John Stork insisted it was fresh caught - but he did not say whether by Waitrose or Sainsbury.)

Charlie Lowe arranged for what must surely become a permanent feature, a Bouncy Castle (Ewan - the upper age limit for the Bouncy Castle is TWELVE YEARS) and then arranged the varied field games. Some won medals (thank you once again Peter Innes-Kerr for your hours in the workshop), some won other prizes and every child, irrespective of age, went home with a souvenir bag of sweeties generously donated by Humbugs of Lymington, purveyors of sublime ice cream and, well... sweeties.

Peter and Ruth Tracey again produced the makings for the Kit Kites and in due course the Kumberland Kite Flite rounded off another superb day in the West Solent's best-kept secret.

You can see some of Ruth's pics here - and if anyone has more, please let the webmaster have copies.