Tag: The Crown

Back Gardening

Yesterday evening we watched the second episode of series 3 of The Crown, which contained more scenes and dialogue stretching credulity/

Opposite the field occupied by our gimlet-eyed equine friend on South Sway Lane are heaped bags of free horse manure.

We brought one back on 20th and I tipped it out onto the most recent garden compost bin.

Today I added two more.

This of course may not seem much of an effort but the enforced dereliction of my Under Gardener duties consequent upon two knee replacements has ensured that this is the first decent task I have carried out in two years. It involves lifting the savoury material from the back of the Modus, transporting the individual bags to the back drive, lifting each one, turning it topsy-turvy, dropping the contents falling in a solid bag-shape, and raking it level.

It is early days, but it feels as if I am back gardening.

Wherever we look in the garden today we see daffodils, snowdrops, hellebores, and other spring blooms – and an owl or two.

This afternoon I watched the Six Nations rugby internationals between Scotland and Italy, and between Wales and France.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s roast lamb; sage and onion stuffing; crisp roast potatoes; crunchy carrots; tender cabbage; soft butternut squash; and Coleman’s mint sauce with which the Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden and I drank Concha y Toro Casilliero del Diablo Shiraz 2017.

I Wish I’d Brought A Carrot.

Last night we watched the first episode of series 3 of The Crown. Apart from the political aspects of the Wilson premiership I well  remember the death of Winston Churchill in 1965.

At the time I was working close to Westminster Bridge and photographed the queue of thousands waiting to pay their respects to his lying in state. These pictures feature in this post: https://derrickjknight.com/2012/05/22/the-scent-of-a-squirrel/

This morning I printed a set of photographs for Aaron of the gate he finished building on 2nd February.

Storm Dennis wept all over our area today, but he dropped his wind this afternoon. We therefore decided to go for a drive.

Racing rivulets like this one in Angel Lane ran down the gutters and verges,

rushing round into roads like Christchurch Road which is the main thoroughfare between Lymington and New Milton.

Sometimes vehicles took a wide berth with awkward consequences when they met oncoming traffic. This could result in a bucketload of water hitting windscreens in seconds. We know. It happened to us.

In order to produce these images I needed to hoist up my trouser legs and paddle through the muddy water to the sodden verge. My shoes were a little damp when I returned to the car.

 

Our next stop was on Barrows Lane where Jackie settled the Modus among the heavily pitted reflective gravel pools while I crossed

Sway Road to photograph a flooded field alongside

the equally waterlogged Lower Mead End Road.

 

Further flowing fields flooded Flexford Lane.

The junction with South Sway Lane looked so impassable that Jackie refused to turn left to investigate the circumstances of our gimlet eyed equine friend whose home would now surely be under water. She preferred to turn round and drive uphill to approach the field from the more elevated end of the lane.

As we passed Sway Tower, we noticed that streaks of blue sky stretched above.

Back down South Sway Lane we found our equine quarry, his eye now so baleful that I felt really bad that I had not brought a carrot. Anything.

Far less field, and what there was was muddy. Shaggy sodden coat and looking in need of comfort.

Pitmore Lane was also waterlogged. You can imagine what happened to me when I perched on the verge trying to merge into the fences to take these pictures.

Around the corner on Sway Road someone had thought to spread some cones along a soggy bend.

Further back we had passed a field containing a fallen tree.

Hordle Lane is perhaps 100 yards on the opposite side of Christchurch Road to our house. In a number of locations the ditches are now flowing across the road.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s luscious lemon chicken and scrumptious vegetable savoury rice with which she drank Peroni and I drank more of the Cahors.

 

 

Crutches On The Clifftop

This afternoon I joined Jackie, Becky, and Ian on a trip to the Beachcomber Café at Barton on Sea. The day was cold and bright. I spent a few minutes photographing

the choppy, sunlit, waves;

the deserted waterfront and its battered breakwaters;

and a couple tending to a little dog,

Before retreating to the warmth of the popular café with its condensation streaked windows, its reflections, and its lingering Christmas decorations.

After a pleasant interlude I focussed on a group on the clifftop before returning to Ian’s car. I rather hoped the couple on crutches would not be blown over the edge.

This evening we all dined on a very tasty turkey and bacon pasta bake made by Becky and served with pizza and fresh salad – on our knees while watching episode 5 of The Crown which focussed on the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. I have already recorded, in ‘Prescience?‘ my first ever TV viewing of this event which took place on 2nd June, 1953.

Memories From The Crown

The third episode of The Crown that we watched yesterday evening slipped back to 1936 and ‘The Abdication’ which I featured in an earlier post. This happened six years before I was born, but it was the event that propelled first her father King George VI to the throne and, just a few years later, our current Queen Elizabeth II.

Today I continued to doze away until late in the afternoon I came to life again, and recovered enough appetite to enjoy a dinner of

Jackie’s succulent beef and mushroom pie, roast potatoes and parsnips, crunchy carrots and cauliflower, and tender cabbage

like the Culinary Queen, Becky and Ian, on a tray on my knees while watching episode 4 of The Crown which dealt with the Smog Crisis of 1952 featuring on an earlier post of mine.