witches – derrickjknight

Hauling Grandpa

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Leaving Elizabeth house and dog sitting, the rest of us spent the morning in Burley. It is amazing how much time can be occupied in scouring a few tourist shops in a village with a reputation built on mythical witches.

Even before reaching the fudge shop in the alley linking the car park with the high street, everything on offer had to be explored. Samples of their produce were handed out outside Burley Fudge, next door to which a vast number of different New Forest ice creams were on sale. Jackie disappeared into

Witchcraft

and returned with two witches who stood cackling on the alfresco table guarding our fudge and ice cream.

I had sat on a picnic bench seat while the first row of outlets had been explored. In order to transfer to the ice cream parlour I needed to be hauled to my feet by two strong young ladies.

While the rest of the enchantresses’ attractions were being carefully combed, Jackie and I sat on a bench near the war memorial.

A splendid chicken circling our seat craned its neck hoping to catch some of Jackie’s fudge, whilst its rooster crowed from a nearby fence. In his eagerness to photograph the cock, a foreign visitor, unfamiliar with cattle grids, put a foot through the bars, filling his shoe with muddy water and receiving an earful from his wife.

Across the road the Cycle Hire establishment was exceedingly busy. Traffic streamed down the street, making it extremely difficult for a couple with two small children carried with them on specially designed bikes to return their rented equipment.

Danni and Andy joined us later in the afternoon and joined in the general merriment. The eight of us dined on Jackie’s superb steak pie; crunchy carrots, cauliflower, cabbage; and creamy mashed potato. This was followed by apple, apricot and blackberry crumble with ice cream or cream. The girls had picked and washed the blackberries this afternoon. Red wine, Hoegaarden, coke, and water were variously consumed. I drank a Parra Alta Malbec 2016.

I Hadn’t Seen Rahul

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This morning Jackie drove us to the GP surgery at Milford on Sea where we were given our flu jabs. There is nothing like joining the priority group above a certain age for letting us know where we belong.

Afterwards we travelled on for a short trip in the forest.

Gates Cottage, with its attractive picket fences is nicely situated

on a bend in Mead End Road near Lymington.

Inquisitive as always, a pair of cattle, possibly Herefords, peered through a hedge alongside the driveway to Greenslade Farm opposite the thatched cottage.

Bracken in the hedgerows wears its autumn hues.

We turned off into another lane,

and returned home via Hordle Lane where the new housing development

has changed forever the view from All Saints Parish Church,

the graveyard of which

is donning its autumn splendour.

This afternoon we returned to NatWest in Lymington where I collected the Australian dollars I am sending to Orlaith for her fifth birthday.

Jackie waited in the car for me at the bottom of the High Street while I wandered down photographing the seasonal displays.

I began with the graveyard of St Thomas and All Saints church, containing some of the souls we remember this evening;

where holly berries proclaim the season.

Like Pizza Express, we take the opportunity to amuse with spiders and ghouls carved from pumpkins featured on this bunting;

and scary creatures peering from their window.

The Dogs Trust display also includes a discreet poppy.

Inside Costa Coffee, a wandering pumpkin selects a snack from the cabinet.

English and Continental Chocolates’ cornucopia includes a number of witches of which Burley would be proud.

Living up to the outlet’s name White Stuff displayed an albino pumpkin.

The Save The Children shop favoured horror.

Across the road Lounges Coffee Shop and Rose Garden Craftsstruck a lower key.

This crafted pumpkin is in drydock.

It is probably appropriate that The Gilded Teapot’s window should show falling leaves.

In common with a number of our towns and villages, Lymington remembers those souls who never came back from Flanders, by fixing a poppy to each lamp post.

It wasn’t until I cropped and enlarged the two images that I realised that I had photographed Rahul, one of the delightful Lal Quilla waiters. He is on the left, speaking on his mobile phone. On his way back down the hill a little later he stopped for a chat, neither of us being aware that I had immortalised him. I will make some prints for our next visit to the restaurant.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s spicy chilli con carne with wild rice and peas. I drank more of the Fronton.

