When Jackie looked out of our bedroom window this morning she was surprised to see a police car backing past our house and no other cars on the road.
Naturally she investigated.
The telegraph pole bearing necessary cables and the only street lamp on our stretch of Christchurch Road had been seriously sent awry,
the crossroads was blocked off and
a barrier sealed off the road in the Lymington direction.
With these photographs the Assistant Photographer brought the story. Apparently two “drunk young lads” at 2 a.m. had crashed their car into the post, left the vehicle in the ditch, and “legged it”. The lads and the car were known to the local constabulary.
Aaron, knowing that we wanted a second garden gate at the side of the house, acquired one with suitable posts which he brought to us. He began fixing it in place this morning.
While we were having lunch we were informed that we would have no power at all for four hours while the repair works were being carried out.
We decided to drive into the forest just as the afternoon’s heavy rain began.
Since we had neither heating nor light this seemed the best option, even when the torrential rain beat a tattoo on the car and made me a bit soggy each time I left the car in the interests of photography.
At Sowley Lane donkeys chomped on grass and thorns.
One enjoyed a good scratch.
A fine blanket of snowdrops bloomed on a bank along South Baddesley Road.
This was definitely a day for cars in ditches. One being towed out of its predicament blocked our path to the beach at Tanners Lane, where
wind surfing was under way.
One energetic gentleman
wound up in the water.
From the shelter of our car, having recognised him as “One For The Ladies”, Jackie photographed him as he left the sea. Strangely enough, I hadn’t realised who he was.
Jackie also focussed on me photographing the young man
and getting wet.
Ponies at East Boldre,
where the landscape glistened were also getting wet.
We still had a couple of hours to kill at this point, so stopped at Holmsley Old Station Tea Rooms for a cream tea.
There followed two more hours reading by torchlight before our electricity returned.
We then dined on Jackie’s flavoursome chicken jalfrezi, savoury rice, and parathas with which I drank Costieres de Nimes 2018.