Rockford End

This morning I made my final cut of the Everton Festival Photographic Competition with the subject of The New Forest.

I am grateful to all those of you who contributed to the debate about my submissions. The ‘Happy Thatchers’ was a clear favourite. Although they were very popular I have reluctantly excluded those of sunbeams through the trees. This is because, in reality, they could have been photographed anywhere. For the same reason, the deer with the crow on its nose had to go. People may be surprised at the rank outsider which made it to the finish. I had removed ‘A Vantage Point’, namely the photographers on the hill, on the same grounds, and ultimately persuaded myself to reinstate this image because, after all, they were photographers, and there was a lot of gorse in the foreground.

I have made A4 prints of ‘Happy Thatchers’; ‘Drinking In The Gorse’; and ‘The Watersplash’.

‘A Huddle’; ‘Hedge Trimming’; and ‘A Vantage Point’, required in digital form, have been despatched in an e-mail.

Later this afternoon Jackie drove me to Everton Post Office where I delivered the prints, and on into the forest.

I disembarked at Wilverley in order to photograph the landscape. Jackie made the first photograph, then focussed on me after I had crossed the road for a closer vantage point.

She even captured me aiming at the

Ryanair plane flying overhead.

From this very narrow, winding, unnamed lane at Rockford End, I could look down on

a horse in a field surrounded by his entourage of crows and geese;

and a bevy of doves pinpointing a thatched roof.

Back at home this evening we dined on fillet steak – mine perfectly medium/rare and Jackie’s well done; creamy mashed potato; succulent ratatouille; and crunchy carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli. The Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden while I, sadly, finished the Garnacha Syrah.

87 comments

  1. Fingers crossed for you, Derrick. I think your selections are strong and worthy. Can’t wait to hear the announcement of winners.

  2. So pleased you made your decision. All the very best! I would have said ‘Break a leg’ but perhaps not the best wish for you!

  3. Those are excellent choices you have made for the Photography Contest. The birds are obviously having a great time on the thatched roofs at Rockford End. The road vanishing into the tunnel of thick grove beckons the wanderers of the forest.

  4. Those were great choices! I love them all and I love the new ones too! It’s so weird, but on the WordPress App on my phone I can’t comment on your blog or my app closes out. I’m going to have to try to reinstall it. It’s very odd.

      1. No problem on a laptop [not that I’m gloating, in my mobile-free world… ] 🙂

  5. Good luck for your excellent entries in the photo comp. Derrick.

    My favourite would be the Happy Thatchers. 🙂

    I’m thinking that big handsome chap in the field with his ‘crow-nies’ would be a clydesdale by the size of his feet?

    I’m also thinking a good tripod might be a future investment/gift if you intend entering more competitions now you have a good zoom. So hard to take a zoom shot by hand without a little blurring.

  6. How exciting!! Wishing you all the best Derrick. I love your choices and concur with your thinking. Happy Thatchers is a great theme ?

      1. You could always submit it on spec. to Thatcher’s who make the cider. Their marketing people would like the pairing, subtly rendered (of happiness and alcohol).  You never know…

  7. An excellent selection. 😀 … my money’s on ‘drinking in the gorse’ or ‘hedge trimming’ … all the good-lucks in the world! 😀

  8. Two things, directly from the blog: a) neither Bing maps nor Open Street Map respond to Rockford End, so where is it?   b) I can almost hear your sygh as you demolish the Syrah, but why the sadness (not enough of it?  CQ having a better tipple?)

  9. Also, pleased to see Everton Post Office is still operational.  Wasn’t it under threat of closure?  I thought it had succumbed.

  10. Great selections, Derrick. Good luck with the contest.
    I think your new photo of the birds on the thatched roof is also wonderful–we don’t have thatched roofs around here.
    Ratatouille with mashed potatoes would be enough of a meal for me, and it sounds quite delicious. Sorry about your wine. 😉

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