Last night’s sky was so clear that the Harvest moon lit up the whole garden. I photographed it before I turned on my laptop to listen to the last rites of the second Test match between England and Pakistan.
The pink climber clinging to the trellis in the front garden is just one indication that winter is being delayed. Another is the lack of autumn colour we noticed as we drove around the forest this afternoon.
These sunlit trees on
Hyde Lane, despite the
less than green bracken photographed by Jackie, cling to their viridescent hues.
Much of the moorland bracken, among which ponies pasture, is as we could expect by now. Note that the tail on the last picture in this gallery shows that the bay has received its annual clip at The Drift.
Other ponies, gathered by the flowing ford at Ibsley, promptly left when they realised I was going to focus on them.
There were in fact other wet roads through which vehicles splashed, sometimes forcing others, like us, to wait for them.
So, why mention pannage mast? This is the general term for acorns and the like which pigs are loosed to guzzle up to prevent ponies from eating nuts which are poisonous to them. Some of my readers look forward to this season as do we. We speculate that the reason for the absence of porcine presence since the first few days of September could be linked with the lack of acorns. Maybe they will come later.
This evening we repeated last night’s meal with fresh ingredients. I drank another glass of viña San Juan.
