Tag: sheep

A Frantic Baaing

The day began in fairly bright sunshine and gradually deteriorated in afternoon rain which didn’t bother me because I was watching the BBC transmission of the Six Nations rugby match between Scotland and Ireland.

Before then Jackie and I took a forest drive.

Suggesting that they may have heard the weather forecast, most ponies appeared to be staying safely hidden until we arrived at

Charles’s Lane and its accompanying woodland, where, accompanied by sweet birdsong sometimes competing with the clanking roar of cars crossing a cattle grid; the graunching of gear changes when suddenly encountering animals on the road; the whirring of bicycle wheels; the thudding of hooves on the turf or their clanking on the tarmac, a small group foraged until, as we left the vicinity, they decided to meander off ahead of us.

When Jackie parked the Modus against the entrance to a farm field so that I could photograph

daffodils on the verge of Beckley Common Road

the air was rent by a frantic baaing as a flock of sheep dashed from the far side of their pasture towards the restraining wire, no doubt in the disappointed expectation of feeding time.

After the match, I recovered the pictures and provided headers for the following posts featuring our arrival at Old Post House in April 2014:

The Final Stage

It has been long on my mind to add a category entitled Garden. This will involve renaming some Uncategorised posts, this being the first.

A Fun-Filled Adventure

The garden is mentioned in this one, yet it is far more about the practicalities of the move, so its category remains unchanged.

A Further Piece Of Quirkiness

Although the header picture is from the garden, the main thrust of the post is the same as the one above, so there is no change of category.

This evening we all dined on oven fish and chips, onion rings, garden peas, pickled onions and gherkins, with which Jackie and I both drank Poggio Civitelle Orvieto 2021.

All To Herself

Acorns clattering alarmingly on the roof and windows of the Modus as Jackie drove us along Lower Ashley Road made us regret that that area was not likely to feature loose pigs for pannage.

We had stopped among the blustering winds for me to photograph a thatching owl and

sheep on a sloping hillside,

where three sheltered from the gusts beside a World War Two pillbox.

A very large Gloucester Old Spot had the green at Pilley,

where she dug a long furrow and chased me around, all to herself.

Yesterday I had wondered whether to lift up the patio chairs, and decided against. When we returned home at midday we discovered that the wind had done it for us.

This afternoon we enjoyed a magnificent afternoon tea at Rosie Lea. Not wishing to push my luck today, because my WordPress problems are by no means resolved, I will attempt to feature that tomorrow.

Pigs Can Fly

This morning was again sunless, but this time rainless, as Jackie and I once more filled our Modus with soggy garden refuse which we unloaded at Efford Recycling Centre (otherwise known as the dump) and continued on a forest drive.

We turned left off Camden Lane into

another, which soon ran alongside private woodland. Clearly we were lucky to have progressed along this route, for a large tree had recently fallen across it.

Some pig farmers, responding to the early fall of acorns, had already loosed their animals in order, snuffling and snorting, to root them up.

Seven gleeful piglets dashed across the green, snouts to the ground.

The Gloucester Old Spot intent on dogging my heels must have been their mother.

I am not sure what she did to one youngster when their nose-rings clashed on one apparently tasty morsel, but the youngster leapt with a squeal in the air and swiftly trotted to a safe distance.

Its face made clear its shocked innocence.

Further on a Saddleback sow scavenged for mast.

Nearby it seemed clear that pigs could fly – up a tree at least.

The lane narrowed as we left the farm section and tracked the woodland. Suddenly I exclaimed “There is something red in there. I don’t know what it is but it might have legs”. We had by now passed it. My long-suffering Chauffeuse reversed with some difficulty until we reached the small gap in the hedge.

The “something red” had moved behind branches but it did have legs. Was it a young red deer? It unexpectedly displayed the curiosity of

these two usually inquisitive sheep.

This afternoon I posted https://derrickjknight.com/2022/09/15/a-knights-tale-116-1-cumbrian-interludes/

This evening we dined on well cooked roast lamb, roast potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli, followed by moist bread and butter pudding. Jackie drank more of the Sauvignon Blanc, I finished the Burgundy, and Dillon and Flo drank fruit cordial.

Mind The Sheep

This afternoon we drove Flo to her parents’ flat at Southbourne where she is to spend a few days.

On our return we drove up Roger Penny Way from Cadnam roundabout and back home via North Gorley.

Brook Cottage, standing beside the Green Dragon pub on Roger Penny Way, is of a standard New Forest Design.

I forget the name of the thatched cottage across the road that has a team of what I think are horned sheep (maybe Wiltshire breed)

keeping the grass down.

Three of these nonchalantly test the drivers of vehicles coming round the bend.

Further along the road towards Godshill ponies and foals graze the verges. Opposite these a crow is reflected in a still pond.

I stepped out at Ashley Walk car park to remind myself of my having strode over these moors not so very long ago.

Donkeys at Godshill Cricket ground are busy shedding their winter coats, possibly because they have heard we are due a heat wave next week.

This evening we snacked on scrambled egg on toast. I’m still trying to get over Monday’s ultimate mixed grill.

Time To Let The Cattle Loose

On a largely overcast yet dry day Jackie donated some property to one Charity Shop in Highcliffe before lunch and we both did the same with two small filing cabinets to the Oakhaven Hospice shop in the afternoon.

We then took a drive into the forest.

