She Sells Seashells on the Seashore....

 

Hythe seashore - more mud than shells...

...don’t try the title if you have dentures, or if you are in a Covid secure environment where spitting could be dangerous.  

Pastel cottage perfection...

Once again I am in my home village of Hythe, Hampshire checking out the pandemic pub scene.   But as the sun always shines on Hythe - as LifeAfterFootball will verify - I couldn’t resist the chance to appreciate the cute fisherman's cottages and soak up the rays in the seafront park.

Is that our cruise liner Edna...?

Of course Hythe is as cosmopolitan as Bournemouth but smaller and without the hordes of weekending Midlanders.  Container ships glide silently by in Southampton Water (as the sea is known in these parts).  Old ladies with wheelie cases sit on a bench by the shore and wonder what they are going to do now that their cruise ship is moored off Bournemouth and isn’t doing cruises, annoying the nimbys who don't want them any more than wind turbines.

Accommodation with sea views...

But tell us more about Hythe’s excellent pub scene, I hear you cry...
...well there's this one, once known as The Drummond Arms after the well known land owning family on this peninsular.  Now sadly an extinct pub and another candidate for Curmudgeon’s ‘Closed Pubs’ blog.

Seashells - through the door in the corner and up the stairs...

So just down the other end of the village precinct we saunter, in search of Seashells (hold on to your teeth).  Some may call it a pub, others a restaurant, but who cares as long as they will sell you a cask ale.  Admittedly - it doesn’t look like a pub, hiding as it does, in the shopping complex that is  aesthetically a carbuncle on the face of a pretty village, but functionally provides a posh Waitrose supermarket, a Superdrug, a newsagents, a bookies and (upstairs) Seashells.

Space - lots of it...and a quality pub sofa...

On a weekday after the August government sponsored cheap food rush and mid afternoon all is quiet...
...Covid precautions aren’t too bad with plenty of yellow and black tape, use of face masks by the bar staff and a quaint homemade ‘engaged’ /‘vacant’ sign on the toilet door.  (Turn it round yourself on entry and exit).

The single cask option from Carlsberg/Marstons is Ringwood Best Bitter - yes the traditional name is used here and not the newer alter ego ‘Razorback’.  It looks well enough but the head is a bit weak and incapable of lacings, and it is slightly lacklustre (GHBSS 2.5).

It’s nice and quiet inside but there isn’t much to see, so I ask the bar staff if I can go out onto the balcony area - no problem...

...no-one there but me....so plenty of table choice...

...and the view is nice...

....Southampton docks far enough across Southampton Water not to be an eyesore...

..with the abandoned cruise liner that may eventually be converted to a floating hotel/casino off Skagway...

...and the gentle curve of the Itchen Bridge, famously crossed by RetiredMartin on his way to his Olafs Tun tick in 2018  (warning: contains images of pre-pandemic socialising in a micro pub).

Clear blue sky punctuated by Martini Ringwood umbrellas...

...families walking by with fishing nets and buckets and spades...

...kids catching Portuguese men o’war crabs on the sea wall...

...the clear blue murky grey sea...

...the seagulls shrieking...

...a glass of (admittedly average) beer on a sunny balcony...

...it’s a bit like being at a Majorca hotel without the worry of quarantine...

 Yes life is truly idyllic here...