This winter we’re full of the joys of the Isle of Wight here at Baby Hampshire. After taking my three intrepid youngsters around several of the island’s museums and heritage sights I sat down the two who can form a sentence. ‘Right, it’s your vote, girls,’ I told them solemnly. ‘Think hard and don’t just say the first thing that comes into your heads. What did you like best on the Isle of Wight?’ There was no thinking, no considered mulling over of the various excellent attractions, no intense cognitive process. ‘Carisbrooke!’ they squealed at the tops of their voices. And I have to say, even with hours of considered thought, I agree with them. Carisbrooke Castle really was in a class of its own. ‘Why did you like it so much?’ I asked my eldest, who had her head down, thoroughly immersed in some colouring. ‘The donkeys, mummy,’ she replied and then put down her felt tip and looked up. ‘And because it’s just the best castle in England’. I haven’t seen them all, but I have seen a lot, and I think she might just be right.

(with apologies to Robert Browning) [Note:  Robert Browning wrote the poem from which this mis-quote is taken) Angela Wilkinson and Robin Glover visit Boston and New England to discover there is more to enjoy than the Fall and the skiing. For our first-ever visit to the USA we were invited to take a look at the far north-eastern states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire, collectively known as ‘New England’. Our knowledge of the US had, as for many others, been coloured by the images on cinema and television and we simply weren’t prepared for the treats we had in store.