Tag: pigs

Find The Pig

Toys were having fun on this morning’s forest drive.

Horses’ heads peered over a fence at Winsor; an elephant perched with blanket on a postbox alongside Deazle Wood,

where a solitary sow vacuumed acorns beneath an oak tree. Can you spot her in the first of these three pictures?

The ancient bank behind the postbox exposing raised roots separates the fields from the woodland,

which has its share of arboreal casualties, sometimes sporting bracket fungus.

Mossy roots abound.

A shallow pool manages to reflect the trees above.

On the road to Bramshaw ponies foraged down a dry ditch opposite a sow with her numerous offspring who eventually trotted off after her into the woodland.

Beside the church a grey pony squeezed herself between a fence and an oak tree.

This evening we all dined on Hordle Chinese Take Away’s excellent fare.

Polishing The Car

On a largely overcast, yet warm, morning Jackie and I took a forest drive during which we brunched at Hockey’s Farm Café.

We seldom see ponies in the woodland flanking Holmsley Passage,

but we spotted these largely buried in ferns today.

It was golfers crossing from one side of the Burley course who stopped the traffic on this occasion.

A number of ponies, one very fetching in her natural necklace and tiara, browsed along Forest Road.

A number of assorted pigs, the last pair polishing our car, had no intention of making it easy to photograph them as they scampered snorting and snuffling in their eagerness to be first on the mast now falling freely. The last two, carefully avoiding the cattle grid entrance to Hockey’s gave our new Hyundai a good polish.

The pair in the first two pictures above kept well ahead of me until they disappeared out of sight, and were not reflected in the stream I was left with.

We didn’t get far down Newtown Lane where we would normally expect to spot porkers, because they had obviously avoided the resurfacing work which caused us to turn back.

A young pony sank into soggy ground at North Gorley, where a duck crossed the road, maybe aiming for the stream behind the horse.

Donkeys, as usual, tried their luck with customers of The Forester’s Arms at Frogham.

Cattle and ponies shared the Abbotswell landscape,

while, at the bottom of the hill a pair of ponies alongside the now very shallow stream feeding the ford, bore their share of flies.

Later this afternoon Ronan and Craig from Tom Sutton Heating replaced the new valve they had fitted last week which turned out to be faulty.

This evening we all dined on delicious sausages and creamy mashed potato, with crispy bacon and fried onions; crunchy carrots; tender broccoli stems, and meaty gravy with which Jackie drank Zesty and I finished the Montepulciano.

An Old Cart Revisited

Today we brunched at

which was undergoing work on the roof as we arrived.

I first featured their ancient farm cart in https://derrickjknight.com/2020/09/11/do-not-climb/

Here are some more details from this visit. With its injunction warning customers against climbing on this vehicle of a past age, it lies alongside the car park, its wooden boards slowly degenerating; self-seeded plants seeking nourishment from a build-up of soil and other materials; its powerful iron fittings protected from the ravages of time by the patina of rust or of red paint.

These garden obelisks are some of the many artefacts on sale in the yard.

As we turned into Ringwood Road on our journey home a grinning cyclist passed us from ahead.

The reason became apparent around the next bend where donkeys blocked the road;

pannage pigs foraging a little further on kept to the verge.

This evening, begging porcine forgiveness, we dined on Mediterranean style pork chops (with paprika, garlic, and a little chilli); crisp roast potatoes, some sweet and softer; crunchy carrots; tangy red cabbage; and tender green beans with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Malbec.

“You Wanted Pigs”

This morning Jackie drove me to the north of the forest where we knew we would be most likely to find pigs loosed for pannage.

A skip hire truck forced Jackie to reverse our Modus when faced head on with the vehicle and its obscured convoy along the narrow, winding, Gorley Lane.

It was along Ringwood Road, South Gorley, that we were first rewarded by the sight of a variety of young pigs gleefully trotting about the tarmac, the verges, a woman, and her dog, while rapidly scampering in search of acorns and other mast which are poisonous to ponies.

No way was I able to keep up with these gambolling, rollicking young snorting porkers as they careered into Newtown Lane to join the rest of their snuffling sounder. Jackie drove on ahead and cried out of her window “Well, you wanted pigs”.

Vehicles needed not only to avoid the scuttling swine, but also the sawn logs placed on the verges to deter parking that had been nudged aside by the eager eaters seeking whatever might be beneath them.