On the first green at Bramshaw a couple of donkeys shared their pasturage

with a sheep and two lambs.

I photographed Jackie’s attempt to catch me focussing on the most inquisitive of the donkeys which, when I left them for the sheep, stuck its head through Jackie’s window.

Further along the road was claimed by cattle including our old friends Splash and Blackie the Highland Bulls. Jackie produced the close-ups of these two fearsome beasts.

A solitary pony perched precariously on the slope of the verge.

Another bovine group trampling the woodland at Furzley reminded us that this is about the time that cattle who have been kept under shelter during the winter are generally released to roam.

This evening we dined on succulent fillet steaks; chips, roast tomatoes, and garden peas with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Bordeaux.

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.

Garden Rescue

Today was fine and clear – perfect conditions for Elizabeth’s garden makeover.

On the way there we drove into Pilley along a lane dividing sheep from goats.

Jackie produced a few before pictures of the project before her battery died.

I photographed the work in progress, identification of the participants given in the galleries.

A splendid buffet lunch was provided by Danni, the Events Organiser, after which Isla mothered Jack.

Work, such as sawing up the fallen sumac and bed-making continued, while acrobatics were undertaken on the lawn.

It was then my battery’s turn to die, so Jackie and I returned home to recharge them both, after which we went back to Burnt House lane to join the others for Jackie’s chicken curry, savoury rice, samosas, and onion bahjis. Her delicious mixed fruit crumble was to follow, but I couldn’t eat anything more after the first course. I’m not sure who drank what, but I drank virtually non-alcoholic (0.5%) Adnams Ghost Ship.

I matched Jackie’s earlier before the work garden views with some afters.

Raising Robin’s Interest

At lunchtime Martin showed us the completed raised bed he finished this morning. He has concreted in the galvanised pins, put additional brackets on the corners, sifted and replaced some of the removed soil, and saved the plants that have been dug up.

These primroses may go back in, with a number of bulbs.

The activity aroused the interest of a pair of robins.

We have now agreed that Martin will help us on a regular basis.

This afternoon I published https://derrickjknight.com/2022/02/03/a-knights-tale-98-1987-part-one/

On another decidedly dingy afternoon we visited Elizabeth who hasn’t been too well.

The sheep field opposite her home in Burnt House Lane, Pilley was well stocked.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s flavoursome liver and bacon casserole; creamy mashed potatoes; crunchy carrots and cauliflower, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Douro.

On Bréhec Beach

Last night I began reading

and scanned, in addition to this Title Page and Frontispiece, three more of Charles Keeping’s wonderful illustrations.

‘My very particular friend Miss Tox’ has been depicted by the artist faithful to the author to the very last line.

‘Miss Tox soon returned with the party under convoy’ is again portrayed precisely as the author described.

‘The sun came with the water-carts…. and the people with the geraniums’

This was the one volume of my Folio Society that I thought I had lost, lent to a forgotten person who did not return it. Becky, however, gave me an identical copy she had tracked down for my last birthday.

I received an e-mail request from Sam for an electronic image of

himself of a colour slide I produced on Bréhec beach in Normandy in September 1982. I sent it to him. He is happy for it to appear on this blog. My father had framed an A3+ print for me, and Becky, knowing that her brother was to go on and row the Atlantic 20 years later, captioned it “One Day……”

This afternoon I posted https://derrickjknight.com/2021/10/15/a-knights-tale-51-working-with-families/

Later we took a forest drive out to Bramshaw where

the proximity of a pair of ponies caught my eye.

A helicopter chugged over Penn Common upon which

sheep. ponies, and crows shared the pasturage.

On our return ponies possessed the verges leading back to Bramshaw. The recently clipped tail of the adult suggested that a recent drift had taken place.

Elizabeth popped in for a cup of tea and to check that I had recovered from yesterday.

Afterwards Jackie and I enjoyed our second helpings of Wednesday’s Red Chilli takeaway. My wife drank Hoegaarden and I drank 1000 Stories Bourbon Barrel-Aged Zinfandel 2018, given by Jessie.

A Close Encounter Of The Porcine Kind

I have often featured cattle and other animals basking beneath Bramshaw’s ancient oak. These pictures were produced in November 2018.

This morning the unburied corpse of this once mighty giant, some of its limbs chopped up, lay across the green, being investigated by a solitary calf which is hidden in three of these images. The muddy turf was littered with acorns. The shattered trunk of the tree was completely hollow. A telegraph pole had been pulled down with it. The weight of a few hundred years and the winds of storm Alex had been too much for this venerable Quercus.

We had noticed this disaster on our way to Nomansland in the gloom of yesterday evening and felt impelled to pay our last respects early this morning.

On this village’s other green ponies cast their shadows, donkeys dawdled,

and sheep sheltered under healthier oaks.

Along the road to Furzley Common others rose to their feet in trepidation as I approached.

At the Furzey Lane crossroads I witnessed a close encounter between a somewhat sheepish pony and a snuffling piglet.

Soon the little porker trotted across the road to join its squealing siblings swinging round the corner in the wake of a soggy, grunting, sow.

While I poked my lens at pigs, Jackie aimed at alpacas occupying a distant shed.

Donkeys and a foal soaked up the sun in Blackhill Road.

Our return home was greeted by rainclouds and a showery afternoon.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s spicy lamb jalfrezi, a plain paratha, and turmeric tinted boiled rice with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank Cahors Malbec 2018.