Lacking A Certain Ambience

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Aaron building compost bins 1Aaron building compost bins 2

Aaron needed a few more boards for the front of his compost bins. I therefore accompanied him this morning to Mole Country Stores (known as Scats because that is what they used to be) to buy them. These make removable slats for ease of accessing the mature soil. As is customary, our friend, of AP Maintenance, also built the fence against which they stand. I made prints of these images for the portfolio he is building up.

SkylineCloudscape 1

Although the day started with fine weather, the afternoon grew more and more overcast.

Footrot Cottage

As we drove through East End we discovered that the house in Rowes Lane with the most unappetising name, that has been up for sale for a while, seems to have found a courageous buyer. Either that, or the vendor has given up.

Cloudscape 2Trees and clouds

As we approached The Drift Inn in ‘the heart of the forest’ the sun made sporadic appearances.

Moorland

Moorland stretched into the distance on the opposite side of Beaulieu Road.

The Drift Inn

This establishment describes itself as being a family and dog friendly traditional pub.

Dog Bar

Family and dog friendly it is.

Logs

The rest is open to interpretation. Real log fires are described on the website. Real logs were piled up behind a net

Gas fire

beside the fireplace

Don't throw rubbish

which bore this notice.

The proprietors had perhaps striven for a certain ambience that was rather lacking.

The beer was OK.

Sunset 1

After filling up with petrol at New Milton’s Tesco’s we continued in search of a sunset at Barton on Sea. A little early for that,

Sunset 2

we found one over Roger Cobb’s farm in Downton Lane.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s chicken breasts wrapped in bacon on a bed of sautéed mushrooms, peppers, and onions, served with her savoury vegetable rice. I drank Casillero del Diablo cabernet sauvignon 2016.

 

53 comments

  1. 🙂 🙂 Love your new grand compost bins, Derrick. Kb and myself recently improvised when we build a third compost. Better not make any photos … 😉
    Those peculiar cottage names, more than once I wondered about the origin. 😉

    1. It’s likely that they are not allowed to change the name, I have a friend who lives within the boundaries of the New forest Country Park who wanted to change the name of his home from ‘Gayfield’ but despite the fact that it was a new home on an existing plot he was not allowed to change it as that was the name of the old house on that plot!

  2. Now with your NZ connections surely you have heard of ‘Footrot Flats’? A well beloved comic strip, made into a movie, and still going even though the artist Murray Ball died some time ago……
    Even so, not the best name for a quirky cottage 🙂

      1. Forty years of unmitigated successes and failures lead to the following. 1 Go out into the forest and dig up as many worms as you can find and take ’em home. 2. Turn it over as regularly as you can, (Once a fortnight at least). 3.Don’t be greedy. A small amount of good compost is better than a truck load of rubbish.
        I’m glad I’m out of it now.

  3. I wonder if the inn looks amazing from a dog’s perspective! I surely haven’t seen a thing like that before. That notice calls the bluff of the log-lit ambience.

  4. I liked the homey attitude of the Inn and too bad about this only serving average ale.
    The stormy skies and the interesting sunset were each beautiful in their own ways, Derrick.
    Heading back a bit, I’m afraid. . . I may have to come back if I start babbling nonsense. ?

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