Gulls are a natural alarm clock when you come to peel. A constant cacophony as a backdrop to the trip. I tried the Merlin app to see if I could identify the bird types. It recognised the presence of birds but couldn’t decide what sort. You could almost hear its thought processes “hmm it’s a seagull but that’s too generic”. It kept stum.
Vicious things these gulls. They will swoop down and steal the ice cream cone out of your hand like one once did to our @hannah. Just stay alert :).
Loads of different types of birds around Peel and if you are lucky you will get to see some diving. They circle about 40m above the waves and then suddenly tilt and plummet. Plunge. It’s more common to see birds swimming and then suddenly dive, surfacing a few metres away. I’m not sure I’ve seen one come up with a fish in its mouth. Not v often anyway.
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THG has gone out for a run and I’ve just polished off a bacon and mushroom sandwich. Yanow it isn’t worth buying supermarket bacon if you can get the real stuff from a butcher. Yesterday on the way back from our swim I stopped by Tate’s on Michael Street and picked up some bacon (smoked and streaky) and sausages (cumberland). Just eaten some of the bacon now. Really top notch. Having the sausages tonight. The beauty of hiring a cottage is that you can sometimes eat in instead of having to do pubs and restaurants every night.
Anyway I’d originally stopped by the butch for some ham for lunch but the ham wasn’t going to be available until today. Now some of you might think that isn’t very good stock planning but Peel is a small place and folk will get used to when certain things are available. For example he was making more sausages today but had enough for our needs in the fridge. So presumably the ham comes in today. I was happy enough to wait another day. I figured the ham would be far superior sourced from the butcher. I’m going to nip out in a bit to buy some to go with our picnic on Glen Maye beach today. It’s a beautiful walk down to Glen Maye beach. If you’ve never been, get on down there. Been going there for years.
The butcher was in the throes of making burgers to service his contract with the Glen Helen Hotel. Mincing the beef and mixing it up with seasoning. Everything prepared in front of you. His shop was nothing fancy but you just felt right about buying from him. The bacon was wrapped in greaseproof paper and then put in a paper bag. No plastic in sight. Had a nice chat with him.
There’s also a new bakery on Michael Street. We will have to call in. Quite a few empty shop premises though. You don’t get quite the same sense of prosperity here as you do in Jersey where the high street of St Helier is rammed with stores.
It’s Wednesday so almost half way through our visit already. Still three action packed days to go. Stay tuned for updates. You’ll be the first to hear.