Rolling Over And Thinking About It

This morning I watched the Channel 4 broadcast from Ahmedabad of the last rites of the English Cricket tour of India.

Soon after lunch we visited the pharmacy at Milford on Sea, then drove into the forest.

At Norleywood Car Park we found I was not the only person interested in photographing the wild life. The gentleman in the last two images in this gallery adopted an enviable position from which to obtain his pictures. I was happy to explain to the woman in the first three photographs the story of

the Shetland ponies, which cropped the grass,

ignoring the fallen trees.

Along the road to Beaulieu, many of the trees stand in nature’s water buckets throughout the winter.

Perhaps the ponies gathered here today wished to be near their water source.

I really identified with the seated pony in the final image of the above gallery. All these equine adults when seeking to rise to their feet adopt the practice of first rolling over and thinking about it before stiffly staggering up. This, of course, is why I found the earlier photographer’s position enviable.

Driving along Saint Leonard’s Road past a waterlogged verge, Jackie noticed that the recent drop in the water level had left the surface algae drying on reflected bramble washing lines. These are her pictures;

these are mine.

At the corner of Saint Leonard’s and Norleywood Roads a pony drinking gazpacho soup took umbrage at my attention, shook her head, and sped off into the gorse.

It was a rather startled cockerel that I photographed along South Baddersley Road. Seconds earlier he had been canoodling with a group of guinea fowl. When I unsuccessfully attempted to focus on them they took off, loudly flapping and squawking. He must have wondered what he had done to upset them.

This evening we dined on oven fish and chips, pickled onions, and wallies, with which we finished the Sauvignon Blanc.

104 comments

  1. You both have a good eye for the interesting details in your surroundings. A lovely feast of them this evening šŸ™‚

  2. Love the pictures. Again, Iā€™ll express my amazement at the freedom the animals have, just going where they want to go.

  3. I really like the reflection picture.

    Have you heard from our Australian friend? I have heard nothing for over a month. Just odd bear posts that I comment on but get no reply.

  4. Those roly-poly shetland poniesare so lovable. And you caught that cockerel perfectly, with his ‘What the …’ look on his face.

    But what in heck are wallies?

  5. Perhaps gazpacho soup is a delicacy. šŸ™‚

    Water reflections photos often hold more interest than the object itself.
    The algae pics are good but not nice. šŸ˜‰ It would be interesting to see what the algae looks like once dried.

  6. Good evening, it was lovely meeting you earlier on at Norleywood car Park, it was my partner, Aaron, you photographed in the enviable position and as promised here we are checking out your blog. It was great to meet you and I’ve enjoyed reading through your recent blogs! I am a complete novice at photography and Aaron is slowly teaching me the ropes. I managed to get a little snap of yourself which I’d be more then happy to send to you if you’d like, it’s not great but as I mentioned I am a complete novice. We hope you had a lovely day and thank you for the photos. With kind regards, Bluebell and Aaron.

      1. Thank you very much! I will definitely email the picture over to you. I’m very much enjoying learning how to use a camera and hopefully will be snapping some great pictures in no time! I did try to snap a nice picture of a cow just outside the carpark after you had left but it charged at me so I run and jumped into my car lol, maybe I’ll stick to shetlands. ?

        1. The picture is a good one, which I will put on tonight’s post. You have got me beside my trusty steed. Cows are very inquisitive and will often approach for their close-up. Aaron may be amused by the fact that I never take my camera off automatic – all the different possibilities do my head in. šŸ™‚

  7. Looks like you had a very interesting and amusing trip through the forest. The Shetland ponies are adorable with the short, woolly legs.

  8. I can easily identify with the rolling over and thinking about it. What a great eye for the algae in the verge and the lovely sky reflection, too! I like the ponies resting in the landscape and love the light on the fuzzy pony in the water. All great photos!

  9. I hope one of these days you’ll capture a shot of a pony actually rolling over while getting up, Derrick. A thoroughly adorable photo of the surpised cockerel.

  10. Getting down to the subjectā€™s eye level can be a most rewarding exercise. The lady accompanying the dedicated shooter is also armed with high end video cameras, which makes me wonder if serious business is afoot ā€” perhaps they are making a documentary on Shetland ponies? On the other hand, your chronicle stands enriched with many amusing captures of the larger ponies, apart from shooting the shooters.

    1. Thanks very much, Uma. You will see on tonight’s post that Bluebell, the young lady with Aaron the flexible, has sent me a pic she took of me šŸ™‚

  11. Heart-warming, smile-bringing photos!!!
    BIG ponies, little ponies…all wonderful! But those little-ones sure make me grin!
    Like that roly-poly pony…Coop does that move when he has an itch on his back that he wants to scratch! šŸ˜‰ šŸ˜€
    Feathered canoodling! šŸ˜® HA! on what you said and HA! on the rooster’s expression! šŸ˜›
    (((HUGS))) šŸ™‚

  12. What a wonderful set of photographs from your little outing. And how lovely to meet the young photographers.

    Iā€™m with you, most envious of the young man and his ability to get down and low to take his Shetland shots. I could get down there but doubt I could get up again without a hoist! ?

  13. So much in this post–and the comments, too! The header photo is great, but the pastoral pony photos are all wonderful, and I love Jackie’s waterlogged verge with the cloud reflections in the water. I went back to read about wallies. Pickle barrel pickles are often found at Jewish delis here, and even at our local supermarket deli area (though I imagine that’s changed since the pandemic).

  14. These ponies are so cute and fun to take pictures of.
    Great capture of the algae! It would make a perfect illustration to a sci fi book. Fascinating.

  15. Got a chuckle or two out this post! So enjoy your photos. This afternoon I was sitting on a covered basketball court (talking at a distance) with a daughter today, sipping our coffee and chai and talking happily. It was raining hard beyond the covered court (guys were playing at the other end in shorts and t-shirts…) and I was admittedly a bit chilly. After 45 minutes I attempted to rise right up and was surprised that I had to push off quite hard to get to a shaky half standing position, then had to will myself up on my two very cold feet, knees grumbling! Egads, almost 71 so guess I am feeling it a bit more….:)
    I commend you for getting out there no matter what, Derrick, and shooting away–we must keep on!

    1. We can’t stop ourselves. šŸ™‚ Most outside benches are too low for me – they always were, but only in the last few years has it mattered. šŸ™‚

  16. Like some pre-teen girls, I was besotted with horses and ponies and your photos remind me of that phase but they are also just so achingly beautiful. Glad I came by today!

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