Mirrors And Shadows

Today’s weather forecast was that the clear, bright, early morning skies would cloud over at 11 a.m., which is exactly what happened. We were pleased, therefore, that we took advantage of the prediction.

The Lymington River mirror, with its reflections of moored boats; sun-kissed buildings; stately swans; and mudlarking waders, was the first that drew our attention. (See John Knifton’s comment below for correct identification of the waders. Since they were not dashing around like maniacs they must be dunlins)

Equally still was the glass surface separating Tanners Lane beach from the hazy layers of the Isle of Wight.

Jackie photographed me making the shots above.

Sun-tipped donkeys cast their shadows across the verges of the lane itself,

while a pair of ponies mounted theirs on the verdant slopes on the approach to St Leonard’s Grange. The last of this group of images is Jackie’s.

A basking pony at East Boldre was also outlined in sunlight.

This evening we dined on oven fish and chips, peas, and cornichons with chillis. I finished the Rioja and Jackie chose not to imbibe.

76 comments

  4. Beautiful photos from both of you. I love the light in these photos–the header and “mirror” photos, in particular. It’s hard to resist those donkey faces and ponies though.

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  6. The ponies are sweet, but those donkeys! There is a donkey rescue a few hours from here, and I am hoping this year to be able to visit. The trouble is that we have to spend the night around there as they only do “tours” first thing in the morning. There isn’t really anywhere to stay. But I hope we can figure it out!

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  18. Good morning Derrick. Even old people can learn. I have always read your posts when I open them in “Reader” and I am often unsure of some of the photos and I haven’t been able to get them to work as a slide show. NOW after all this time I noticed the little square box in the top right corner with an arrow telling me to go to the site. I did and now all is clear and I also had more information so I went to Google maps and worked out exactly where you stood to take the phos looking across to the Isle of Wight.

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  22. On your picture of waders, the big ones on the left are Black-tailed Godwits, and the little ones are all facing away but i think that they are Dunlin. If they are racing around like maniacs, I would revise that to Sanderling.

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  27. I love donkeys. Thanks for sharing your reflections on the day, not the least of which is that gorgeous river. I’m glad you timed your day around the approaching grey skies.

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  31. Glad you had such a lovely day, Derrick. My favorite was the ” basking pony at East Boldre” … it was fun to see it so beautifully outlined in sunlight. Good shot! <3

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