November 22

Host: Bob Stevenson (Arabesque)

Have you ever enjoyed a mug of steaming tea, seated in your garden as the dusk descends on a wet afternoon in late November?

The rain splashes onto your patio as the last of the sparrows settle in the leafless shrubs and you listen to the rustle of fallen leaves whilst sniffing the scent of your neighbour’s bonfire. No?

Well, now transport yourself to Newtown Creek. It’s the same damp November evening. You are only just in the shelter of the spray hood, sipping your steaming tea as you listen to the tide softly gurgling past the hull.

The curlews are calling as they glide to their roosts and the scent of the saltings encourages you to breathe deeply. The water’s edge looms dark grey in the last of the daylight.

You finish your tea and suddenly it’s quiet - not a sound - a silence which is not just an absence of sound, but something positive in itself.

Soon it will be time to take the dinghy to Shalfleet and splash your way along the path to the New Inn for a couple of pints and a meal alongside their blazing log fire. the walk back will be warm and cosy; you'll climb aboard and perhaps decide on a rubber of bridge, now that Mrs Johnson has taught us all to play. Not for the faint hearted.