ponies – Page 5 – derrickjknight

Garden And Forest

Today was largely overcast, yet very warm. This morning, entertained by trilling birdsong, I carried out a dead heading session; the scents of a multitude of plants pervaded the garden even more as the warmth increased when I stepped out after lunch to walk around it.

I photographed a day lily, numerous roses, two clematis, poppies, a yellow bottle brush plant and a white solanum, all of which bear titles in the gallery.

Later, Jackie drove us to the north of the forest.

Almost the first signs of life we saw were ponies lingering leisurely along the road at North Gorley

and cattle giving drivers an opportunity to rest on the road to Hyde.

We admired the view from Abbotswell Road, on a

verge of which a squirrel hid with its mouth full. I’m not sure who nibbled the tree in the foreground.

Driving down Blissford Hill is always a bit nerve wracking because it is necessary to get up speed to the dappled area beneath the trees in order to climb up the very steep slope, hoping not to encounter another vehicle coming down.

We hope to arrive at the wider top where dog walkers are enjoying the levelling out of the surface.

Donkeys are usually in evidence outside the school at Hyde. Today they were accompanied by a number of foals. The last two photographs in this gallery are Jackie’s.

On our way home a helpful Jay pointed the way to Ringwood.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s very tasty liver and bacon casserole; mashed swede and potatoes sweet and white; and carrots, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts flavoursome and al dente, with which I drank Chilean reserva privada Malbec 2022.

An Ancient Thoroughfare

The weather has calmed down, with a merely gentle breeze.

After a morning shopping trip to Tesco we proceeded into the forest.

While seeking to locate its tail, the smaller of two calves alongside Forest Road

showed us a newborn clean pair of heels.

Along Braggers Lane bracken and foxgloves share the verges

with a single poppy from which an investigative bee was departing.

Before the Ringwood Road drops down into Burley several ponies grazed the high bank.

Every time we take this road to the village we regret that it is impossible to pause for photographs. Jackie couldn’t stop the car on the winding bends while the ancient flanking banks would be unsafe to attempt to scale even if she could.

For the first time today there were no vehicles behind us and Jackie could drive slowly enough for me to capture sunlight striating the ancient verges. I have to click at the moment the sun is not shining on the windscreen, otherwise I peer through the milky film on the fourth image, which in the context of this story is quite acceptable.

“People have lived in the Burley area since prehistoric times. At least 23 Bronze Age barrows are known in the Burley area.^[11] The site of an Iron Age hillfort can be seen just to the west of the village at Castle Hill.^[12]

There is evidence of Saxon occupation as the name Burley is composed of two Saxon words ‘burgh’, which means fortified palace, and ‘leah’, which means an open meadow or clearing in a wood.^[13]

Burley is not specifically mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086, but the entry for nearby Ringwood may well refer to Burley when it mentions lands in the forest with “14 villagers and 6 smallholders with 7 ploughs; a mill at 30d; and woodland at 189 pigs from pasturage.”^[14]

Burley was part of the royal lands of the New Forest.^[15] By the beginning of the 13th century the family of de Burley was firmly established here.^[13] Richard de Burley held the estate from Edward I who gave the village of Burley and Manor of Lyndhurst as dowry to his second wife Margaret, sister of Philip IV of France.^[13] The manor is said to have belonged to the Crown down to the time of James I.^[15]“

This is an extract from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burley,_Hampshire which contains much more information.

Another group of ponies lounged on the moorland as we made our way home via Holmsley Passage.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s wholesome liver and bacon casserole; boiled Jersey Royal potatoes; crunchy carrots; and tender runner beans.

Prolific Pony Progeny

Our fierce winds and intermittent rains continued throughout the day, making it one for staying in and reading, until all was calm and the sun put in an appearance late in the afternoon, when we decided to set off for a brief forest drive.

We travelled no further than Tiptoe Road before we encountered

a pair of foals molesting the traffic until a driver chased them off onto the verge;

further along the road, more mares and their offspring found their own methods of disrupting the traffic.

One young foal showed great concern for the rolling discomfort of her mother.

Jackie’s picture makes it clear that the mare was trying to dislodge flies attracted to her area of recently having given birth.

Others wandered in the shrubbery. The first two of these four images are mine; the next two, Jackie’s.

Some of very frisky offspring dashed backwards and forwards all over the place. The last four images in this gallery are Jackie’s.

This evening we dined on roast chicken thighs with a spicy coating; boiled potatoes; tender cabbage and cauliflower leaves; crunchy cabbage and firm cauliflower.

Setting The Pace

Today we drove to Hale for a hearty picnic.

Travelling via the lanes of Nomansland we lost our way for a while, although the route was a pretty one.

Sitting on a bench in silence save for the soughing of the chill breeze in the woodland behind us, we hugged our sides in efforts to keep warm until a woman shouted in vain to call her Labrador away from sniffing round our food. We were wondering whether the only signs of

life were to be lost walkers and their animals when the advancing

thudding of a troop of ponies revealed the animals to be on a training run. The last five of the pictures in this gallery are by Jackie, who also

photographed the diminutive creature which had clearly been setting the pace rolling in the grass and nuzzling its larger companion –

a pairing I had also witnessed.

Jackie also photographed the thatched cottages, the millennium memorial sculpture, and the cricket pitch rollers that don’t seem to have been in service yet this season.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s tasty liver and bacon casserole; boiled potatoes; crunchy carrots and firm broccoli with which I drank Chilean Malbec reserva privada 2022.

Whisking Flies

Late this afternoon we drove into the forest.

Beside Holmsley Road we watched a foal receiving a fly whisking lesson. One day its tail will be long enough to emulate its mother.

