More B/W Photos Retained from 1985

There was not much culling carried out from the post bearing these images:

Another from the garden of the Gite;

Mat, Sam, Louisa, and French farmyard fowl;

Jessica, Sam, and Louisa, watching Punch & Judy in Covent Garden;

and Jessica, Sam, and Louisa blackberrying on Tooting Bec Common.

After drafting this I read more of ‘The Brontës’.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s tasty pork and Bramley Apple casserole; boiled new potatoes; smooth swede and carrot mash; firm Brussels sprouts, Broccoli stems, and red cabbage, with a side of re-crisped crackling. The Culinary Queen drank Diet Coke and I drank Georges Duboeuf Fleurie 2022.

A Sitting Duck

At mid-afternoon today the moon vied with the sun for

sky-space as we set out on a forest drive.

Along St. Leonard’s Road shaggy ponies in their winter coats availed themselves of fence-posts for scratching. While I focussed on them

Jackie photographed a cock pheasant that had crossed the road.

Anticipating a decent sunset we dropped down to Milford-on-Sea. The first three pictures in this gallery are mine; the last two by Jackie

who also photographed a couple on a bench;

The Needles and their lighthouse;

and, leaning on the car bonnet, a sitting duck.

Earlier in the day I had read more of ‘The Brontës’.

This evening we dined on succulent roast pork with crisp crackling; boiled new potatoes; crunchy carrots, firm Brussels sprouts, and tender red cabbage, with which I finished the Shiraz.

Spooked Deer

Despite the bright blue sky’s sunny aspect this was one of the coldest of either this year or the last; we therefore wrapped up well after Jackie had scraped ice off the windscreen and, with enough of the surface rain seeped off the roads, set off splashing on a forest drive in the middle of the afternoon.

With ice having formed on its pools,

and snow visible on the hilly land beyond the five-barred gate,

it was apparent that someone had sped home with cold feet – or at least one.

With her blessing I converted this picture Jackie produced of the ice into an abstract monochrome.

The pool along Forest Road reflected the weather.

Jackie also photographed mistletoe and

the stream along the Hightown road which had been one of the floods which had turned us back a few days ago as it surged across the road.

Further along this lane as I was trying to assess whether I would be able to photograph a troop of deer near the top of a hill, they were

suddenly spooked, and helpfully came dashing down to be well within my range, if somewhat obscured by a wooden fence. Jackie added the fourth picture in this gallery.

It had been two dogs rushing backwards and forwards on the other side of the wire fence, no doubt seeking a gap allowing them to reach their prey. A horse and rider came into view. No doubt they were protecting their land from feared cervine ravages.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s cottage pie, cauliflower, carrots, runner beans , and red cabbage, with which she drank Diet Coke and I drank more of the Shiraz.

Chair Repairs

The chair we had repaired just before Christmas was the Victorian Captain’s Chair the family had given me last year. It was in need of improved refurbishment, so we placed it in the capable hands of

Andrew Sharp Antiques in Brockenhurst who

repaired and tightened all the loose joints, including putting a new rod in a leg that had been broken in the past, replacing the now desiccated old glue with longer lasting animal glue.

A pair of plugs in the arms were replaced with ones furnished from

oak which matches the grain of the now firm limbs.

Albeit without the recent fierce winds, today’s continuing rain had turned to sleet by the time we arrived at Andrew’s workshop to collect an Art Deco carver chair of which I had broken the back a few years ago, and replace it with another, not broken, but in need of a similar strengthening that he had effected on the desk chair.

Here the craftsman shows his work on the broken chair, including reinforcing the hessian seat with substantial yet invisible wooden blocks, taken, like the plugs mentioned above from

his collection of offcuts enabling him to match the wood used in the original items,

in the case of the carver, being maple, with a bone insert decorating the central rib of the back.

I really enjoy the character of the small room where Andrew and his employee, Jason, work their miracles.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s tasty cottage pie; pure white cauliflower; firm carrots and Brussels sprouts, with which she drank Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2023 and I drank Paarl Shiraz 2023.

