Today was dull and dry.
This morning Jackie photographed a great tit in the garden.
After lunch she drove us to Helen and Bill’s home in Fordingbridge. My sister-in-law was returning two grandchildren to their parents; we stayed chatting with Bill for a while and drank his coffee. We left birthday presents for Helen, then took a leisurely route home through the forest.
Three deer had wandered into a garden on Frogham Hill.
Jackie braved the shuddering potholes at Abbots Well in order to enjoy the landscape
which despite the sun’s feeble attempts to penetrate the cloud canopy remained rather murky.
A crow conversing with a bay pony
delayed its descent down the sloping woodland.
Another pony following the first passed one of the many
worrying signs that seem to proliferate in this area. Just after I photographed this example a young man having difficulty instructing his bouncing dog to sit effectually settled it enough for him to remove its lead and set it bounding off, quite close to this
grazing pony.
On Cadnam Lane a farmer squelched across the boggy green to leave a heap of hay for the waiting assortment of ponies. He wore wellies. I didn’t, so my walking shoes collected a coating of claggy clay as
I approached
the diners.
Mutual grooming was undertaken by some of the Shetlands carrying caked mud.
On our way home a couple of deer sped across Roger Penny Way in the glare of a car’s headlights.
This evening we dined at The Wheel Inn. We both enjoyed tempera prawn starters; my main meal was a succulent steak speared with a stick of prawns; crisp chips; and fresh salad. Jackie’s choice was equally good mushroom stroganoff and salad. She drank Becks and I drank Ringwood’s Best.