The Classic Country Yokel

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE. THOSE IN GROUPS ACCESS GALLERIES THAT CAN BE VIEWED FULL SIZE.

Today was sunny and crisp, with a chill wind and blue skies. This morning we took a drive up to the north of the forest.

Ditches and streams run alongside many lanes in the New Forest. People dwelling on Crow Lane, just beyond Ringwood, access their homes by means of bridges across clear running water.

Gabled rooftops

Further on, at Linwood, we were attracted by the rather splendid houses near the lake. This gabled rooftop presents a pleasing example.

Stream 1

The stream continues here, and

‘golden daffodils’, like Wordsworth’s ‘host’, ‘beside the lake, beneath the trees’ were ‘fluttering and dancing in the breeze’.

Rubbish

Even here, people dump rubbish. I didn’t investigate what I took to be a discarded dog poop bag.

Ponies 1

On the approach to North Gorley we stopped to admire three ponies backlit by the morning sun. I could not photograph the scene because, as so often, forcing themselves between a tree and barbed wire, the animals assailed me with curiosity.

They then tracked us along the lane. Or were we tracking them?.

Ponies 2

We stopped to take in the picture of ponies mowing the lawn outside a thatched cottage at Furze Hill.

Pony on road

Inevitably, one of the horses kept us stopped, as it crossed the road,

Pony 4

ambling through the trees,

to take a drink at a stream, and

Ponies 4

have a good scratch against a flexible young tree,

Ponies 3

where it was joined by its companions, who all took their turn.

One of these emulated Mark Williams’s Jesse from The Fast show,

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-z5T8meC84&w=560&h=315]

a T.V. series in which the classic country yokel would emerge from his shed and announce what, that week, he had ‘been mostly eating’. The traditional yokel always chewed a straw.

From the top of Furze Hill we looked down on a herd of basking deer. Protected by a single stag and the antlered silhouettes of lopped trees behind them, they were simply curious until another passing car brought them to their cloven hooves. Large black birds always seem to surround basking ungulates.

This evening we dined on minced beef pie; mashed potato and swede; boiled cauliflower; and carrots, onions, and leeks with garlic. Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the merlot.

70 comments

  1. The yokel and the straw… I remember as a kid having to learn Alfred Noyes’s “The Ballad of Dick Turpin”… :
    … a smock-frocked yokel hobbling slow… chewing a straw he stood to stare…” !

  2. It’s such a privilege to move as one with other creatures… I remember a harrier (bird not jet) flying alongside our car for thirty seconds of eternity and I swear that as I was admiring it, it was looking back. I was not the driver.

    1. Mary, that is so nicely said ! I always love Derrick’s animal pictures & I think that is why – He’s out there “moving as one” with them.

  3. Such beautiful photos–it all looks so serene.
    I love the bridge and the daffodils. Some of ours have bloomed today.
    I thought the deer looked like they were posing for a group shot.
    The comedy skit seemed like something from Monty Python. 🙂

  4. Such a springy time for you to get out and feast your senses! Love the second smaller picture of the horse drinking. The deer herd is something lovely to see! I haven’t often seen them around our woods, but a few times a couple ambled into a seaside village.

  5. I thought you were going to say you mostly ate minced beef pie, etc. but you didn’t. I was laughing yesterday about regional American sayings when the narrator said that people in Maine say, when it is time to go, “Well…I suppose.” because my father always said that instead of “I have to go now.” Have you ever heard anyone say that?

    I am constantly surprised and delighted by your homeland. I think it is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. So glad that I found you and Jackie and I can experience your world via this machine. It is just extraordinary to live in such a place.

    I just spent three hours trying to figure out why the printer prints some days and not others. Frustration at a peak because I had two important things to mail from my records today, but couldn’t, of course. Turned out, I hope to heaven, that it had to do with the firewall. I’ve had the printer for five years and all of a sudden it doesn’t like the firewall?

    When I read your post, it was just what I needed to calm down.

    Ginene

  6. So beautiful drive up, Derrick 🙂
    An amazing place and awesome photos as usual.
    Have a great weekend!
    Mo-hugs and kisses <3

  7. Those ponies fascinate me, I’d love to see them. They’re certainly ‘Kings of the Road’,

    I’m also wondering; are you perchance some variety of ‘Yokel’? I note:………….

    ” the classic country yokel would emerge from his shed and announce what, that week, he had ‘been mostly eating’…………….
    …….as you usually emerge at the end of your post announcing what you you were eating the day before?

    And do you have a piece of straw dangling from your mouth?

    If so may we please have a picture XD

  8. You certainly live in a special piece of Heaven Derrick, the Gable roofs on the houses, the quaint bridge and thatched roof of the cottage, give a real impression of peace and tranquility, a beautiful environment to while away the twilight years.

      1. You’re very welcome and I appreciate your taking the time to write responses to my belated comments. Have a wonderful beginning of the week, Derrick. 🙂

Leave a Reply