Cockapoos

We enjoyed a pleasant morning with Louisa and her Cockapoos, Geri and Coco.

After lunch my daughter and I took the dogs on a forest drive.

The first stop was on Wootton Common.

Louisa photographed me venturing to cross the road to join them,

where they enjoyed splashing in the sodden pools.

Louisa parked the car beside the stream at Holmsley Passage and took her pets for a walk across the moorland and back.

I remained beside the car and focussed on the stream and on the landscape.

Coco kept me company on our return home.

Later this afternoon Helen and Bill joined us for more convivial conversation.

Elizabeth joined us for dinner which consisted of Jackie’s wholesome chicken stewp with focaccia brought by Louisa. I drank more of the Shiraz and my sister drank FeeDamm non-alcoholic lager.

A Bit Steep

Nugget and Lady were together in evidence this morning, as was Ron or Ronette.

“Where’s Nugget?” (69) by Jackie.

Storm Jorge treated us to a bright, albeit windy, day with very little rain.

Leaving the family’s cockapoos Geri

and her daughter Coco behind with Jackie

I accompanied Louisa, Errol, Jessica, and Imogen as tour guide to Lyndhurst. We began at the Museum and Heritage Centre where we admired exhibits such as

‘Forestry then and now’ comparing the axe-wielding earlier woodman with today’s chain-saw carrying forester;

and ‘Mr Burt a commoner’ who, like his modern descendants, held the rights to pasture his animals in The New Forest.

Shops visited included Pages with its wide range of gifts; Lyndhurst Antiques Centre where the visitors were intrigued by Elizabeth’s well-stocked cabinet; and Down to the Wood where Errol bought a wooden solitaire board complete with glass marbles.

By the time of my son-in-law’s purchase, apart from a brief respite for cold ice creams in the warmth of the Tea Rooms, we had walked for more than an hour up and down the town’s steeply sloping high street.

Knowing that a set of gravestone steps led down from the church of Saint Michael and all Angels to the car park I thought I could just about, with the aid of the handrails, manage the necessary descent after showing the young ladies the grave of Mrs Alice Hargreaves, better known as Alice in Wonderland.

Unfortunately it had beenĀ 7 years since I produced the above photograph and there were now no steps. Instead, having been replaced by a circuitous serpentine tarmacked path, the stones that had formed them were stacked on the edge of the lawn.

In more ways than one this seemed a bit steep. Clearly I had no option but to overdo it.

Aaron, in the meantime had passed the Agriframes challenge by assembling and erecting their Bower without recourse to their destructions.

Jackie laid on her usual spread for lunch, after which the Nottingham family set off for home in order for Errol to watch the F.A. Cup Final featuring his beloved Aston Villa.

This evening we ate more of the luncheon fare of cold meats and plentiful fresh salad with which I drank Valle Central Syrah reserve privacy 2019 and Jackie drank Hoegaarden.