Month: October 2023

Find The Pig

Toys were having fun on this morning’s forest drive.

Horses’ heads peered over a fence at Winsor; an elephant perched with blanket on a postbox alongside Deazle Wood,

where a solitary sow vacuumed acorns beneath an oak tree. Can you spot her in the first of these three pictures?

The ancient bank behind the postbox exposing raised roots separates the fields from the woodland,

which has its share of arboreal casualties, sometimes sporting bracket fungus.

Mossy roots abound.

A shallow pool manages to reflect the trees above.

On the road to Bramshaw ponies foraged down a dry ditch opposite a sow with her numerous offspring who eventually trotted off after her into the woodland.

Beside the church a grey pony squeezed herself between a fence and an oak tree.

This evening we all dined on Hordle Chinese Take Away’s excellent fare.

Love From Gram Gram And Grandad

Every morning Ellie and Grannie read the 1st Birthday Card from Gram Gram and Grandad.

As will be apparent, our great granddaughter follows the handwriting as she does the print in a book being read to her. Although the card has been regularly bent and chewed this is the first time the two halves have been separated, requiring a Sellotape repair.

On this sun-bright yet cooler day Jackie and I transported ten more spent compost bags of green refuse to the Efford Recycling Centre,

coming away with four drinking vessels, including three of cut glass bought from the reuse shop.

Afterwards we received our Flu and Covid vaccinations at Ashley Pharmacy.

This evening we all enjoyed second sittings of Jackie’s curry meals of yesterday, with which she drank Dino Italian blush 2022 and I finished the Shiraz.

Doctor Jekyll & Mr Hyde

Early this morning I watched a recording of last night’s rugby World Cup match between South Africa and Tonga.

Later I posted

Moons For Denzil

being a submission for the latest challenge from denzilnature.com

The whole world knows that the phrase Jekyll and Hyde indicates a person with two sides to their personality – one good and one evil. But how many people, even if they know that this originates in Robert Louis Stevenson’s masterpiece of insightful depiction of humanity’s dual nature; still more how many of us know the detail of the mystery, horror, and science fiction encompassed in this short novel?

Mervyn Peake, author and illustrator of his own Gormenghast trilogy, was an inspired choice of illustrator for

of which

these are the boards.

With honest revelations of his own duality Stevenson made use of his personal early life in producing a first version which pleased him, in three days, then falling into a rage when his wife – his best critic – told him it wouldn’t do. The next day he burnt it, acknowledged that she was right, and wrote what we have today in three more days. I am indebted to John Hampden’s knowledgable and literary introduction for this information.

The author’s complex and insightful observation of human nature is used to full effect as he explores his theme.

Having presented the illustrations as double spreads in order to display some of the prose I trust I have not really given too much detail of the story which is the author’s vehicle for his exploration. The results of a disastrous experiment are only revealed after the climax.

Stevenson’s customary use of weather conditions; the play of light and dark; and night and day in order to portray the mood of the story even penetrated my own reading experience. The morning had been dull, dry, warm, and overcast. Suddenly, in mid afternoon, a flash of lightning was seen through our window; we were plunged into darkness, before which we had had no need of our electric lights; a clap of thunder sent the garden birds scattering as if a raptor were in the air; and glistening leaves on the trees threw off bouncing raindrops. This was when I had reached the crescendo of the book.

Later, as in one of the last pages I read a description of bright spring day, I realised we didn’t need our electric lights any more.

This evening we all dined on Jackie’s chicken jalfrezi and korma according to our preference; peshwari naan; pilau rice; and vegetable samosas, with which she finished the Zesty and I drank more of the Shiraz.

Moons For Denzil

Here are some moons from my archives:

They all have titles in the gallery. I hope they pass muster.

Burley Park Steam Fair

Early this morning I watched a recording of the rugby Word Cup match between Scotland and Romania.

This morning Jackie and I attended the Steam Fair set in the grounds of Burley Manor. We each took a camera and wandered around separately, although keeping within sight of each other amidst the teeming throng. I, in particular, was fully occupied in avoiding tripping over a dog on a leash or a child who could have done with one. We chose both similar and varied subjects, each with our individual slant. For simplicity I have placed our randomly exposed pictures in clusters which will largely speak for themselves. Each, as usual, is named within its gallery, Jackie’s being entitled as hers.

I was taken by the miniature engines, of which there were a few, either being driven or worked on.

We were each interested in the smoking chimney;

and on the Foden Steam Wagon which bore the New Forest Cider container.

A number of other machines appeared in each of our collections;

and we both homed in on detail.

Visitors welcoming the opportunity to cover a vehicle in graffiti were too good a subject for either of us to miss.

When focussing this lad steering a digger neither of us had any idea that Jackie must have taken her shots of children attempting to hook a duck at right angles to me from the other side of the enclosure.

The only way we were going to find anywhere to sit was to join a food queue and find somewhere to consume our purchases. We chose tasty sausage and bacon baps from Souper Brothers.

After this Jackie stayed on her chair while I photographed a few more scenes to accompany the last of hers.

The final coincidence was that Jackie had photographed a line of classic cars in the fair, while I, not knowing this, photographed this ’70s American vehicle on my way to join her in our car.

Before dinner I watched the match between Australia and Portugal.

The said dinner consisted of oven fish and chips; garden peas; Mrs Elswood’s pickled sandwich gherkins; and Garwood’s pickled onions, with which Jacky drank Zesty and I drank Paarl Shiraz 2022.