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We awoke to a garden covered in frost and fog. As the day progressed, some of the precipitation departed, but the mist remained. My photographs largely appeared as if in monochrome, and I undertook no editing at all.
I began with a wander round the garden. Some of these shots, especially the one featuring a dripping cobweb, were taken from an upstairs window. The other cobweb adds a hairpiece to Florence’s statue.
One front and one rear light had failed on the car, so it spent the morning in Downton Service Station.
This is what Christchurch Road looked like when we collected it, and drove off, first to
Lymington River where the moored boats were barely discernible,
and the ferry crews hung about on the upper deck because, like Southampton Airport, the services were fogbound.
Tanner’s Lane was our next target. There the flats at low tide took on the air of Paul Nash’s paintings of the First World War.
The barbed wire and gnarled trees separating the beach from the field added to the atmosphere.
As we drove off up the lane two red/brown ponies loomed up ahead.
Considering themselves safe from prying eyes, and ignoring the grey gooseberry further up the road, they embarked upon a passionate necking session.
Once we had circumvented the happy couple, we continued to St Leonard’s Grange.
Trees, both in the fields and along the road took on a spooky image, in keeping with the ruins of the ancient grange.
A pheasant stood proud on the old stone wall of the big house.
Soon after this the journey took an alarming turn. A warning light came on and a message stated that there was a steering fault. In the increasing fog. Several miles from home. Jackie, bravely, tensely, continued, having come to the conclusion that the power steering had failed. She made it back to the service station, and switched off the engine whilst I brought out a mechanic. He sat in the driving seat, switched the ignition back on, and spun the wheel with ease. The problem had righted itself. We decided that, like any computer, when there is a problem one should always try switching it off and switching it back on.
This evening we dined on lamb steaks flavoured with our own dried rosemary, cottage pie topped with cheddar cheese, and sautéed potatoes, leeks, carrots, and green beans; followed by bread and Benecol pudding with evap. I drank Reserve des Tuguets Madiran 2012, while Jackie chose sparkling water.