Hordle Scarecrow Trail

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This morning we visited New Milton, for a shop at Lidl; for me to have a haircut at Hair Design opposite; and to pay some cheques into the bank, although there’s hardly any point in the current economic climate.

Following the amount of interest expressed in yesterday’s scarecrow photographs, we investigated further. The competition is judged by visitors, like us, who bought a list of entrants with space for voting on three categories: Child, Individual, and Business. There is no prize, but subscriptions go towards the September fete. The theme is Children’s Stories. The pictures taken yesterday are of children’s creations. Today we visited a few more, including

Scarecrow 7

Jun(ior) 3 ‘Red Riding Hood’, at 29, Sky End Lane;

Scarecrow 4

IND(ividual) 14 ‘Ugly Duckly’ at 49, Ashley Lane;

Scarecrow 6

and Businesses 11 ‘Tinkerbell’ at Hordle Post Office, 14 Everton Road;

Scarecrow 5

13 ‘Little Red Riding Hoodie’ at Hordle Pharmacy;

Scarecrow 3

16 ‘Mr Wolf Little Red Riding Hood’ at Everything Pets in Stopples Lane;

Scarecrow 1

17 ‘Alice in Hordle Land’ at Classic Cuts alongside the pet shop;

Scarecrow 2

and 18 ‘Wanna bite, Snow White’ next door at Co-op Stores.

Back at home, the sunlight played on front garden plants

Hibiscus

hibiscus,

Lilies

and some rather splendid lilies.

Shelly visited this afternoon and wandered around the garden with her sister.

The Raj in Old Milton is the third reincarnation in our time of the restaurant that was The Jarna when we first arrived in April 2014, then Spice of India until six months ago. We tried it this evening, and found it to be good. My choice of main course was king prawn naga. Jackie and I shared a naan, pilau rice, and tarka dal. She drank Kingfisher and I drank Cobra.

An Edwardian Wedding

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In ‘Tales From The Window Sills’, I featured Jackie’s heirlooms from her maternal grandparents’ wedding.

O'Connell grandparents c.1912

Alfred and Alice, née Perry, O’Connell were,of course, also Pat O’Connell’s grandparents. I made a copy of the wedding photograph from the sepia print, taken more than 100 years ago somewhere in North London, for Jackie’s cousin. The railings behind the bride and groom would be very unlikely to help us in identifying the venue, for most of such iron was commandeered for munitions in the Second World War.

Wedding headdress, corsage, and cake decoration c1912

This glass case contains the bride’s headdress, her corsage, and the cake decorations. Orange blossom, symbolic of both fertility and chastity, features in both headbands and cake decorations. Before this memento came into Jackie’s possession it also held one of Alice’s white kid gloves, which unfortunately rotted away.

When he left yesterday morning Pat forgot to take the photograph, and I failed to remind him as he had asked. We therefore posted it today. On our return home from Hordle Post Office I realised that I had left the card bearing Pat’s address and other details on the counter. So back we went for it. The teller fished it out of her waste bin and Sellotaped it back together again.

This evening we joined Elizabeth, Danni, and Andy at the Jalfrezy Indian restaurant in Totton. The establishment failed the poppadom test, but the rest of the food was good and plentiful. My choice was king prawn jalfrezi with egg fried rice. Although Jackie enjoyed her sag ponir, it was made with cheddar cheese. Mushroom and cauliflower bhajis were shared. I drank Cobra and Jackie drank Goa beers. They were slow in presenting the bill, but friendly enough.

PS. Helen has come up with this: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x48761b5d091f5529%3A0x19bec7f8b12f9c13!2m5!2m2!1i80!2i80!3m1!2i100!3m1!7e115!4shttps%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Flh%2Fsredir%3Funame%3D112169914510915322816%26id%3D5881178758934379778%26target%3DPHOTO!5sst%20john%20the%20evangelist%20roman%20catholic%20church%20islington%20-%20Google%20Search&imagekey=!1e2!2s4HKq9TK5cly06nVDMPlSkg&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJzLW_4-TNAhVpSZoKHR-YBWgQoioIdjAK

It shows the church. She suggests they crossed the road for the photograph taken against the railings.