While the younger grunting guzzlers gourmandised in light and shade,

one somnolent mature matriarch appeared to be sleeping off her feast in subdued lighting.

By association all this porcine activity had prompted our peckishness,

so we brunched at Hockey’s Farm Shop, where

I felt slightly guilty about what was on my plate.

This afternoon I brought https://derrickjknight.com/2021/09/06/a-knights-tale-28-three-monarchs-in-quick-succession/ up to date by incorporating the recent death of Queen Elizabeth II and the accession of King Charles III

This evening we dined on left-overs from yesterday’s Chinese meal with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Monte Polgar. The young couple ate later.

Doreen Barlow’s Cymbidium Orchids

Bellowing cattle; creaking branches; squawking pheasants, intermittently punctuated the otherwise silent chill of the early morning air carrying cold gusts across the high ground of Braggers Lane as, after a Ferndene Farm shop visit, Jackie parked and

I wandered down the road

focussing on the bucolic landscapes on either side.

A relaxed pheasant was undisturbed by a learner motorcyclist wheeling by.

I aroused the interest of the residents of the pig farm near Ripley when I photographed them,

a sawn tree trunk contributing to the local ecology which had helped to nurture a blackthorn bush opposite.

This afternoon our nephew John visited with his brother-in-law Faizal to collect various items of furniture surplus to our requirements since our new cupboards were fitted.

Later today I received a comment from Lin Craig who had found and bought in Chichester one of Jackie’s Aunt Doreen’s paintings. My correspondent, who had found her name on my blog, sought confirmation that Doreen was the artist. I was able to provide this by sending a link to one of ours.

This evening we repeated last night’s meal with which I drank more of the Douro.

In The Nursery Field

Yesterday I received an e-mail stating that the probate grant application has been approved and I should receive it in 10 working days.

This morning I scanned six more of Charles Keeping’s excellent illustrations to my Folio Society edition of ‘Bleak House’.

‘Mrs Jellyby, in the midst of a voluminous correspondence’

‘She sat on a chair holding his hand’

In ‘Jo brought into the little drawing-room by Guster’ Keeping indicates he distance between elements of the scene by separating them with a little text.

‘Mr Squod catches him up, chair and all’

‘A street of little shops’

‘Miss Volumnia and the cousinship of the Nobodys’

This afternoon Becky and Flo went shopping and Jackie and I took a forest drive.

Sheep occupy a field about a mile along Christchurch Road heading west.

Newborn lambs suckle, frolic, and head butt in the nursery fields opposite. Today there were a number of twins, bearing the same identifying digits as their mothers.

It was quite a contrast to see two of the most massive porkers we’ve ever seen housed on Harpway Lane at Winkton.

Ponies grazed on the terrain outside Holmsley Walk Car Park;

the grey had just given the bay a resounding head bash before I took this shot.

Early this evening Flo burnt more slender twigs in the rusty incinerator.

This evening we dined on tender roast chicken; crisp roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding; crunchy carrots ; firm Brussels sprouts, and tasty gravy, with which Jackie, Becky, and I drank the same beverages as yesterday and Flo drank elderflower cordial.

“We Would Have Driven Past”

Following a suggestion by Yvette Prior, I spent the morning changing the categories of my “A Knight’s Tale” series of posts. They are now categorised as A Knight’s Tale, thus giving readers who may wish to view earlier episodes easier access. The first three also contain my diary entries for their days. I have still to work out how to separate that material from the narrative.

On another unseasonably warm and sunny afternoon we took a drive into the forest.

Cattle and donkeys shared the green at Ibsley, the equines sometimes spilling onto the road to annoy the traffic.

One calf sat beside a pool formed from the recent rains now covering the soggier sward, reflecting the trees above, and bearing fallen leaves.

The greens at North Gorley offered cold soup from similar winterbourne pools. One pony, it’s hooves beneath the surface on which it sent ripples, remained dining for some time.

A few pannage pigs and piglets were once again released onto Newtown Lane.

On our way back through Ibsley we noticed a woman photographing toadstools. Jackie parked and I disembarked to join the other photographer. She told me that her friend had sent her in search of these poisonous Fly Agarics and she was delighted to have found them. I said that had we not seen her in action we would not have spotted these gems and would have driven straight past. I asked her to thank her friend from me, too.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s very wholesome stewp with fresh crusty seeded bread and butter. The Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden while I drank Chevalier de Fauvert Comté Tolosan Rouge 2019.

