The Ventilator

Six degrees of Jonathan Bacon

11th August, 201915th August, 2019 Cat 0 Comments isle of wight, iwcp

Shortly before I moved to the Isle of Wight in 1990, I went to a house party in Portsmouth. It was heaving with the usual crowd of art students, sundry

County Press articles Isle of Wight

Madcap travel on the Isle of Wight

11th August, 201914th August, 2019 Cat 0 Comments cycling, isle of wight, iwcp, transport

My bicycle is slower than your car. It’s not necessarily deliberate, it’s because it is powered by a pair of human thighs and a single middle-aged heart – so please

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Steppin out on Newport leisure strip

11th August, 201914th August, 2019 Cat 0 Comments drink, isle of wight, iwcp

Ages ago, I asked a geek to set-up my home computer network to block the Daily Mail website. Sure, the occasional zelebrity wardrobe malfunction was moderately amusing, and who doesn’t

County Press articles Isle of Wight

Touched by your presence, here

10th August, 201914th August, 2019 Cat 0 Comments ghosts, isle of wight, iwcp

Have you ever seen a ghost? The Isle of Wight is reputed to be one of Britain’s most haunted places, and certainly has some exceptionally historic and mysterious nooks where

County Press articles Isle of Wight

The joy of the staycation

10th August, 201914th August, 2019 Cat 0 Comments isle of wight, iwcp, staycation

There’s a familiar call-and-response that goes something like this: tell anyone that you live on the Isle of Wight and you’ll undoubtedly hear the stock reply: “I went there on

County Press articles Isle of Wight

Not From Round Here

10th August, 201915th August, 2019 Cat 0 Comments Hurst, isle of wight, iwcp, New York

Right. Let’s get this out of the way: I’m not from round here. No matter how long I have lived on the Isle of Wight, nor how much I adore

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Wellness tea – a national disgrace

22nd April, 201922nd April, 2019 The Virtual Ranger 0 Comments iwcp, tea, wellness

Like it or not we’re all having to give some thought right now to the question of what makes us British. In case you think I exaggerate, the very existence

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The now entirely virtual ranger

30th January, 201830th January, 2018 The Virtual Ranger 4 Comments gift to nature, isle of wight

Back in 1989 I discovered that people would actually pay me to work in the countryside. I could hardly believe my luck – and still can’t. It’s been a great

Invasive species Protected species Videos

Behold, the tree lobster. (Spoiler: not a lobster)

10th October, 201710th October, 2017 The Virtual Ranger 4 Comments australia, lord howe island, massive animals, rats, stick insect

We like to bring you the occasional large invertebrate on this blog. And even a huge vertebrate now and then. But here’s a big insect with a story to tell. And it’s a story

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Review: WakaWaka Power+ and Light

3rd May, 20175th May, 2017 The Virtual Ranger 0 Comments charger, flashlight, light, new forest, outdoors, review, torch, wakawaka

I recently went on holiday for a week to the New Forest – not everso far, I’ll admit, but for me, that counts as an overseas trip. We stayed at