CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE. THOSE IN GROUPS ACCESS GALLERIES THAT CAN BE VIEWED FULL SIZE.
It is not often one can be grateful for a traffic diversion, especially those in The New Forest which tend to send you miles out of your way. So it was this morning as Jackie drove us out there.
Had we not been sent all the way back to New Milton we would not have seen the sun mooning through the mist over Station Road.
The drip, drip, dripping of the melting frost was all there was to be heard in misty Gorley,
where the glassine stream stood still;
shaggy sheep cropped the grass;
arboreal forms emerged from the gloom;
a woman walked her carefully blended dog,
and a lime-green clad cyclist took his chances on the road to Linwood. In the foreground of this shot stands one of the many posts measuring water levels; in this instance of the stream pictured above.
Trees bedecked with flowers usually mark a spot where someone has died in a road accident. Maybe that is why this oak at the crossroads by the ford has been decorated with fleeting frost, with flowers past their best, with diced mushrooms, and with a clump of once potted bulbs.
Ponies in a field at Mockbeggar were so obscured as to be impossible to tell whether or not they were domesticated. One definitely wore a rug, as their winter garments are termed. This would not be a wild forest creature. Can you spot it?
It would have been equally difficult for the driver coming through Ibsley to have discerned the pony to the left of this picture, had it decided to turn and cross the road.
It was as the mist was beginning to clear on the approach to Frogham that we encountered a living modern sculpture based on Antonio Canova’s “The Three Graces”.
A chestnut gatecrashed the hay party those finely marbled greys were enjoying.
At Frogham the appearance of a stately stag was somewhat marred by the tangled encumbrance attached to his antlers. Perhaps he was aiming to snaffle the magnificent sloughed set protruding from the field ahead of him.
He was leading his family towards the herd sharing the land with a solitary pony.
As the mist began to clear on either side of Roger Penny Way on our return home, the warming sun caused another to rise from the moors,
and exposed a mid-distant group of houses.
This evening we dined on chicken Kiev; peppers stuffed with Jackie’s savoury rice; green beans, and spinach; followed by bread and Benecol pudding with evap. I finished the Madiran.
I am beginning to question whether one can have a true appreciation of nature without having the eye of a photographer. Thank goodness you’re here.
Thank you for this lovely comment, Oglach
Eloquent tribute to the magic of a misty day, Derrick. Positively beautiful!
Very many thanks, Donna
Super pictures, mist-erious and with de tail, by turn!
We mist out totally on stags, or any deer for that matter. Not fair!
Thanks a lot Leslie. There’s a limit to what you can cover in a few weeks.
We did our best, and actually it was amazing what we DID see!
It is indeed
Wow–these are wonderful, Derrick. Every time I saw one that I thought was my favorite, another one came along. I really like these misty photos with the ghostly images, but I laughed at your Three Graces reference. 🙂
Thanks very much, Merril
Loved the three gray-ces! 😀
Nice one Widders. Thank you.
Derrick! I love these photos. Well done. Now, my blogger-friend: what’s a carefully blended dog and how do you know? I have strange images coming to mind, though you may mean it’s a mixed breed?
Thanks very much, Cynthia. Rusty Duck’s comment holds the key. The answer lies in the hair 🙂
Jackie’s a brave woman to drive in this fog! The three equine graces are quite lovely 🙂 but my favourite has to be the glassine stream – #3 That is beautiful!
Many thanks, Pauline
Strange that a trio of grey horses elicit the epithet The Three Graces, and yet when I go to one of my regular lunches with my two sisters there are references to Macbeth characters!
Very odd!
Very atmospheric!
Good spot with the dog. Do you reckon they have the same hairdresser?
Quite possibly, Jessica. Thanks very much.
Very fine work Derrick. A pleasure.
Very many thanks, Frank
I could live all day in your beautiful photography. They are as transporting as a good novel.
Very many thanks, Susanne
Lovely atmospheric photos Derrick.
Very many thanks, Quercus
You get better each time I call by, and I wonder that a sadistic, cryptic, crossword compiler can have such an eye for such beauty.
Dr Jekyll & Mister Hyde step aside.
( LBoB once was a masochistic, cryptic, crossword, crazy!)
:twisted”
Many thanks, Brian. Stevenson knew a bit about human nature 🙂
These are all magnificent, Derrick! That first shot…WOW! That one blew me away…I love it.
Thanks, Jill – a once in a lifetime scene
after the d in twisted please amend from the ” to a : thanks Derrick
😈
Love those misty shots, but the first image in this post is a real stunner.
Thanks, Vicki. One of my all-time favourites
What wonderful, moody photos, Derrick! Totally hit the spot – thank you! Some deserve to be framed.
Many thanks, Anna
Gorgeous misty photos, Derrick. Most enjoyable gallery.
Many thanks, Sylvia
Well, you had me at The Three Graces, and I held my breath until you mentioned that master of sculpture, Canova.
So pleased, Yvonne. Thanks a lot
Great photos – but they look a bit like the summer we’re having in New Zealand (without the horses and without the wild deer…)
So I understand, Bruce. Such bad luck. Thanks
This was beautiful and moody in its ambience, Derrick. I feel bad for the stag with fishing or athletic netting with an extra point added. The ponies with brown added from a shiny coat were appreciated.
Those shots were very fine photographs, Derrick. Jackie and you have quite some vivid adventures!
Many thanks, Robin. The stag was so far away that it was only after I enlarged a section of the picture that I saw what he had got tangled up in
It probably was rather shocking to notice this upon close-up, Derrick!Well, I am sure humans would have to tranquilize this stag to help untangle this mess! Not much you could do or would be able to do. . .
Gorgeous photos Derrick. They made me want to come home to a crackling fire.
Thanks very much, Brenda
Gorgeous!
Many thanks, Leslie
What a wonderful grouping, Derrick. Loved the stags! And those clingy, sheer raindrops…and, well, all of them. 🙂
Thanks very much, Cynthia
Great misty shots, Derrick. I love ‘The Three Graces’!
quite ethereal. Thank you for sharing – I felt like I was on a walk.
Excellent sequences – ponies & stags, a magical land. 🙂
It would be wonderfully magical if we could get all the pony & stag poo to appear in the Oval Office of Great Orange Degrader of Liberty.
🙂 Thanks a lot, Joseph
Beautiful horses, and I also have weakness for foggy pictures 🙂
Many thanks, Inese
Thank you for carrying me to far away places. Beautiful horse pictures and I loved the mist/fog.
Thanks a lot, Steve