Rather Nonchalant

Melodic birdsong and the plaintive burbling of an unattached wood pigeon, warmed by gentle sunshine, were pleasant accompaniments to my morning’s dead heading project, and the Head Gardener’s general tidying. After lunch, Jackie raked up her herbicide weeding on the back drive and I picked up the piles and transferred them to a bin.

As the day grew hotter, following a Ferndene Farm Shop visit, we went for a drive this afternoon. The shopping was for catering tomorrow, when Elizabeth and Jacqueline plan to bring Mum over for her main meal of the day.

Ponies of varying sizes exercised their right of way at the Forest Road junction leading to Holmsley Campsite, much to the amusement of visitors on either two or four wheels.

A number of cattle joined in the fun, although this black and white cow was more interested in making strenuous efforts to suckle from the brown one who didn’t appear to need milking and remained rather nonchalant about the process.

I ventured into the paddock at Braggers Lane,

where I photographed some of the riding horses, a few of which wore fly masks.

Bright red Rowan berries, like these in the Bransgore end of Forest Road, now gleam among green foliage above burgeoning bracken.

This evening we dined on second helpings of yesterday’s Red Chilli takeaway, with addition of chicken tikka and vegetable samosas, with which Jackie drank more of the rosé and I drank Tesco finest Faugeres 2019.

54 comments

  1. What a lovely drive (you knew I’d say that with all the animals wandering about!!)
    Looking forward to seeing Mum tomorrow. Have a pleasant evening.

  2. The Rowan berries are interesting, and quite pretty. I once followed a blogger whose last name was Rowan. I believe she and her husband both had English forebears; I wonder if the family name came from the berries (or vice-versa).

  3. Nonchalant can get us through some interesting things. 😉 😀
    BESTEST news of the day…Your Mum is coming to visit you! YAY! If hugging is doable, please give her an extra hug from me. 🙂
    All beautiful photos today…and I love perusing them to see what masterpieces of art the sun makes in shadows. 🙂
    (((HUGS))) 🙂

  4. What wonderful photos of the cows – especially the thirsty black & white one!
    Have a lovely day tomorrow – I hope your mother enjoys her visit. So special – I feel that we should all put on our Sunday Best in anticipation of reading your account of the day! 🙂

  5. I always enjoy seeing the shaggy ponies. I wonder if the brown cow is the mother of the thirsty black and white. She seems to be looking at us like, Yeah, I know, but it’s just easier to let him do this. Still… I guess we all have our issues.

  6. As always, terrific pictures of the animals who roam in your neighborhood. Very curious to see that one adult cow try to nurse from another. I wonder how common that is. So much we don’t know about other animals. Have a wonderful time with your mom tomorrow.

  7. The header photo remnds me of how my dad used to say, “How now, brown cow?” on a regular basis. (The question must be alluding to something; I don’t know what.)

    Are the horses in the first series of photos traversing a roundabout? If they attempted that maneuver around here, they would be struck by a car (several cars, in fact).

    My two favorite photos from an aesthetic perspective are the one with the tree branches and leaves and the one with the two trees in front of the fence rails.

    1. It’s a phrase used for elocution lessons – or a way of asking “What next?”.
      The horses were going nowhere any time soon – traffic must go round them.
      Two first rate choices, Liz. Thanks very much

  8. Those are beautiful forest drive photos, Derrick and Jackie! I love the two littlest ponies. The brown and white cow and her friend were interesting. I wonder if the B&W one was a previous calf? The brown and white one seems to be saying “Oh, well…” 🙂

  9. Oh my, you were in quite a poetic mood today, weren’t you, Derrick?

    “Melodic birdsong
    and the plaintive burbling
    of an unattached wood pigeon,
    warmed by gentle sunshine,”

    Sounds like song lyrics to me! That would be a great inspirational phrase to give to a classroom of art students – asking them to paint what the words bring to mind! I could see Dwight Roth taking off on that stimuli!

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