Tresco Times Spring 2013 - Volume 6.6

Spring 2013

Our Views Are Clear

T r e s co t i m e s

spring 2013

the

C o n d é Na s t G o l d f o r Ru i n B e ach C a f é e are thrilled to announce that Condé Nast Traveller – one of the world’s leading travel magazines – has awarded a Gold Standard to the Ruin Beach Café in its listing of favourite hotels, restaurants, bars and beach clubs from around the world. It was the only establishment in Britain to be awarded Gold.

Tresco can hold its own with the very best in the world The editors singled out not only the exceptional quality of its fare, but also the “wholesome eco vibe...very laid-back and relaxed, barefoot but civilised, with lots of driftwood and stone. You can watch your little ones on the beach from the terrace and there’s a sailing school next door.”

Great to know that Tresco can hold its own with the very best in the world – the other Gold Standard beach bars and clubs were from Bali, Barbados, Brazil, Croatia, Goa, Ibiza, St Barth’s, Italy and the South of France!

The Ruin Beach Café is open all day from the Spring through to the Autumn. The restaurant also provides breakfast and dinner for guests staying at the Sea Garden Cottages.

H e l p f u l e lv e s b r i n g C h r i s t m a s ch e e r he annual highlight of many islanders’ Christmas is the Nativity Play performed by the children from Tresco and Bryher School. The play’s venue alternates annually between the two islands and this year it was Bryher’s turn to host this theatrical event.

Once again the children surpassed themselves with both their acting and their singing. The performance was greeted with rapturous applause and rave reviews. The following day islanders on Tresco were treated to extra performances as the children toured the island in full costume, dropping in to various venues, including the Island Office, to perform songs from the play. Well done to everyone involved!

Another island Christmas tradition is the Over-60s lunch, which was held at the New Inn on 18th Dec. 2 – spring 2013

Christmas saw the church spring to life as our Ecclesiastical Correspondent reports: “Helpful elves came and decorated the church, put up the Christmas tree and adorned the aisle with candles. With the nativity scene in place Canon Paul Miller popped over from St Mary’s on Sunday 23rd for a Family Communion Service and on Christmas Eve we welcomed 92 islanders and guests to our annual carol service led by Rachel (our own Geraldine!) from the New Inn. After thumping out some well-loved carols, many of the congregation stayed after the service for festive refreshments.

A retiring collection of £200 was raised for the Air Ambulance.”

raised for the air ambulance

T r e s co t i m e s

spring 2013

Lo v e i n t e r e s t

James & Stephanie ove is in the air and congratulations are in order for two recently-engaged island couples. James Bailey and Stephanie Williams threw a wonderful engagement drinks party for the island on 30th November, where the bubbly flowed. James has been working at the New Inn for five years but has known Tresco all his life as he is the grandson of Mrs Gloria Lawry and the son of her daughter, Lottie.

Cornish maid Stephanie originally arrived on Tresco to work for James’ Aunt, Isobel Nelhams, at the Garden Visitor Centre.

In addition, Adam Roberts and Jane Ash are now also engaged. Adam left Tresco to

B ot to m s u p – i t ’ s T r e s c ot i n i t i m e !

Adam & Jane commence his training as a Paramedic.

He recently graduated and is now licensed to practice and has started working for West Midlands Ambulance Trust. Jane (daughter of Tresco’s Steve and Jo Ash) left the island shortly after Adam and, after a few months working in Bristol, set up home with him in Birmingham where she works at Barclays Corporate Bank. He proposed to Jane a couple of days before Christmas and they celebrated their engagement with his parents over Christmas.

Adam and Jane will be holidaying on Tresco in March when they will no doubt celebrate again with islanders.

And now for something c o m p l e t e ly d i f f e r e n t... but still pretty much the same. nowing the readership of the Tresco Times to be a lively and quick-witted bunch, I am certain that you will have noticed that the current issue looks a bit different to its predecessors.

The Tresco Times is undergoing something of a transformation. This one may only be eight pages but the next issue, out in May, will be an annual eighty page magazine.

