Harbors, Clay, and Seymour Tower

Hi Everyone!

This morning I got up super early, like 5:30 am, so I had a quiet morning to myself before Jes and Pete joined me. I found the mug I made Jes back in 2019 and spent some time blogging for you all. The mug has held up pretty well if I do say so myself and I was absolutely tickled pink it to have my coffee in it.

Thus far I have been foregoing walks with Tiny in order to finish blogging, however this was something I wanted to do before I left, so we made a morning of it. Tiny, Jes, Pete and I walked the entire harbor before stopping for some morning coffees; I’m really thriving here with the patio culture. 

I also got to see the amphibious bus! It basically crosses the water and goes back onto the sand. Doesn’t it look like something from that old 90s cartoon the Jetsons?

We then went back home to do our clay crafts! I made a ring dish with seashells in the shape of Jersey, while Jes made an incense holder and Pete made this adorable sea glass potted plant decoration. 

We left them out to dry and made our way to Seymour tower. I’m living my best princess life here as Pete graciously rode his bicycle to the hiking start point (since Ami can only hold two of us) and Jes lent me her rain boots so my feet would stay dry. At the state assembly tour we learned that there are 23 of these military towers left around the island from the original 27 that were built as defensive positions for the British against France, aka the whole reason Britain wanted Jersey as part of their territory. Our hiking start point was next to one of them, and then we played a version of where’s Waldo trying to find the others that had been painted over or hidden by trees among the shoreline. Jes was super good at spotting them! 

But Seymour tower isn’t one of those right on the coast line, it’s the one waaaaaaayyyy out there! You can only go at low tide and have to time your hike correctly so that you can make it there and back before high tide comes in. It gave us roughly a four hour window, of which we used two.

Can you believe I walked miles on the sea floor?! It looks like the moon or some far out planet in space, just miles and miles of seemingly nothingness. 

But there was so much nature to be found if you looked closely! We spotted tons of crabs,  there were lots of worms hiding under the sand, and there were even oysters (wild and farmed). It was quite the experience, I think the part that felt the weirdest to me was when I walked on top of all the delicate shells and they were crushed beneath me. It felt like I was destroying fine china, to which Jes and Pete assured me that tons of violent ocean waves crashing upon them was way more destructive.

Poor Tiny hurt his paw on a shell and got carried part of the way there. Much thanks to the various children in my life who trained me for this moment. I was only happy to care for my tiny fur baby until he was ready to brave it on his own. Did I fall for it? 200% but everyone needs some extra love and attention from time to time. 

We reached the rescue tower but I only climbed part of it because while I’m sure it’s structurally sound, I wasn’t risking it unless I absolutely had to.

A bit later and we reached the tower! We even climbed to the base of it, but there were lots of sand fleas so we quickly ate our snack and headed back! 

Here’s evidence of the royal treatment, my feet were nice and dry while Jes took one for the team. But don’t feel too badly for her, last year when we hiked Eaton canyon there were 11 river crossings and for 7 of them I waded through the water with soggy shoes holding Jes’ hand so her feet would stay dry as she hopped between rocks and logs. Looks like for us that’s just what the best of friends do! 

Finally, we made it back! Quite a success if you ask me. 

We ended the day with well earned lemonade and chips, not to mention the homemade manti for dinner! 

That’s all folks! Until tomorrow. 

Much love, 

Carolyn 

Courtroom and Crafts - My Perfect Day

 Hi Everybody! 

Today was a rather quiet one, we only walked 3 miles the entire day. For Jes we were practically couch potatoes! For reference we've been walking an average of 6 miles per day. This morning we got up early for our tour of the States Assembly building, the purple one that matched my purple pants! It used to be an old library but now it's their courtroom and states chambers. Unfortunately no photographs were allowed, so you'll just have to imagine everything I'm sharing with you or poke around their website below. 

https://statesassembly.je/home

Our tour guide was a native Jerseywoman and she began the tour by telling us about her mom who was a child in occupied Jersey. England had decided to let the islands starve in order to punish the Nazis, but unfortunately that also meant starving the locals. If you can believe it, lobster was the poor man's food, so people here were starving on lobsters. There was a big push to allow the Red Cross ship onto the island, and at the last second after five years of petitioning, the war ended and the Canadian Red Cross packages were allowed onto shore. Ever single local was given a packages, and our tour guide's mom inspected the boxes and found a purple bar of chocolate! She had never had chocolate before so she grabbed all three bars from each of her family's boxes and ate them all under the table. Apparently she had an awful stomachache and doesn't really eat much chocolate anymore. Jes also added that bananas were included in the boxes and because the islanders had never seen them before they tried eating them with the peels on and thought they were awful.

