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The mist that shrouded the garden never left Downton today.
Motoring further away from the coast into the forest in the mid-afternoon, Jackie and I left the fog behind us and were treated to bright sunshine sending splayed shafts through the trees alongside
Holmsley Passage.
The few leaves that still clung to the slender branches became dancing will-o-the-wisps flirting with autumn’s bronzed ferns;
and individual trunks were spotlit pillars.
Haze surrounded a solitary pony on the roadside approaching Burley, where
pools of recent precipitation reflected housing, trees, and sky.
The herd of red deer that had not been in evidence on our last visit to that village had today, as is their wont, invaded the field in front of the Manor House, where they rendered lawn mowers redundant.
By the time we returned home via Hordle Lane the mist had (in)visibly thickened.
This evening we dined with Becky and Matthew on Jackie’s tasty cottage pie, tender beef in red wine, and piquant cauliflower cheese. I drank Languedoc rouge 2015.