Bigger and better, with more news, articles and lovely photos of Tresco, it will be very different in style but very much the same at heart and will still be making sense of Scilly.

Most importantly, subscribers will still receive the Tresco Times delivered free of charge.

One of the high points of last year’s food festival was most definitely the launch of the Trescotini – a martini with a distinctly Tresco flavour conjured by our resident mixologist Jared Brown. For those of you unable to pop into the Ruin Beach Café, we thought we would share the recipe for you to make at home. So, one part Noilly Prat to six parts Sipsmith London dry gin.

Shake with ice and several large stems of rock samphire and enjoy. Of course, sourcing Tresco rock samphire might be a bit of a challenge. Perhaps we should start a mail order service...?

f o n d fa r e w e l l s The island waved off Justin, Max, Joey, Freya and Lexi Walters in December.

Justin began his time on Tresco in 2007 as a receptionist at the hotel before becoming a fireman at the heliport. Max will be known to many as Mike and Isobel Nelham’s eldest daughter. They have moved to Harpenden where Justin is working as an estate agent. We wish them all the very best in the future and look forward to seeing them on Tresco in the school holidays!

Dare we mention C h r i s t m a s 2 0 1 3?

The Tresco Times is undergoing something of a transformation

If you’d like to join us for Christmas 2013, there’ll be a friendly festive welcome at the New Inn. Escape the hustle and bustle of the festive season with a 5 night dinner bed and breakfast break including Christmas lunch and an evening buffet, champagne and canapés on the first evening and membership of the Flying Boat Spa. Prices from £790 per person. spring 2013 – 3

Tresco times

spring 2013

A b lo o m i n g g r e at s ta rt to 2 0 1 3 he annual New Year’s Flower Count took place on 2nd January with assistance from some of our guests and some helpers from St Mary’s.

On the day, Head Gardener Andrew Lawson totted up all the figures collected

and the total was 224 different varieties of flower in bloom.

This was slightly down on last year but the following day Andrew was guiding some visitors around the gardens and discovered another six separate species in flower, so we’re back up to 230!

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

CAN YOU HELP?

Do you have some fun, interesting or quirky (or all three combined!) photos taken on Tresco lurking in the bottom of a drawer (or hard drive)?

If so, we would love to see them as we are keen to build a library of images of the island, its people and visitor experiences past and present. A bottle of something delicious will be sent to any we use in the Tresco Times or on the website.

4 – spring 2013

T r e s co t i m e s

spring 2013

Wh at ’ s g o i n g o n i n 2 0 1 3…

Fo r u p to date in fo r mat i o n a nd s ea s o na l o f fe rs – C all t h e Isla nd Of fi ce 0 1 7 2 0 4 2 2 8 4 9 information - b ooking - travel

April BODY & SOUL Tresco’s regular yoga instructor Lucy Aldridge will be hosting a special yoga break in April. Lucy is a Iyengar Yoga teacher and will be giving two classes a day on each full day. The classes take place in the morning and evening, allowing you lots of time to enjoy Tresco and the other islands while you are here. The five nights and four days start on Thursday 18th April.

Prices start from £880 per person, flying from Land’s End to St Mary’s with dinner, bed and breakfast in a one bedroom Sea Garden Cottage.

From Monday 29th April until Saturday 4th May 2013 – five nights dinner, bed and breakfast in a one bedroom Sea Garden Cottage including wine with the first night’s dinner, return flights from Land’s End to St Mary’s, transfers to Tresco and all elements of the Abbey Garden course for £900 per person.

GET C REATIVE In June we will see the return of one of Tresco’s favourite artists, Maggie O’Brien, to lead two more of her popular painting holidays. Whether a past master or a novice with the brush, Maggie will be sure to hone your skills and help you to get the most from your palette!

Monday 10th June departing on Saturday 15th June 2013 / Saturday 15th June and departing on Thursday 20th June 2013.

Prices start from £825 per person dinner bed and breakfast at the New Inn including flights from Land’s End to St Mary’s.

