Defying Gravity

A leaden canopy stretched over our skies throughout the albeit warmer day.

During my running days I would often allow the flow of traffic to determine my route. Nowadays it is sometimes the flow of ponies. So it was this afternoon.

There wasn’t much point in staying in the Modus as an equine quartet idled their way along

Mill Lane, so I disembarked and followed them on foot while Jackie turned into a car park.

They soon turned off into a muddy field which they set about cropping. Apart from the quagmire there were plentiful heaps of pony droppings requiring negotiation and the land was attached to the Mill Lawn Sewage Pumping Station. I therefore didn’t follow them too closely, but turned my attention to other ponies.

This shaggy one was close at hand;

others more distant.

There were a number of small groups of walkers about the forest, like these, catching up and joining their dogs who waited by a bridge across

the weedy stream.

bearing reflections across which trees had fallen.

In fact it seems at the moment as if there are more arboreal carcasses littering the forest than still standing trees.

Nevertheless some mossy roots still hold firm on banks of streams,

and these lichen covered branches seem to defy gravity. The third of these photographs was produced by Jackie.

This evening we dined on more of Jackie’s delicious, spicy, pasta arrabbiata with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank Torre de Ferro Reserva Dao 2017.

89 comments

  1. That lovely dark, shaggy pony is wearing his ”Lockdown beard” very handsomely!
    Beautiful Lichen pictures – very clever, the way the branch in your second image seems to lead onto that in Jackie’s photo, as though it were the same branch!

  2. What a wonderful place you live in where your drives/walks are determined by the flow of ponies!

    I agree about the clever placement of the photos of the lichen branches. Defying Gravity is a song in the musical “Wicked.” ?

      1. It got to be 56 degrees Fahrenheit today. Even with a brutal wind it was a heat wave. I even took pictures on a drive in the country and there is no snow in them.

  3. White ponies always grab my attention Derrick,,
    “White Pony

    If I were to be reincarnated
    Iโ€™m sure Iโ€™d be a tall white pony
    A flashy show jumping horse
    Who knows his arduous course?
    Hurdling coloured bars
    And clearing hard brush fences”

  4. I always love your sweet pony pictures, even if it is of their backsides.

    Your language was especially poetic today.

    And, if I am not mistaken, you and Jackie both chose the same exact branch in the forest to photograph, just from a different angle. That’s lovely. <3

  5. I very much enjoyed this lovely collection of ponies and trees…. and the weedy stream with its layers. Jackie’s interesting perspective shows the holy branch reaching.

  6. The ponies do “flow” at their own pace! ๐Ÿ˜‰ Love that expression you created! ๐Ÿ™‚
    All your photos are beautiful and so is Jackie’s photo of the lichen-limbs…looks like a tree-monster’s arms! ๐Ÿ˜ฎ
    The reflection photos are always a fav with me! And those trees covering the sky, on Mill Lane, sheltering the road is beautiful!! ๐Ÿ™‚
    (((HUGS))) ๐Ÿ™‚

  7. The Modus fits in the landscape like it was a star in the sky. You seem to have specialised in shooting lichen-laden arboreal fantasies. Jackie has caught up with you in the pursuit.

  8. The ponies’ have a shaggy magnificence. On a long walk yesterday, we noticed signs on a stable gate asking people not to feed the horses. Never a good idea at the best of times, the owners said more and more people were doing this. The fewer attractions that are available to visit, the more walkers are looking for these small distractions. It’s well meant, but…

  9. Some great shots again. The fashion is now to leave dead tees to rot and provide habitat for insects. It does make the woodland look a bit derelict though, the sort of place where a witch might have lived when I was eight years old and reading Enid Blyton…

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