After passing a clump of wild foxgloves on Forest Road. Later, we

encountered a pony on the tarmac which did not budge despite the traffic all the time I photographed

its companions and their foals. The pair in the first two pictures were practising the nose to tail technique enabling them to whisk each other with their tails.

This evening we dined on more of Jackie’s chicken jalfrezi and rice meal from yesterday.

Garden Views From The Ground

First thing on this surprisingly cool morning, I took advantage of the diffused light to

walk round the garden with my camera. All these pictures are titled in the gallery.

Later, we visited Boots Opticians for my post-operative test for new glasses for which I was measured and consequently ordered for delivery in a couple of weeks.

We then picnicked in the shade at Mill Lane. Because, although I will have 20/20 vision with the new specs, my eyes had not readjusted after the drops making me light sensitive and seeing everything in a blur, Jackie took these

photographs of the scene (entitled in the gallery),

and ponies and foals on the way home (also entitled in the gallery).

Having recently posted about the demise of Red Chilli Indian takeaway we have received a flurry of leaflets advertising others. This evening we opted to try Royal Spice in Old Milton, which turned out to be a fortunate choice. A long established outlet we visited to check it out and brought home tandoori king prawn naga for me; ponir makhani for Jackie; and garlic rice, plain paratha, and onion bahji to share. We were given free popadoms with certainly passed our test. The food was plentiful, very well cooked, and quickly produced by friendly staff. There will be enough for second helpings tomorrow. Next time we will have it delivered. I drank Sangiovese & Syrah Toscana 2021.

Avian Backing Notes

We were out early enough in the forest this morning to be held up by children being delivered to schools.

Against the soundtrack of a distant cuckoo’s call ponies breakfasted on the moorland alongside Holmsley Passage, further along which

lay a foal alongside its dam, until I approached too close for comfort, sending it to seek security from her flanks and source of nourishment.

More ponies, still shaggy in winter coats, were gathering on the green at N. Gorley, where a local resident gathered fresh manure with bucket and spade. Here the avian backing notes were provided by the cawing of vociferous rooks.

Jackie photographed a herd of deer lounging beneath trees at Gorley Common. They can be seen roughly central in the first picture.

En route to Ogden’s North her next subject was a rabbit seemingly paralysed at the roadside. She produced the next two in this gallery

while I photographed the rippling stream, its shallow bed, and its clear reflections.

It was the crowing of roosters that rent the air at Hockey’s Farm Shop

where Jackie photographed some shaggy alpacas.

This afternoon I added a lengthy P.S. to https://derrickjknight.com/2021/09/21/a-knights-tale-36-some-schoolmasters/ consisting of further memories of Wimbledon College teachers e-mailed to me by Keith Prince, who joined the school two years after me.

This evening we dined on tasty haddock fish cakes; piquant cauliflower cheese; creamy mashed potato and crunchy carrots, with which I drank more of the Merlot.

Rippling Highland Water

On the first morning of a predicted run of warm, sunny, weather, we took a drive into the forest.

This car that wound up in a ditch on Lymore Lane had probably been driven by someone pulling over to let someone pass on the other side without realising that the verge would drop.

Roadworks holding up Traffic on Christchurch Road enabled me to photograph buttercups, dandelions, their clocks, and cow parsley on the verges.

Cattle occupied the moorland at one end of Beaulieu Station Road; thereafter ponies roamed among the gorse until they suddenly took off in the direction of Lyndhurst.

We stopped at the dappled Balmer Lawn where I kept a diplomatic distance from the couple on the ground, and discretely focussed on

the now receded rippling Highland Water.

This afternoon I published

The Mistress Of Husaby

We had been regulars at The Wheel Inn, Pennington, when It had been a community pub; Covid lockdowns destroyed it. This evening we visited The New Wheel Inn under its new management.

We had been somewhat disconcerted when we couldn’t find a spot in the car park which was packed with vehicles. I entered the bar to investigate and found, when I was greeted most warmly that most of the cars belonged to people who had just popped in for a drink. Very soon their cars departed, leaving space for Jackie. We were given a choice of tables and I was engaged in conversation with a very friendly couple while Jackie scanned the menu and ordered her glass of San Miguel.

My chosen beverage was an excellent Merlot served at the right temperature.

As usual in such locations Jackie photographed the interior ambience including various menus and an Only Fools and Horses poster signed by Sir David Jason.

The Assistant Photographer thoroughly enjoyed her chicken Katsu curry, rice, and a poppadom, as did I

my well filled chicken and ham pie with chunky chips in a basket, seasonal vegetables, and tasty gravy.

It is clearly still a very friendly pub with first rate food, delightful service, and no piped music. We are pleased to have returned.

Back In Action

On a morning as overcast and drizzly as yesterday had been warm and sunny, Jackie drove us to Hockey’s Farmhouse Café for brunch.

First, we had collected a repeat prescription from Milford on Sea pharmacy, which had worked very well with the old-fashioned paper method.

Jackie photographed a raincloud over the Isle of Wight, indicating that the island would be covered by

haze we were to blink through over Deadman Hill. As, having ventured onto the moor, I dried raindrops coating my camera and lens, I reflected that at least I no longer needed specs for distance viewing, as they would have really needed wipers.

Two women walking beneath an umbrella looked, from the black bin bag one carried, to be volunteer litter pickers along the verge of Roger Penny Way.

Occupancy of the green at the Brook end of this road was shared by a flock of horned sheep with their lambs and ponies.

A magpie picked its way among the woolly beasts possibly in search of nesting material from their prey’s clothing.

Jackie also photographed this ovine and equine group. When she captioned the second of her shots including me “back in action” she provided me with both title and header picture.