September - October R e a l A l e F e s t i va l

NATURE AT ITS BEST David Rosair, Tresco’s very own seasonal Birdman, will be leading his fascinating Spring Migration Breaks. Whether it’s Golden Plovers and Grasshopper Warblers you’re after or just the Great Outdoors in good company, join David at Sea Garden Cottages 20th – 24th April, Hell Bay 24th – 29th April or the New Inn 29th April – 4th May. For more details, please call David on 01227 793501 or visit www.islandventures.co.uk

May GARDEN DELIG H TS Come and stay in our luxurious Sea Garden Cottages, while discovering new horticultural skills and enjoying the most extraordinary and exotic garden in the British Isles.

In the expert company of Garden Curator Mike Nelhams, Head Gardener Andrew Lawson and Propagator Dave Inch, you can develop your gardening techniques and plant knowledge and return home with a bag full of seeds and cuttings for your own garden.

For those of a thirsty disposition, the New Inn will be holding its 25th Bi-Annual Ale Festival between Friday 17th – Monday 21st May. This year’s second Ale Festival will be held from Friday 30th August until Tuesday 3rd September. Come and sample the vast selection of local and South West ales in the spring or the summer with a four night bed and breakfast break at the New Inn for £520 per person.

June DIS C OVER T H E ISLANDS Are you island rusty or maybe a Scillonian novice? From Monday 24th June 2013 we will be offering a five night dinner bed and breakfast break at the New Inn which will give you a chance to explore the beautiful islands with some expert local guides: Tresco’s renowned horticulturalist Mike Nelhams, Scilly’s ornithological guru and naturalist Will Wagstaff and the islands’ archaeologist, Katharine Sawyer.

Island Food F e s t i va L Following the great success of 2012’s Tresco & Bryher Food Festival, we thought that we’d do it again! Saturday 14th – Sunday 15th September will see a celebration of island produce from lobster to ice cream and from beef to beer, with a gourmet banquet, workshops, tastings and lots more! In addition, 27th – 29th October will see the welcome return of Falmouth’s finest, Charlie Choak the Pasty Bloke. Come and learn the art of the pasty from a master with over fifty years’ experience. Read more about the pasty workshop On The Editor’s Desk, page 7.

For information about self-catering cottages and our Four Night Foodie Breaks in September and October, please call us on 01720 422849.

spring 2013 – 5

with Buy Back Guarantee between years 4 and 15 FRIDAY CHANGEOVER Week 2013 Abalone (SG) sleeps 8/10 16 12-Apr £32,145 27 28-Jun £50,845 28 05-Jul £117,500 Glen sleeps 6 28 05-Jul £57,000 29 12-Jul £71,500 36 30-Aug £56,500 Nautilus (SG) sleeps 6/8 10 01-Mar £17,950 11 08-Mar £17,950 Pentle House sleeps 8 22 24-May £38,000 Porth sleeps 6 23 31-May £35,000 Rowesfield sleeps 6 35 23-Aug £71,500 36 30-Aug £56,500 Sandpiper sleeps 6 17 19-Apr £12,975 18 26-Apr £12,975 25 14-Jun £24,450 32 02-Aug £54,000 42 11-Oct £16,800 Seaflower (FB) sleeps 6 15 05-Apr £28,340 22 24-May £41,100 Smugglers sleeps 6

Tresco Timeshare, The Island Office, Tresco, Isles of Scilly TR24 0QQ Tel 01720 422849 Email contactus@tresco.co.uk

Snipe sleeps 2 32 05-Aug £25,000 33 12-Aug £28,500 43 21-Oct £8,660 Sophie (FB) sleeps 6/8 21 20-May £41,100 23 03-Jun £41,100

TUESDAY CHANGEOVER Week 2013

Doctors Cottage sleeps 4 36 03-Sep £36,000

THURSDAY CHANGEOVER

Green sleeps 6 22 28-May £15,000 19yr* 31 30-Jul £54,000 40 01-Oct £18,075 Just Home sleeps 6 18 30-Apr £18,800

