Quite early this morning we drove along
Mount Pleasant Lane beside which
sweeping landscaped fields harboured horses, some sporting fly-protection masks.
Our original destination was South Sway Lane, along which
free manure is usually on offer. All that is required from people helping themselves to this gardeners’ gold is that we leave replacement empty bags for those
that we load into our cars. As always, this morning a quantity of flying livestock came with the horse droppings, so as soon as we arrived home I transported this lot to the compost bins.
Before that we drove around for a while, pausing at Longslade Bottom where I wandered among
ponies, a foal, and walkers with or without dogs. The crowds had not yet built up.
Approaching a bend in Church Lane on the way to Pilley Jackie observed that this was “not where you want to meet something coming round the next bend”.
Very soon she found herself backing round that same corner.
On arrival at Pilley we encountered another group of assorted ponies. I explained to a couple of European visitors that the lake bed on which some of the larger animals were grazing was not normally so dry. The tourists were quite alarmed at the violence with which the smaller ones were butted out of the way by the bigger variety.
A solitary bay fronted the thatched cottages beside the green..
This evening we dined on second helpings of Forest Tandoori’s excellent takeaway fare with which I finished the Malbec and Jackie abstained.