Richard And The Princes

Between dinner and bed we generally watch TV, but, as I prefer to close my blog posts with a culinary note, perhaps rather earlier than Samuel Pepys’s “and so to bed”, I don’t normally include what we have viewed.

I am making an exception to cover two programmes we enjoyed over the last couple of evenings with Becky at her recommendation.

King Richard III, England’s last Plantagenet monarch, was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 and for half a millennium his body was missing, hence the title of the film we watched two nights ago – “The Lost King”, which focusses on the search for the remains and their discovery under a car park in Leicester, some 12 miles from Bosworth Field.

Despite withdrawal of financial support by other funders, Philippa Langley, the amateur historian instigating the search, having succeeded in gaining the necessary resources, persisted and unearthed

the bones that DNA confirmed were those of the king. The film focussed on Ms Langley’s efforts and her relationship with the University of Leicester. Richard III had, for more than 500 years, been regarded by many as an evil usurper, influenced by portrayals from William Shakespeare and Sir Thomas More. Having now been accepted as a rightful monarch he received a more dignified reinterment on 26th March 2015 at Leicester Cathedral.

In response to his portrayal in the film, “Richard Taylor, a former deputy registrar at the University of Leicester, is suing [writer Steve] Coogan, the production company Baby Cow and the distributors Pathe.

“He claims the 2022 movie The Lost King shows his character, played by Lee Ingleby, behaving in an “abominable way” towards the amateur historian Philippa Langley, played by Sally Hawkins, who spearheaded the dig.

“Taylor claims the film shows him taking credit for himself and the university that was rightfully Langley’s for the 2012 discovery of Richard III’s remains in a Leicester car park more than 500 years after the king’s death.

“[High Court Judge] Lewis’s ruling after a preliminary hearing means that the case can proceed to a full trial where Coogan, Baby Cow and Pathe will have to defend the defamatory portrayal.” https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jun/14/steve-coogan-the-lost-king-defamation-claim

Moving on almost 200 years since the death of Richard III, “on 17th July 1674, two skeletons were discovered inside the Tower of London. Many believed they were the Princes in the Tower – 12-year-old Edward V and 9-year-old Richard, Duke of York.

“The boys disappeared in 1483 during the Wars of the Roses, creating one of the biggest mysteries in British history. Then, nearly 200 years after they vanished, Charles II re-interred the two skeletons from the Tower in their names at Westminster Abbey.

.”The identity of the children discovered at the Tower of London in 1674 may never be known. Similarly, the fate of the Princes in the Tower may forever lie beyond our understanding. However, this should not deter us from asking questions and embarking on new research. Research is a journey we learn from even if we don’t arrive at our anticipated destination.” (Charles Farris Public Historian for the History of the Monarchy Historic Royal Palaces)

Philippa Langley, however, was convinced that Richard III, long blamed for the believed murder of his two nephews, was innocent, and that the children had survived their time in the tower to make their own attempts to secure the monarchy as first Lambert Simnel (Edward V) and later Perkin Warbeck (Richard, Duke of York). Thus she collaborated with Rob Rinder, an investigative lawyer to research the evidence in Channel 4’s documentary ‘The Princes in the Tower: The New Evidence’. They present a compelling case for the boys having survived to in turn lead attempted invasions against the incumbent king. Neither of these succeeded.

As well produced as was this programme, without DNA evidence from the boys’ bones I cannot be convinced that the nephews were even murdered. I think it was Philippa who said that these particular remains could only be DNA tested with Royal permission which had been denied by Queen Elizabeth II because she believed they should be allowed to rest in peace. Of course this procedure could only clarify whether or not they were the children concerned.

Naturally the conclusions of Langley and Rinder have been challenged by numerous establishment historians, which leaves us with the truth of the final paragraph of the extracts from Charles Farris quoted above.

Moving on even further to this afternoon, Becky and Ian returned to their own home and Jackie and I took a forest drive

when the sun was lowering in advance of its setting.

There were still many pools on the roads but none remained impassable.