Farmhouse sleeps 10 38 16-Sep £42,500 Ivy Cottage sleeps 4/5 31 29-Jul £45,250 32 05-Aug £45,250 33 12-Aug £45,250 40 30-Sep £15,150 Maiden Bower sleeps 8 37 09-Sep £40,675 North End sleeps 6 37 09-Sep £40,175 Plover sleeps 4 21 20-May £14,600 26 24-Jun £17,150 42 14-Oct £11,200

Week 2013 Cliff Cottage sleeps 6 27 04-Jul £34,780 28 11-Jul £49,350 34 22-Aug £75,000 Colossus (FB) sleeps 8/10 18 03-May £30,710 26 28-Jun £48,520 39 27-Sep £39,050

Moorings 38 17-Sep

Dial Rocks sleeps 6 38 20-Sep £35,500

sleeps 8 £27,220 20yr

Pebble (SG) sleeps 2 32 06-Aug £58,250

Driftwood (SG) sleeps 6/8 14 01-Apr £28,000 15 08-Apr £29,685

Pearl (SG) sleeps 4/6 35 28-Aug £95,500 42 16-Oct £18,940

Merrick sleeps 8 28 09-Jul £57,000 36 03-Sep £57,000

MONDAY CHANGEOVER

Curlew sleeps 6 17 22-Apr £16,500 30 22-Jul £54,000 39 23-Sep £20,625

Old Mill sleeps 8/10 17 24-Apr £14,520 24yr * 29 17-Jul £80,000

Puffin sleeps 8 19 08-May £30,560

Norrard sleeps 8 37 10-Sep £39,995

Barn Flat sleeps 6 13 25-Mar £11,955 14 01-Apr £14,080 24 10-Jun £20,625 30 22-Jun £54,500

Nurses sleeps 5 25 19-Jun £24,200 36 04-Sep £42,500

Beach sleeps 4 12 19-Mar £7,590 27 02-Jul £25,100 35 27-Aug £45,000 36 03-Sep £36,000 37 10-Sep £14,500 16yr*

26 21-Jun £33,800

Week 2013

Gadwall sleeps 4 21 22-May £14,250 28 10-Jul £28,500 38 18-Sep £18,000 40 02-Oct £12,050

Sandy Lane sleeps 6 22 28-May £33,500 36 03-Sep £56,500 43 22-Oct £21,900 Teal sleeps 4 38 17-Sep £18,000 41 08-Oct £11,200 Wigeon

sleeps 6 22 27-May £25,500 24 11-Jun £20,625 25 18-Jun £24,450

WEDNESDAY CHANGEOVER Week 2013 Coastguards sleeps 8 35 28-Aug £80,000 Coral (SG) sleeps 6/8 23 05-Jun £43,080 40 02-Oct £35,270 Dolphin Cottage sleeps 6 19 08-May £13,200 23yr* 28 10-Jul £49,300 Endeavour (FB) sleeps 8/9 20 15-May £39,050 35 28-Aug £112,000 37 11-Sep £57,350 38 18-Sep £50,645 39 25-Sep £39,050

(SG) – Sea Garden Cottage / (FB) – Flying Boat Cottage / *Asterisked weeks do not include FBC membership or have a Buy Back Guarantee

Ocean View sleeps 10 19 09-May £31,060 20 16-May £31,060 24 13-Jun £31,060 25 20-Jun £36,500 39 26-Sep £31,060 40 03-Oct £26,500 22yr* 41 10-Oct £25,025 Tern sleeps 8 34 22-Aug £41,600 16yr* 43 24-Oct £18,000 Townshill sleeps 6 35 29-Aug £71,500

Tresco Timeshare is RCI Gold Crown Tresco Timeshare is available in February, March and November on a 10 year deferred payment scheme – call for details More timeshare weeks (including some summer holiday weeks) are available in both our traditional cottages and the new Flying Boat and Sea Garden Cottages.

Please contact Dean Whillis, Timeshare Manager Telephone 01720 424111 or email deanwhillis@tresco.co.uk for further details.

