Shopping During Lockdown

We were given to expect rain for much of the day. In the event the overcast clouds retained their moisture.

Soon after 9 a.m. we drove to Tesco Superstore in New Milton for our week’s shop.

I photographed the pink climbing rose on the front trellis.

The supermarket car park was almost full.

Jackie joined the queue that trailed around the back of the store. She tells me that all was quite orderly in the closely monitored establishment.

The woman with the trolley in the above picture was one of the majority

wearing neither gloves nor masks.

Some wore one or the other;

some sported both.

From my passenger seat I had plenty of time to study neighbouring cars’ special reflective effects, also including

this gentleman just arrived who hadn’t yet hoisted his face mask.

Jackie’s shop had lasted about 90 minutes. If we take that as an average

at least two gentlemen had waited a while for a pipe

or a cigarette.

One young woman had managed to procure Plenty toilet rolls.

Many of the fields along Christchurch Road are currently occupied by sheep and lambs. On our way home my Chauffeuse diverted along Lower Ashley Road where stopping for photography was possible.

As usual this aroused a certain amount of ovine curiosity.

Lower down the road a group of adults sheltered among trees around a serpentine stream.

Jackie had no sooner mentioned https://youtu.be/NeFqHXdXQyw

than these creatures turned tail and trailed off.

On the opposite side of Lower Ashley Road stands a pillbox, being a relic of World War II.

As Jackie observed, its presence shows how near we are to the coast. By 1940 there was a very real threat of a German invasion. These defence structures bearing slots for weaponry were intended to repel enemy forces.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s wholesome chicken, bacon, and vegetable soup served with crusty bread from the freezer. The Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden whilst I drank Benguela Bay Shiraz 2018.

 

Idiosyncratic Garden Design

Flo
Last night Jackie and I met Flo, Becky, and Ian in The Family House Restaurant in Totton where we dined in celebration of our granddaughter’s eighteenth birthday. We had our favourite set meal, M3, which consists of prawn cracker appetisers; starters of sesame prawn toast, chilli spare ribs, seaweed, and a sweet chilli dip; next came crispy duck, cucumber and spring onions, and plum sauce in a plentiful supply of pancakes; and finally special fried rice, vegetable chop suey, chicken and black beans, and shredded beef in chilli sweet and sour sauce. Apple juice and Tsing-Tao beer was imbibed. Then came the surprise. The music to ‘Happy Birthday’ started up, the whole of the packed restaurant joined in the singing, and our charming and witty waiter advanced upon our table with a magnificent knickerbocker glory which he placed before the birthday girl. The staff could not have known that mango, the main ingredient is Flo’s favourite fruit.
This Chinese restaurant is a business run by a most delightful family originating in Hong Kong, and including the proprietor’s British born wife. They are always very friendly and Mum’s cooking from the kitchen is excellent.
This morning, on their way to Barton on Sea, Becky, Ian, and Scooby dropped me at the bottom of Lower Ashley Road from where I walked to New Milton to finish my Christmas shopping. Afterwards, I walked back along Christchurch Road and they picked me up at Caird Avenue.Pheasant thatch finialSnowman inflatedChristmas gnomes
Atop a thatched roof in Lower Ashley Road perches a finial pheasant. Further along, a snowman appears to have found the warm weather too much for him and has flopped onto another roof. A nearby garden’s gnome has been surrounded by more seasonal figures.
Beer Garden house
One house, all the year round is decked by memorabilia suggesting it may be masquerading as a public house. This is a street of truly idiosyncratic garden design.
Market stall
It was market day in the town. Father Christmas visited the stalls in his more modern transport than the traditional reindeer.
Flo helped me wrapping presents this afternoon. Before dinner all the older adults went for a quick drink at The Royal Oak, where Ian initiated an interesting conversation about favourite films. ‘Shane’, of course, was the first one that came to my mind.
This evening we dined on pork rib racks in barbecue sauce and savoury rice. Please don’t imagine this was the contents of a doggy bag brought back from The Family House, because it was Jackie’s own production. I finished the cabernet sauvignon.