Attempting To Take A Drink

This afternoon I posted https://derrickjknight.com/2021/10/24/a-knights-tale-56-how-i-became-a-team-leader/

Early this morning I had raced around the garden at dawn in my dressing gown and slippers in order to keep pace with the fast moving clouds enhanced by a splendid sunrise which turned out to have been the brightest part of an otherwise largely overcast day.

Smoky indigo and old gold hues didn’t quite manage to obscure the glimpses of bright blue or the peeping moon not yet ready for bed. Copper beech, weeping birch and New Zealand flax were all nicely silhouetted and the house at the corner of Hordle Lane and Christchurch Road bore burnished bricks.

After I posted the aforementioned Knight’s Tale episode we took a trip into the forest.

The only pannage pigs that seem to be loose at the moment are those at Pilley, where the little ones are becoming bigger.

Donkeys queued for a go at this scratching post.

Ponies grazing at East Boldre were passed by a friendly cyclist taking his dog for a walk.

Nearer East End a cow with three calves, one looking older than the others, occupied the moorland. I am still battling with the uploading of photographs. The last, most difficult, attempt was of this younger twin attempting to take a drink.

This evening Elizabeth came to dinner and brought with her various papers, including Mum’s will, which I need for my executorship; and this mirror that Vivien and I brought back for her from our Cornish honeymoon in March 1963.

Our meal consisted of succulent roast lamb; sage and onion stuffing; mint sauce; crisp roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding; piquant cauliflower cheese; tender green beans; and crunchy carrots, with tasty gravy. Jackie drank Hoegaarden and my sister and I drank more of the Fleurie.

A Very Thoughtful Gift

As Jessie left this morning to return home to Primrose Hill, Jackie and I drove to Elizabeth’s to wait for a Parcel Force delivery while she kept a hospital appointment.

We took a minor diversion through the forest on our way home.

Groups of pigs from the verges and the greens of Pilley converged on the sward carpeted with silver birch catkins which they crunched with the delight of a child chomping on his Rice Crispies breakfast cereal.

A llama pricked up its ears as I approached its field at East End, where

donkeys dawdled up the road, pausing to sample prickles along the way.

While at Elizabeth’s I read more of ‘Our Mutual Friend’ and this afternoon scanned three more of Charles Keeping’s inimitable illustrations.

‘The train rattled among the hose-tops’ gave the artist scope to display his perspective skills.

‘They began driving among low-lying water-side wharves and docks’

‘Bella and Mrs Boffin took a good long look and one another’

Before dinner we drove out to Hatchet Pond in order to Photograph the sunset.

During the afternoon Jackie received, delivered by Amazon, a very generous gift from Jessie, who had enjoyed the solar lights.

As soon as we arrived home she dashed out to plant and photograph the treasure. Thank you very much, Jessie.

This evening we reprised yesterday’s roast dinner with similar beverages.

Today’s Hobbyhorses

Our extended Indian summer continues.

Early this morning the three of us spent some time in the garden where I photographed

a number of blooms, the names of which are all included in the galleries. The blue Morning Glories only flowered for the first time last week. Bees are still plundering the cosmoses.

After this we shopped at Ferndene Farm Shop, and continued on a forest drive.

Pigs and their piglets scurried across the road at Pilley. Louise, who lives in the house on the corner seen beyond the scene including porkers, a Shetland pony and a walker, stood for while at the gate flagging down motorists to point out the piglets they could not see as they approached the cattle grid. Jessie joined me in photographing the animals. Its bright berries enliven a cotoneaster tree on the green.

The beach at the end of Tanners Lane was gathering visitors like the two above; teasels grew in the field at the top of the slope.

This evening Jackie drove us to Mudeford to catch the

sunset.

Swans were unperturbed by gulls taking flight.

I watched approaching its runway.

Two children sped along the shore on bikes with no pedals (Dandy horse bikes)- today’s hobbyhorses.

This evening we dined on tender roast lamb; crisp Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, sage and onion stuffing; crunchy carrots and cauliflower; tender runner beans, and meaty gravy, followed by coffee cake and New Forest ice cream, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden, I drank more of the Fleurie, and Jessie drank water.