Tresco times

ON THE

EDITOR’S

DESK

spring 2013

PA S T Y M A K ING T RES C O S T Y LE

T r e s co T i m e s 2 0 1 3

News and views from our readers MISSING R A DI O

Dear Editor, My name is Barry Mills and I am the last in my line. I am now 78 and appear to have lost all of my family paperwork.

A story that had been spoken of for many years is that my parents spent their honeymoon on Tresco. They loved it so much that our house was named Tresco.

Their names were Arthur and Edith Mills and they would have stayed round about 1925.

The story was that there was no wireless available at the time and that when they returned home my father constructed a crystal wireless set and sent it to the island for general use.

Is it possible to either confirm or deny this story? Hoping for a happy response, Barry Mills

Dear Editor, Just a quick note to say what a brilliant time we had making pasties on Tresco with Charlie Choak, the Pasty Bloke!

We rolled, crimped, dusted, floured, glazed and seasoned to make the most delicious pasties we had ever tasted. All this with the beautiful backdrop of the clear waters and rocks around Tresco.

It was an unexpected treat for our visit to Tresco, and we are now heading back to the mainland to try to make the pasties again in Hampshire.

We shall be back in 2013, so let’s hope that we can learn some other new culinary skills, and thanks again to Charlie, Jane and the team who organized the Tresco & Bryher Food and Drink Festival.

From the Hallidays, Veals, Barbers and Shawcrofts – newly certified Pasty Makers!

The Grey Sq u i r r e l What with red squirrels being introduced on Tresco and squirrel pâté being available to hungry flyers at St Mary’s airport, it seems the bushy-tailed little critters are much on the minds of Scillonians. So thanks to fisherman Keith Low of St Martin’s for recommending this poem, one he had to learn by heart as a young lad.

his year’s theme is “Tresco – People in the Picture”, which means that all entries should be of Tresco and with someone in the frame. It could be your family on a beach, your friends in the New Inn or a solitary figure on the horizon; a holiday snap or an artful portrait, it doesn’t matter as long as it includes Tresco and some sort of human life form!

Individual entrants are limited to three images which should be emailed to photocomp@tresco.co.uk The competition will be open from now until 31st December 2013 and the winner will be announced in the 2014 Tresco Times.

The prize is four return flights to Scilly from Newquay or Land’s End and dinner for four at either the Flying Boat Restaurant or The Ruin, with two bottles of house wine. The winning photograph will be printed in the Tresco Times, along with the best of the runners-up.

All images will need to be of high resolution (300dpi) and entrants should be happy for us to use them in print and on the web.

“Like a small grey coffee pot, sits the squirrel.

He is not all he should be, kills by dozens trees, and eats

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

his red-brown cousins.

on Can anyone shed any light If where the radio is today? w of kno or as ide any e hav you touch its whereabouts, get in iling with Tresco Times by ema k o.u o.c esc editor@tr

The keeper on the other hand, who shot him, is a Christian, and

For those timesharers for whom a week is never long enough, why not extend your stay with two nights at Hell Bay for £75 per person DB&B? Call Francesca at Hell Bay on 01720 422947, who will rearrange your flights if required!

loves his enemies, which shows the squirrel was not one of those.”

The Grey Squirrel by Humbert Wolfe spring 2013 – 7

3 1 W E 20 Skybus flights and transfers to the NR FO

Island of Tresco a seamless service In partnership, Skybus and Tresco have created an all-in-one “car to cottage” ticket, offering a seamless service for Tresco’s guests. The ticket price includes all transfers within Scilly, such as taxi-bus to the quay and boating to Tresco.

TRESCO FLIGHT PRICES Return Skybus flights and transfers.

nd Land’s E

£150

Exeter

£240 Newquay

£190 Prices are per adult return, call for child prices.

To book call Tresco or visit their website

01720 422849 tresco.co.uk

Cruise from Penzance or Fly from Land’s End • Newquay • Exeter

IOSTravel

Isles of Scilly Travel

ATOL exempt. Terms and conditions apply to all offers