Against The Light

My share of the today’s garden maintenance was a little dead heading and feeding the compost bin; Jackie’s was mostly making and mending.

This dull and cooler afternoon we drove into the forest.

Ponies and their foal grazed on a stretch of meadow at the East Boldre end of St Leonard’s Road, where a pigeon had left a little plumage.

An unidentified yellow flower, cow parsley, blackberry blossom. white and pink dog roses, attracting bees, lined the lush hedgerows.

Later, while we sat in the Rose Garden with our pre-dinner drinks, listening to trilling birds in the Copper Beech tree, fluffy clouds sped across the sky and strangely silent smaller birds too far away for us to identify against the light, gathered in the Weeping Birch.

For dinner this evening, Jackie produced spicy hot pasta arrabbiata and tender green beans, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank Cepa Lebrel Gran Reserva Rioja 2011.

Afterwards I watched the last three quarters of the England v. Ukraine Euro 2020 Quarter Final football match.

51 comments

  1. It rained most of the day here so no evening drinks in the garden.
    The little foal is just a clone of her mother and so beautiful.I have foal envy!

  2. I adore your photos of the birds in the Copper Beech tree, and the Weeping Birch .. maybe there is a story/poem to be had, as I store the photos in my “Derrick Photo File”

  3. I especially enjoyed the birds-in-the-trees photos, but that bee snuggled down into the rose is nice, too. It sounds like a lovely, relaxing day.

  4. Wonderful photos of the ponies and their foals — and the feather is a lovely gift! How relaxing to sit in the garden and watch the birds and the clouds!

  5. I’ve photoshopped the mystery photographs, although this didn’t really provide a great deal of information. If I absolutely were forced to identify them, I would say that they are redpolls, but that is far from being a 100% certain conclusion.

  6. Even a dull cool day can be lovely, it seems. Silent birds on a weeping tree creates quite an image, and sitting there in your beautiful garden sounds splendid, especially when followed by a delicious wine and dinner.

          1. I think there is one in the general region, but not right around here. New Jersey grocery stores aren’t allowed to sell wine though (it varies by state here). πŸ˜”

  7. Loved the photos Derrick… Good to be back within WP for a while… And so many beautiful photos you have shared… The rain freshens everything up and we had a huge thunderstorm here last evening with a torrential downpour… But saves our arms from carrying water on the plot..
    Many thanks for your lovely visit Derrick.. So happy to see you πŸ™‚

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