For brunch, Jackie drove me to Hockey’s Farm Shop café, where we enjoyed our usual favourites, well cooked as always, and efficiently served in friendly manner.
As we left Burley ponies caused a traffic tailback as, oblivious of the vehicles, they settled in for a day of seeking what shade they could beneath trees, and such protection from flies as could be afforded by their nose to tail technique.
A couple of walkers found the prospect of stepping over droppings somewhat unpleasant.
When we returned this afternoon the animals had not moved much.
Others, already beset by flies, hugged a fence that seemed to have been reserved for them.
We needed to make way for an oncoming tractor on a narrow, dappled, section of Gorley Road.
Two ponies sought shade beneath tree alongside the Ibsley ford, from the stream under which another slaked its thirst.
Calves competed for space on a drinking trough beside Hyde Lane.
Jackie parked the Modus at Gorley Lynch while I disembarked to
photograph a distant stag with his roe deer harem.
At Poulner we encountered a steam traction engine.
Heather coloured the moorland either side of Holmsley Passage,
where I commended a pair of cyclists who had made it all the way up.
An apple tree grew on the moor beside Holmsley Road.
Along Tiptoe Road a pair of ponies drooped on the tarmac, opposite
a foal learning the reality of life with flies.
This evening we all dined on meaty pork bangers and fried onions; creamy mashed potato; crunchy carrots; firm broccoli stems; and piquant cauliflower cheese, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank Côtes du Rhône Villages Plan de Dieu 2021.
