“Where’s It Gone?”

We took an early drive to the east of the forest this morning.

Having left Lymington we traversed Snooks Lane. The nature of this narrow, winding, road suggests that it is madness to reach the 40 m.p.h. limit marked on these lanes.

Despite the idyllic location and the recently completed cleaning of the Burrard Monument someone has tossed a coke can over the low wooden rail bordering the grounds.

The tide was out at Tanners Lane where a black headed gull foraged among the silt.

The Isle of Wight, The Needles, Hurst Castle, and the two lighthouses could be viewed through a certain amount of haze.

Our next stop was at Sowley Lane, where a pony grazed, a friendly gentleman trotted with his dog, a cyclist approached; and alongside which oilseed rape blazed through a field.

It was a sleeping baby on the opposite side of the road from his mother that had caused me to disembark. After a while he woke, awkwardly found his feet and wobbled across to the pony mare who, continuing to fuel herself, offered no assistance to her offspring who eventually, unaided, latched on to his source of nutriment.

Just as we were about to continue on our way, the Modus experienced a thudding sound and a gentle rocking. The foal was using it as a scratching post. While Jackie made these portraits our little friend even allowed her to stroke his nose.

We felt a bit stuck in place while the pony seemed stuck on us.

After a last lingering caress, he turned his head and bent it in the direction of his mother. This enabled us to take off, albeit slowly. Turning back in our direction he looked somewhat nonplussed as his image in my wing mirror gradually diminished. I swear he was thinking “where’s it gone?”.

For dinner this evening Jackie produced tandoori chicken; savoury and pilau rice; and fresh salad, with which I drank The Long Way Round reserve Carmenere 2018, another excellent selection from Ian’s Christmas case.

68 comments

  1. What a beautifaul close encounter, and I soooo can’t stand people who liter it just something I will never understand..ugh

  2. You have folks who give you CASES of wine for Christmas? How wonderful. I love the name of the wine, too. Its an interesting trend over hear to give quirky names to wines but I thought it was just a local thing.

    The foal in the rear view mirror is adorable.

  3. The little foal having just found it’s first new best friend and been immediately abandoned by said new best friend, has learnt a painful life lesson – never trust a Modus!

  4. Aw…I’m happy Jackie made a new friend. What a sleepy little pony…so cute! You have a lot of great forest roads in your area, Derrick. Beautiful!

  5. Drift of blue. I need to read every single comment before posting because auto correct just goes bananas. No wonder a portion of people simply don’t make sense…

  6. That was a treat for Jackie. I am always flummoxed by speed limits too. 40 mph where there would seem no harm at all in going a bit quicker and 40 mph where that would be reckless in the extreme.

  7. My goodness, those foals tend to sprawl out as though dead. Didn’t you have a similar encounter last year? Glad this baby was also well and hopped up to have a meal and a scratch. Great story.

  8. How delightful to meet such a friendly foal who probably thought your car was a shiny grey beast making a quick getaway. I wonder if someone fed him/her from a car. Glad they all look healthy.

  9. Aw! A nap most foal! 😉 HA! 😀 I think Mr. Shakespeare said that.
    Love the foal photos! What a sweetie! Exploring the world with curiosity!
    HUGS!!! 🙂

  10. Such beautiful shots, especially of the young foal! I swear he’s still asleep as he stands to his feet! 🙂

    Thank you Jackie and Derrick for posting your wonderful images. 🙂

  11. Love the donkeys.
    I remember an area in Northern Cyprus with wild donkeys. I liked it there a lot to run through the bushes and see them.

  12. Love those country lanes, they bring back memories of upstate New York. They did a great job cleaning the monument. Such a shame people have so little respect that they throw a coke can!! And I certainly don’t have to tell you how much I enjoy the pony visits!!!

  13. Oh my goodness–that little foal. I think that alone would make my day!
    Your Long Way Round fits the images of that first lane. 🙂 I love how the trees seem to bend and sway over its turns. It looks beautiful.

    1. Thanks very much, Merril. I like the link you make between the lane and the wine label. We have so many pretty lanes that I will be photographing them from time to time

  14. I continue to be amazed by these pictures – I can’t imagine seeing a baby pony taking a nap like that or having one come up to my car. Although I live in a semi-rural area in the U.S., this would never happen. Everything is fenced in – there’s no roaming. Thanks for sharing!

  15. Idyllic location indeed for that monument. I would be content to picnic there! And how sweet to have the little pony use your car as a scratching post. I would have felt entirely trapped too – not wanting to move an inch until the baby was safely away.

  16. Littering hints at a callous recklessness among our species that has seeds of a graver devastation of our home planet. The surprise assumed on part of the foal is convincing and laughter invoking.

  17. The Solent was my sailing ground for five months in 2011 when training for my Yachtmaster. Nice to revisit some familiar sights here today as I have few images of my own from that time. Your picture of the foal at the end of the post is particularly endearing.

  18. What a beautiful day out, Derrick and Jackie! I love the little foal. That was a wonderful series of photos.

    Life has been in the fast lane here recently, but I will drop in as often as I can. 🙂

  19. The sleeping baby is adorable, and your photographs of the shady, winding lanes are marvelous, as usual, Derrick, but I wonder what the people who litter this fantastic environment are doing there in the first place…

      1. My pleasure, Derrick. We have our own litter bugs, and I dare say that it is much worse in the ocean, than it is on land. No land creature will try to eat that coke can, but marine life suffers from plastic and styrofoam.

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