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This morning I tidied up after some of Jackie’s cutting back yesterday, and was then rewarded by delicious scents from the roses as I dead-headed them.
Elizabeth came to lunch and dinner. This afternoon the three of us drove out to Hyde where we enjoyed refreshments in the café, and the ladies bought plants from the farm shop.
We drove on for a while, crossing the ford at Frogham. The stream under the road was as shallow as we have ever seen it.
The rusting tractor parts up on the bank were in no danger of inundation,
and a pony mare and foal set off to find refreshment elsewhere.
On Roger Penny Way, bringing the traffic to a halt, another pony led her offspring across the road.
As she bent down to chomp the grass a cry of ‘Wait of me, Mum’ rent the air and the little foal began frantically running after its oblivious parent. I have never seen a foal run before.
Further on, having similarly crossed the road, another little pony took refuge under its mother, producing a rather deceptive image.
Before returning home we took a diversion to Bank, near Lyndhurst, where Elizabeth and I took some photographs.
My sister and Rob had lived here when they were young adults, and she took us on a nostalgic wander along the lanes
and into the forest with its somewhat depleted stream.
This evening Jackie produced an excellent meal of poached haddock; swede, parsnip, and potato mash; piquant cauliflower cheese, carrots, and runner beans. Jackie and I both drank Bergerac blanc sec 2016, and Elizabeth chose Louis de Camponac cabernet sauvignon 2016.
P.S. See wfdec’s comment below. He has identified the ‘tractor parts’ as a timber jinker. Many thanks to John.