Foal After Phone

I spent much of the day on recovering images for the following posts:

I won’t bore readers with the nature of the difficulties – you have heard it all before – save to say that Wayback Machine was once more helpful and that I had almost finished the work on the Scarecrow Festival one with its three dozen pictures, messed it up, and had to start again.

Late this afternoon Jackie and I took a forest drive.

A pony and her foal grazed on the verge of Forest Road.

On another soporific day there was not much more sign of life until we

reached Rockford Common where ponies and a foal were on their way to climb up the tarmac path beside the sand pit, first a valuable commercial quarry,

now a playground for children;

and a challenge for others to keep their feet ascending the crumbling sandhill.

Jackie watched a friendly foal advancing on a visitor’s phone.

At North Gorley soporific ponies seemed to seek coolth from a gentle breeze sweeping across the green – it was, however, rather a warm current.

The llama log that has never moved in all the years we have been driving past it, and claimed by Jackie as her own, is impervious to the heat.

On our return home we collected a Red Chilli Takeaway meal, with which Jackie and I both drank Bangla beer, and Flo and Ellie didn’t, the latter settling for pasanda sauce and mango chutney on crisp poppadoms.

Many Sightings Of Roe Deer

After lunch today Jackie drove us all to Hockey’s Farm Shop where we left the young family to explore while we took a short drive in the near vicinity.

A veritable herd of donkeys in the road outside the shop were engaged in their favourite leisurely game of disruption of the traffic. One attempted to join me in the passenger seat when I returned to the car. The greens at Ibsley, although the waters had receded somewhat, continued to offer

waterlogged reflections of trees above,

and a paddling pool for ponies,

one of whom was in sight of cousins casting shadows on the other side of the road.

Two gentlemen sat atop Rockford Sandpit;

their voices reached me at the bottom, whence I photographed the scene

and its surrounding woodland.

From Ellingham Drove, where we spotted one of our many sightings of roe deer in the shade, we drove to the main road where we filled up with petrol and returned to Hockey’s to collect the others.

Later, following the advice of SueW, I recovered the pictures from the following posts:

This evening we all dined on more of Jackie’s tasty pasta Bolognese, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank Valle Central Reserva Privada Syrah, 2021.

Safe Distance Enjoyment

When a dull day began to brighten up we drove into the forest for a while.

Constantly changing skies,

reflected in pothole pools,

swept over the moorland bounding Holmsley Passage and its footpaths.

Sun-tipped ponies pastured on grass, bracken and holly on the borders of Burley golf course.

The forest car parks were all full to bursting. Overflow vehicles lined streets, lanes, and lay-bys. Nevertheless, visitors largely kept to their own discrete clusters.

Nowhere was this more apparent than at Rockford Sand Pit where family groups enjoying scaling the sandy hillside largely maintained social distance from each other.

This evening we dined on Mr Chan’s excellent Hordle Chinese Take Away fare with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank MV Reserve Malbec 2019 – a present from Shelly and Ron.