The Freedom Of Their Cousins

Early this morning we took a drive into the forest. 

From Lymington we entered the sun-dappled narrow, winding, Undershore towards Pilley,

finding glimpses of autumn foliage there and in Lodge Road, across which

a pair of female pheasants trotted.

A group of somnolent ponies occupied Bull Hill.

What. I often wonder, do the field horses make of the freedom of their equine cousins?

This afternoon I watched recordings of the Rugby World Cup matches between Argentina and Tonga; between Japan and Ireland; and between South Africa and Namibia.

Our dinner this evening consisted of Jackie’s wholesome cottage pie; crunchy carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli; tender cabbage and leeks, with sumptuous gravy. The Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Shiraz.

72 comments

  1. That was a prodigious amount of rugby watching! Well done 🙂 Pleased to say that not only could I biggify this morning, it went straight to the largest possible image. Most satisfactory!! Did you fix it yourself ? And also, I’m glad I’m not the only person who wonders what animals think about.

          1. Any time I see a dappled scene, I’m reminded of the first line of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “Pied Beauty”: “Glory be to God for dappled things –”

  2. I was pleased to see that Japan had won as I don’t like Ireland’s style of play. (I expect that I would think it was excellent if I was Irish though as it is very efficient.)

  3. I LOVE seeing your photos large and in charge! 🙂
    I get excited to see pheasants…male or female…they are a pleasant, beautiful bird!
    Yes, I’ve wondered THAT about animals, too…what they think about…I guess there are advantages and disadvantages to both lifestyles…kept or unkept! 😀 “unkept” animals…HA! 😀
    I, also, think about how animals feel…are they happy, worried, etc.
    Yes, I probably think too much! 😮
    HUGS to you and Jackie!!! 🙂

  4. The animals always are a delight, but I was especially delighted by the ferns today. We don’t have them in our immediate area, except where they’ve been babied within an inch of their lives, so seeing them is a great treat — especially in a nice, large, size!

  5. Your photos of local sun-dappled roads, always fascinate me Derrick….. hope when/if, I’m able to drive again, i’ll send you some photos of the local bush area near Geelong…

  6. Very happy to view your photos on a larger size again. The monochrome photos of the female pheasants is my favourite, although all images are beautiful. The rugby results of the Japan-Ireland match is ‘big news’ in my country at the moment…

    1. Congratulations to your rugby players – an even better win than that against South Afric last time. I’m pleased the photos are now visible. I chose monochrome because I thought their form was the important thing. Glad you liked it

  7. Maybe the field horses think of the others as a different tribe. I also wonder about what animals are thinking. They seem to like routine which I can understand. What a lovely routine you have of visiting the forest. The photos are beautiful.

  8. Good news and not-so-good news, i expect Derrick.

    As most have previously confirmed, your photos appear larger today, limited to the span of your page’s theme, though they can be clicked upon to get a screen of the full image if desired (I desire!) 🙂
    However… they now open OVER your blog tab instead of opening a new tab beside that of your blog and also there is no longer any comment section available on which to leave comments (Did you ever get any of mine i left with a picture, and not in the main comments section?) nor is there any camera and photo details as there always used to be whenever i opened one of your galleries??.

    Still the photo’s can be seen and are wonderful; I think my favourite is the one of the white and the black ponies side by side – wonderful!. 🙂

    They will fill my need for animal pics until Nugget reclaims his crown as preferred picture of choice. 🙂

      1. I could never see my comment once i’d posted it to a picture and i suspect WP does not give me notifications of comments on a single picture.

        I will have to try and locate a picture i did leave a comment on ( tricky ‘cos i have not left one in months) and see if i can see any reply. Do any other people comment in the photograph itself that you have noticed??

  9. I didn’t think to “bigify” until I saw Pauline’s comment–but yes, it works wonderfully. It looks like a beautiful day. I love the sun-dappled road and the somnolent ponies–those expressions. 🙂 But where’s Nugget?

    1. Thanks very much, Merril. Nugget was about, and is today although it is very gloomy. I trained from featuring him yesterday until I was happy that the pictures could be bigified

  10. Thank you for the enjoyable trip into the forest, the photos are lovely as they always are.

    I understand what Bob is saying, this view of your individual pictures is missing, https://nansfarm.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/bf41a720-4694-453e-aa53-185c9ec5453d.png
    – on the other hand, I only get this view if I’ve shown the photos as a group as opposed to single photos, and I don’t think we get an individual comment box attached to single photos as we have with the one I’ve shown (from a group). I apologise if I’m mistaken.

Leave a Reply