Pearls

It has been a rather more typical British summer day here on the Isle of Wight, with rain, mist and low cloud being the order of the day.

Therefore, today's main activity was a visit to Isle of Wight Pearl, an establishment that specialises in pearls would you believe. As an added bonus, they were having a family fun day, which kept the children entertained by the magician (term used very loosely indeed), and they served up a decent lunch in their café.

It was Mrs W's choice and she in particular enjoyed the wares on offer, many of which would have required some imaginative accounting on our part to justify against our disposable income.

What they did have is a section where for a fixed price you get to select an oyster from which a pearl is extracted and you can either take it with you as it is or buy a jewellery setting for the oyster to be put into. This beauty came out of Mrs W's selected oyster and, as it turns out, is slightly more valuable than the cost of choosing it: not quite looking to sell it on at a profit but is nice to know that she didn't select some scrag end. So today's blip is the product of that process.


The children left with some gemstones and a 20 million year old shark's tooth each, so happy bunnies all round.