We sat in their courts, and learned all about its procedures. I was such a nerd and enjoyed every bit of fact they were sharing. Unfortunately, Jersey is a bit behind times and there has yet to be a female bailiff (judge). But I did get volunteered by Jes to sit in the lieutenant's governor's seat for a demonstration as to why the chairs were positioned with one higher and lower (spoiler alert: it was to make sure everyone knew the bailiff was the most important person in the room with the highest seat).

Jersey has the second oldest library in all of Great Britain and they have books centuries old that anyone can go and ask to read, with white gloves and lots of care of course.

Did you know that New Jersey was land gifted by King Charles II to his brother, and named New Jersey in honor of Carteret housing and protecting the future king on Jersey during the English Civil War. They even have an old flag of New Jersey hanging beside the Jersey flag.  Carteret was also gifted a mace that is proudly paraded annually on the island, and because it is a weapon gifted by a monarch, it can be held upright in the presence of a monarch. 

I think we were all quite pleased with the tour and had a great time learning all about court and government proceedings on the island. We then met up with friends for coffee nearby. Jes and I have a tradition to get our nails done together when we meet up, and it was insanity trying to find a salon with walk in appointments. Apparently they get booked out months in advance! Thankfully at our seventh salon, someone had just cancelled, so we swooped in and grabbed their appointment, just in time too because it began raining on our way home. Honestly it wasn't even real rain, more like a mist, but we were absolutely soaked by the time we made it home. I told everyone to look "visible" but Pete heard look "miserable" and we had quite a laugh at the misinterpretation of my accent. 

Rainy day for me means spending time indoors crafting! We were able to break open the crochet kits I brought from home and I taught Jes and Pete how to crochet. 

Of course the sun decided to show off after about an hour so we took our chats to the balcony and enjoyed some delicious chili. Even Tiny joined the cuddle fest! Jes wanted more blanket, but I told her she simply could not disturb the relaxed puppy. Eventually Jes got some blanket, we got some good laughs, and Tiny was completely unperturbed by our antics. I'm going to miss being here. 

Until tomorrow friends! 

Love you lots, 

Carolyn

Jes and Carolyn’s Quick Change

 Hello Friends!

Another day another adventure, but this time I got to take a slower morning on the balcony with cuddles from Tiny before starting our day. Jes and I decided at the last minute that we'd dress to theme at the  outdoor movie tonight, so we started off the day perusing the local charity shop. I found two dresses and a skirt all for under $20!

After a successful shopping trip we then headed back to Mount Orgueil Castle in Gorey to explore the castle grounds. We found probably the largest hydrangea bush I've ever seen at the entrance, so of course I had to a take a picture! I think my favorite thing about English culture is all the perfectly manicured lawns and gardens. 

Jes and I had lots of fun playing with the various weaponry stations around the castle. 

There was a Tudor falconer there for the summer with his hawk Sovereign. Apparently the methods for falconry haven't changed in over 800 years! The best falconers back in the day were from Belgium, and the most coveted falcons were the Gryfalcons from Iceland. Also, there was a whole class system associated with the birds. Higher classes could have better birds, and if you were caught multiple times with a bird that you weren't allowed to own you'd lose your left arm, or if you dared steal a bird that wasn't yours you'd be killed. 

The audience was relatively shy, so Jes volunteered me to be the assistant for the rabbit dummy exercise. It was so much fun! I really wanted to go up anyways, but didn't want to take the opportunity away from any kids. I pulled the rabbit dummy and Sovereign attacked from above. I'd like to give a special thanks to Baby Cat for preparing me for this moment. Who knew hours of playing with feathers on a string would pay off when I had to do the exact same in front of an audient with a rabbit hide lol! 

Walking around reminded me a lot of when Jes and I took our trip to Duart Castle a few years ago. The castle itself was a labyrinth and we got lost a few times. It also wasn't very fancy and more of a fortress; there were lots of prison cells, an entire section dedicated to witch hunting, lots of archery/musket windows, and towers for catapults. 

The views were great, and we had great fun taking pictures around the castle. 

We had quite a laugh at the stocks, and it took all my effort to play dead for the photo! 

