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We began this sunny day with a trip to the bank in New Milton, followed by one to Mole Country Stores just outside Lymington.
The shadows of trees were cast on the woodland bank beside the store.
The woman serving us cautioned me to watch for the stampede of staff who, having heard Wendy’s horn, would be dashing out for cake from the popular mobile caterer. We hoped that the poison we were buying would prove as appetising to the rats still coming in from North Breeze, the empty house next door. Whatever is tearing a hole in the Rose Garden fence is of course rather larger than a rat. Either a badger or a fox. Later in the day we put down the bait in its specially designed containers.
Having made our purchase, we drove on to East End to see how the thatching by
was coming along.
I had a pleasant conversation whilst looking up at one of the men perched on his scaffolding. He remembered my having photographed the unloading of the reeds, and was more than happy to have their progress recorded on the blog.
The pair of donkeys across the road were today joined by a younger member of the family. They were liberally bedecked with petals of the blackthorn that lines the hedgerows and provides them with sustenance. The field of rape beyond the hedge failed to blind them to the task of trimming the hedges.
A little further up the road, near the chickens, a younger foal adhered to its mother
until she imparted its first instruction in the art of claiming the road
and the game of disrupting the traffic.
It seemed as if the further we ventured the smaller became the little donkeys. At East Boldre mothers and babies clung together as somnolent fathers dozed along the winding road. One of the more venturesome foals was quick to trot to his mother at the sight of me and my camera.
Just like human babies these tiny tots can fall asleep anywhere in positions of which their parents may well be envious.
It is possible that this will remind anyone of a certain age of
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qudi6JqE-M&w=560&h=315]
This evening we dined on Jackie’s delicious lamb jalfrezi, savoury rice, vegetable samosas, and spicy paneer. Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Bergerac.