Keen To Chew Oak Cud

This afternoon I e-mailed a full set of yesterday’s dinner photographs to Becky. These included two more,

not posted yesterday, of herself and Flo taken by Jackie; and of her daughter with her grandparents taken by our daughter.

Later Jackie visited Ferndene Farm Shop, then took me on a short forest drive.

The preponderance of black foals outside Holmsley Campsite prompted speculation from a young woman to whom I spoke about how many had been sired by the same stallion. I mentioned that I had been told that the offspring of grey ponies never begin with their mother’s colouring although they may grow into it later.

Around the corner in Forest Road a cow, keen to chew oak cud, craned her neck to pull down a suitable branch.

Along Wilverley Road a posse of ponies played disrupt the traffic, while others grazed on greening grass. There a foal bore its mother’s colouring.

Later Jackie photographed a group of caterpillars sawing their way through the leaves of her variegated poplar in order to ask readers if anyone can identify them.

Yesterday evening Jackie’s Sampan dish was too hot for her so we ordered a Pasanda instead, and brought the hotter meal home for me this evening. I enjoyed it, served with Jackie’s omelette-topped savoury rice and a paratha. That, in football parlance, was a result. The others tucked into two types of prawn preparation instead. The Culinary Queen drank more of the French white wine; I drank more of the Shiraz; Dillon, Magner’s Cider, and Flo, a fruit drink.

66 comments

  1. Love the cow eating the oak. You must like hot food. Glad you got permission to share the other pictures. Looks like a lovely day. Nice to see all of the livestock looking a bit more lively.

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  2. Those black foals are beautiful. The color differences among the caterpillars is interesting. Perhaps they’re a species that changes color from one instar to the next. I did a little light browsing through images, but didn’t find anything that seemed even close, except for a North American species that feeds on plants of the carrot family: most probably not a match.

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  3. I was struck by the photo with of the grey mare and the black foal on the ground.
    You cow chewing oak cud was amusing.
    We like spicy food, too. 🙂

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  10. A splendid, ‘all-round’ post, I’d say. Great photos, interesting equine scenes, and more, and …good food! Thanks for the ‘view-in!’

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  12. Stunning photos as always! Jackie and I would make a good match going out for lunch. Fortunately, for me, Dan usually orders something I like and he is always willing to trade when I cannot eat mine for whatever reason.

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  15. I like the photos of the pretty caterpillars, matching mare and foal, and most of all, the picture of Flo and her grandparents.

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  18. The preponderance of black foals triggered the same question in my mind. The comparison offered by your photos between the black ponies and their shadows, and then the grey and black hued pony are interesting. I’ve already been educated by your blog how the foals metamorphose into grey ones from very different shades of their coats.

    As for the caterpillars, all I know is that they are future moths or butterflies. Soon, Jackie may spot them alongside the flowers in the garden, if they don’t become a part of the food chain of birds.

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  21. I have to agree with Anne, that was more or less going to be my comment,
    As for the caterpillars, one looks as though it has adopted the colouring of a painted lady butterfly already.

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  22. I was fascinated to learn that the caterpillars were those of the Poplar Sawfly. I always thought that caterpillars turned into either moths or butterflies – I never realised that some species of fly produced them too. (Although having Googled a picture of a Poplar Sawfly, it looks more like a little wasp than a fly.)

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  32. Well you had me with the ponies but then I saw the caterpillars too. I love caterpillars, when I visited my father we ‘saved’ quite a few, i was reminded why I love my dad so much – it’s those little things that mean so much. Jacqui took some great pics! They’re lovely – I wonder what they are called? A murder of crows … a sway of caterpili?

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