The dampness had kept the woodland brightly mossy;

skeletal trees swept skies;

and ponies quietly foraged.

This evening we dined on tempura prawns on a bed of Jackie’s savoury rice, with which she drank Diet Coke and I finished the Malbec.

Culling from 1985

These images have been retained in the cull of those in

Heard On The Telegraph

as have these

from

A Dog To Befriend

Afterwards I read more of ‘The Brontës’.

This evening we dined on pork spare ribs in barbecue sauce; Jackie’s colourful savoury rice topped with a thick omelette; flavoursome samosas; and tender runner beans, with which I drank more of the Malbec.

Impassable

On a weekend in which the vast majority of the UK has been beset by severe snowstorms we have to consider ourselves fortunate that the ferocious winds that have raged around our far gentler microclimate for two days and nights have been flinging floods of more manageable precipitation, the effect of which we encountered the minute we turned the corner into Hordle Lane on our intended forest drive to lunch at Hockey’s Farm Café.

We could have played ducks and drakes on the surface of this lane just a stone’s throw from our home.

The water from the moorland lapped across Tiptoe Road.

Unusually both fords along Holmsley Passage were full of fast-running streams;

the landscape flanking the passage as it climbs bore pools and soggy bracken beneath misty horizons.

Most vehicles, such this Land Rover outside Burley sent showers of spray across the flowing tarmac, the height of the cascades depending upon velocity involved.

A well submerged stretch of Crow Road was the first that my nerve-wracked Chauffeuse considered impassable.

Despite valiant further efforts she finally gave up the idea of Hockey’s and took the A31 to inexcess Ringwood Garden Centre’s Charlotte’s Tea Rooms, where very friendly, welcoming, and efficient, staff in a relaxed environment served our lunch of

cheese and red cabbage in a rustic roll with latte coffee in Jackie’s case; leek and potato soup with fresh bread and butter in mine; and two huge cheese scones to take back for Ian.

Walls and ceiling were covered with reproductions of printed posters and the tables were immediately cleared. In the bottom right corner of the table clearance photograph can be glimpsed a child’s high chair.

Balmer Lawn on our return was awash. We could safely ignore the ban on swimming and water sports.

Finally there was quite a hold up on the A337 outside Brockenhurst where traffic had been diverted around floods under a railway bridge.

It was fortunate that we had avoided returning by Hordle Lane because Becky had seen a car having to be towed out of the deepened pool.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s cottage pie; tasty firm carrots and Brussels sprouts, with which I drank Chilean Reserva Privada Malbec 2023.

Before Pictures Began

It was not until June 2012 that I began illustrating my blog begun the previous month. There were therefore no pictures to delete from either

Rabbits On The Roof

or

A Knight’s Tale (67: “Don’t Turn Round”)

I have, however retained those from

‘If You Don’t Like It, Move’

This afternoon I read more of Juliet Barker’s ‘The Brontës”.

Our dinner this evening consisted of tasty lamb leg steaks sprinkled with rosemary from the garden; mint sauce; boiled potatoes, tasty Brussels sprouts, carrots and cauliflower, and meaty gravy with which I drank Pierre Jaurant Malbec.

A Frosty Morning

We woke this morning to a layer of frost.

I wrapped up well and wandered around the garden.

This afternoon, having deiced the car windows, Jackie drove me to Southampton General Hospital for my cystoscopy undertaken to check the result of my BCG instillations. The procedure was performed efficiently and in a friendly manner; the result was given to me immediately – it demonstrated that the tumour has not returned. The after effects are minimal. A next round of vaccine instillation will begin in three months time.

Later, we dined on Mr Pink’s excellent fish and chips with pickled onions and gherkins.

More Retentions

I have retained these photographs from

The Magnificent Seven

this one from

Columbo

and this one from

Sir Garfield Sobers

This afternoon I began reading Juliet Barker’s ‘The Brontës. Given the size of this I may be some time over it.

The grand-family having begun their journey home this morning, the rest of us dined on turkey and vegetable stewp and bread.