Before we knew it, our time was up and we had to rush home to change for tea and run out the door. I got a spot of lipstick on my dress and tried to wash it out which of course left a big water stain which I tried to dry out the window on our drive to Longueville Manor. The Ami doesn't have automatic windos so I was trying to hold the window open whilst sitting up as tall as possible so the wind would hit the middle of my dress. It looked quite silly, but gave us a good laugh!

Also, I had no idea how fancy the hotel was, it was recently awarded a Michelin key and is one of the top hotels in Britain. You should have seen us arriving in the Ami; Jes wanted to park in a super tight spot next to the Rolls-Royce, but I was taking no chances dinging that car! Tea was delicious, we had sandwiches, scones, and lots of pastries. Even though we sat there for three hours, I was too stuffed to finish dessert and took the rest home. Did you know at afternoon tea here you can have as many pots of tea as you want? I was so happy, I tried their Longueville blend that tasted quite similar to an English Breakfast and then switched to a rooibos for the scones. We also had jam, Jersey butter, and clotted cream with the scones which was delicious! I really wish we had better clotted cream options at home, America does not realize what they're missing out on eating their scones plain with no cream or jam! Maybe I should revolutionize the market there. 

We then took a wander around the manor grounds and had lots of fun posing for photos again. The manor even had their own greenhouse for herbs and produce. For instance the strawberry jam we were served was made from strawberries in their garden and it was delicious! 

The theme for the day was enjoying a space for a little too long, realizing we're late for our next appointment, and then rushing home to change and head out the door. So of course, it felt like deja vu when we ran home to change into our Grease outfits and head out the door within minutes. We walked rather briskly to the park, but it was quite fun to hear all the people who immediately identified us by our outfits and commented. I'd say we nailed it!

The weather was perfect and the crowd jovial as we sang and danced along. I had completely forgotten quite a few scenes from the movie and just how impressive the dance scenes were! We certainly lost the art of dancing over the years, I can't imagine how much more fun school dances would have been if everyone could jive. 

 Turns out today was quite busy and a tremendous success. We walked home laughing with very happy hearts! Can't wait to share tomorrow's adventure!

Much love, 

Carolyn

Sark

 Hello Everybody, 

Today we got off the island and country hopped to Sark, which if you can believe is even smaller than Jersey at 3.5 by 1.5 miles and a population of 500. These were our smiling faces before we crossed the English Channel. 

These are our slightly green forced smiles part of the way through crossing the English Channel. Jes shared that back in the day if you were a criminal who sought sanctuary in one of the parish churches you were granted respite for 8 days. On the 9th day you could either face your conviction and serve time or you could walk the perquage out to sea. If you had a friend with a boat you could safely make it to France, if you didn't you could try to swim and probably die. After our experience on the roller coaster of a ferry ride that had me feeling quite green and miserable until we were allowed to go upstairs for fresh air, I can confidently say I'd either swim to my death or spend an eternity in jail before I'd do that again!

Once we made it to Sark we got took one of the only three methods of transportation on the island, a toaster rack tractor! John Deere to be exact, which had me giggle. 

We decided to walk around the island so we can see everything at a slower pace and stop for lots of pictures along the way!

 

The entire island is so green! I loved all the trees and the charm of Sark, specially when we passed the horse drawn carriages! 

We then crossed over the bridge to little Sark and walked almost half of the peninsula. The entire concrete path and railing was made by German prisoners of war in Sark. I learned that  Dame Sybil Hathaway decided to remain on the island during Nazi occupation and the rest of Sark followed her lead. She basically received the Germans politely, negotiated with them for favorable treatment of the islanders, including enforcing proper etiquette like having Nazis bow and kiss her hand before conducting business. Life was still hard under occupation but because of Dame Sybil their lives were better than those of the other channel islands. Talk about a force of nature! I can't imagine the strength to greet your occupiers and invite them in for a cup of tea. 

The views were incredible!

We then stopped for a well deserved lunch before ambling along the other side of the island. 

I found my favorite flower on the island! This woman had opened her backyard to strangers to walk through and she had the most beautiful garden with an entire bush of these blooms. 

Before we knew it our time was up and we had to catch the ferry home. It was a beautiful day exploring with friends! It also put the size of Jersey into another whole perspective, compared to Sark, Jersey is like an entire metropolis! 

Until tomorrow friends! 

Lots of love, 

Carolyn