On another dull morning I walked the circular route to Hordle Cliff and back. At the bottom of Downton Lane I met the woman whose garden I had photographed on the 3rd. She told me that the salt wind to which her home is exposed makes it impossible to grow much, but she was pleased at my compliments.
Roger has another crow deterrent in his recently sown fields. A noise such as that emitted by a cannon erupts at regular intervals. Had I not become used to it it would certainly startle me.
Jackie has been making delightful weatherproof signs indicating various sections of the garden, such as this one for The Heligan Path.
Before the rain set in I continued the clearance of the back drive.
After a late lunch we drove to Milford on Sea to register with the Milford Medical Centre. Well, when it was very wet outside, and we had existed since 1st April without a GP, it didn’t seem to be a bad idea. Passing The Red Lion pub Jackie wondered what it would be like, so we popped back to find out. It was closed. So we tried The Crown Inn at Everton. That, too, was closed. So we went home.
We have a Velux window in the kitchen roof. When it rains it leaks. This, we have discovered, is because it doesn’t shut properly and is impossible to lock. The recent deluges have made the drips onto the floor rather persistent of attention. I moved the furniture and climbed up on the stepladder to investigate. First it was necessary to brush away lots of black crud, living spiders, and their dead prey. This landed on the table. The locking mechanism could only be operated manually and with great difficulty. I sprayed it with WD40. I then still had to use my fingers to push the levers, but the fast-acting lubricant had made it easier to do so. I could now lock it. But only when it wasn’t shut, which it still won’t do properly.
I gave up, mopped up the floor, and brushed off the table and put it back in position.
This evening a certain perseverance was rewarded. The Red Lion in Milford on Sea had announced that its winter hours meant that it closed at 2.30 on Wednesdays and reopened at 6.00. We decided to return this evening and were rewarded by a friendly atmosphere in an eighteenth century hostelry that served very good food. Had we actually seen a doctor on our earlier trip, I am sure the steak and ale pie; the rack of pork ribs, the plum tart and custard, the chocolate fudge cake, the Peroni, and the Ringwood’s best would have been just what he or she would have ordered. There is also a dentist’s surgery across the road.