Wessex photo – derrickjknight

“Welcome To The World Of Flies”

Now I am going to throw a spanner in the works of selection. I have just remembered ‘The Drift’, the second half of which post contains a number of pictures which must be included. It is such a unique New Forest event. I don’t wish to impose more work on my readers, but any comments would be welcome.

I have culled the 5 least popular of my 19 and added the four above from The Drift. At least the shortlist is reduced by one.

When we visited Wessex Photo yesterday I was encouraged to enter that company’s own competition on the subject of Spring. This gave me the opportunity to submit

this jackdaw gathering nesting material from a cow’s hide, taken from my post of 3rd May. I had rejected it from my first selection for the Everton competition because it could have been taken anywhere.

A brief walk around the garden this afternoon gleaned

these diascia which have survived two winters outside in their pot;

these marvellously scented sweet peas having forced their way through paving beside the kitchen wall;

above the campanula and geraniums the red peonies first photographed in bud;

this velvety climbing rose now springing from the arch Aaron erected over the Shady Path;

and, in the Rose Garden Gloriana, For Your Eyes Only; Summer Wine and Madame Alfred Carriere above the entrance arch beside

Festive Jewel nudging me for a dead heading session.

Later we took a short drive into the forest. Warborne Lane, outside Lymington, is so narrow that we just coasted along in the wake of these two horse riders. The two cyclists lurking behind the hedge had no choice but to wait their turn for a place on the road. We waited for them, too.

On the moorland beside St Leonards Road cattle and ponies lazed or grazed.

So bright was the head of this wagtail darting about that it seemed to be wearing a daisy hat.

The twitching of his mother’s tail as she reacted to the troublesome flies made it difficult for her offspring to latch onto his milk supplier.

Eventually he set off on a frisky trot

soon returning to shelter behind his Mum.

The flies were getting to him too. Dropping to the ground he rolled and kicked around for a while,

then tried to nudge them away.

“Welcome to the world of flies” exclaimed Jackie as he gave up and rose to his feet again.

On our way home we stopped at Hordle Chinese Take Away for this evening’s dinner with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank Carinena El Zumbido Garnacha Syrah 2017.

Towards A Wedding Album

Despite the pouring rain we had planned to visit a Ploughing Match just outside Bransgore this morning. I thought it might be a good photo opportunity. Unfortunately the ground was too muddy and slippery either for Jackie to park the Modus, or for me to risk slipping over.
We continued on to Ringwood hoping to buy a wedding album for Becky and Ian. Wessex Photo didn’t have one in stock but have ordered some samples for us to look at.

We took the opportunity of brunching at Café Aroma. Even there, my gourmet burger was served on a lump of wood with chips delivered in a miniature supermarket trolley which had lost its wheels. Jackie’s choice was jacket potato with tuna and mayonnaise filling. She felt fortunate to have a plate.

This afternoon I printed a complete set of A4 size photos taken by me and by Miche. In deference to parental wishes, no images of Poppy were included in yesterday’s post, but there are quite a few for Mr and Mrs Steele.
Elizabeth returned this evening from a couple of days at Mum’s. The three of us dined on Hordle Chinese Take Away fare. Jackie drank Hoegaarden. My sister and I drank Albali Reserva 2012.

He Wanted To Read The Gas Meter

This morning I walked the church path via Furzey Gardens road loop. I had a long chat with Audrey and passed the time of day with two horse riders. That was it. This afternoon we decided to ignore the weather and amble round Blandford Forum in Dorset. It was far too cold to amble. As we got out of the car we knew that. We concentrated on our shopping. Jackie parked in a car park marked ‘town centre’. It didn’t look much like a town centre and we weren’t sure where to go. We asked another woman who had the same problem. We found a small sign pointing to what looked like a back alley which actually took us over a fast flowing stream, under the overlapping floor of a building, into what seemed a poorer part of this Georgian town. We were soon in the town centre, diving from charity shop to charity shop in an attempt to get warm. We didn’t leave them empty handed. The woman from the car park was in each and every shop. I also found a framer’s where I bought a frame for the Mottisfont Trout (see post of 23rd) picture; a branch of Wessex photo who stocked the inks for my Canon printer; and a computer shop where I bought a mouse mat. In the stream we crossed to reach the shops, someone had obviously decided there was not going to be much solar energy around this year. The advertising board had been dumped in the water. Practically everyone in town was swathed in scarves, wearing gloves, and sporting a variety of overcoats. Even the black headed gulls in their summer plumage looked as if they had made a mistake. One seemed particularly confused by it all. It was a shame that we were just too cold to do justice to wandering round this attractive and historic town, but we saw enough to know that in better weather it is worth another visit. The young man in Wessex photo, not stocking it himself, had telephoned the Ringwood branch to see if they had A3+ paper size. They didn’t, but would happily try to get some for me. We stopped off at Ringwood on the way back to order some. In the Blandford branch of the photo shop a man carrying a portable device that I recognised but couldn’t quite place, stood aside patiently waiting whilst the one shop assistant served another person, then me, made the phone call, talked paper sizes with Jackie and me, and began with the next customer. I think that if the helpful young man hadn’t asked the visitor what he wanted at that point, he would have been waiting there still. He wanted to read the gas meter. Photograph number 10 of the ‘through the ages’ series is a reminder of a much warmer time. This, I believe, was taken by Ann Eland on one of our joint holidays with her and Don, in Brittany in September 1982. By then I was being asked whether I had highlights put in my hair. Jackie produced a superb lamb jalfrezi, pilau rice, and cauliflower bhaji for our dinner this evening. We both drank Kingfisher. I then ate sticky toffee pudding, and she had chocolate cake.