The Witch Hunt

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This morning Jackie drove us to Burley in search of witches.

The landscape across the moors early in the morning offered misty slate layers in the distance.

On the approach to Burley, the leaves on the trees were turning the rich colours of autumn

The car park in the village was largely occupied by ponies who had generously left a few spaces for the traffic.

One little lad in a buggy wasn’t all that sure about the attention he received.

We soon realised that we had missed the real Halloween event which had been on Saturday, two days ago. Our witch hunt was therefore fruitless. We had to settle for carved pumpkins, including the winning mouse, and ghastly ghouls sporting sheets.

Some sorceresses had abandoned their hats in the form of traffic cones that had found their way into the landscape. In the first of these two photographs the bicycle attached to the railing was probably left by a witch as she switched to here broom. In the second, Jackie converses with a garrulous goose.

Its companion practiced its contortions and they both enjoyed a good preen.

A communal field on the edge of the village contained examples of agricultural machinery and artifacts of a bygone age;

a shepherd’s hut;

and the parked up Burley Wagon Rides conveyance with a nearby pitched tent.

Trees, one with nibbled lower branches, one dead

We had been told that a herd of red deer could often be seen on the far side of the field. Like the witches, the deer had flown, but the evidence of their presence was shown by the pruned lower branches of the trees they had pruned.

A bonfire, surprisingly swarming with wasps, was being prepared for the next celebration event, namely fireworks night on the 5th of November, commemorating the failure of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Foiled by betrayal, this was a Catholic attempt to blow up the House of Lords and kill King James I. Instead, Guido (Guy) Fawkes was hung, drawn, and quartered. (See LordBeariofBow’s comment below). This involves taking down a hanged victim before death, cutting out living vital organs and quartering the body. It was a common punishment for treachery in those days.

Beyond the field could be seen Burley Manor Hotel. The original manor house dated from the twelfth century. In 1852 the building was demolished to make way for this Victorian replacement which has been an hotel since 1935.

Dew continued to bejewel grass and fallen leaves when we left to return home.

Charles Lane, Bagnum is just one of the sun-streaked roads that rushes towards us as we travel through the forest.

It wasn’t until, watching the 1 p.m. BBC News, I looked beyond Hugh Pym, that I realised the destination of at least one of the Burley witches.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s lovely liver and bacon casserole which was far more tender and tasty than that I had eaten yesterday at Otter Nurseries. It came with new potatoes and perfect Brussels sprouts and runner beans. Lemon and lime merangue pie was to follow. I finished the madiran.

The Trail Picked Up Again

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Today was one for Jackie to water her babies, and for me to dead-head the Rose Garden.

We have many dahlias enhancing various beds;

and rudbeckia, canna lilies, Japanese anemones, and buddleia blending in the Palm Bed.

This afternoon we hit the Hordle Scarecrow Trail once more.

Entry No. 1, at 9, Longfield Road, is a commendable Junior effort. ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is embellished by the Cheshire Cat in the window.

A number of Individual competitors have chosen to portray ‘Rapunzel’. No. 2 at 33 Longfield Field road has set the heroine in her castle prison, with her hair trailing along the shrubbery;

at 8, Myrtle Close, entry number 10, she resembles a lengthy caterpillar snaking along the top of the fence;

No.7, at Rose Cottage, Woodcock Lane is an imaginative junior entry. The castle has been incorporated, and the eponymous character hangs out of the window.

‘Three Little Pigs’, No.4, at 152 Everton Road tells the story to which I referred in ‘The Uses of Enchantment’.

There are two ‘Pinocchio’s. 3, White Barn Crescent houses entry number 5;

no.6 at 3, Mallard Close, also features Jiminy Cricket. This excellent piece of work was an Anglo-Canadian collaboration, in that the creator’s Canadian grandchildren had a big hand in the operation. Making Pinocchio a puppet on strings is a splendid touch.

‘The Wizard of Oz’ at 62, Everton Road, entry number nine, is interactive. Not content with three-dimensional references to L. Frank Baum’s story, Robert Gill has provided a witch on the gatepost. If you dare to press the button you will get a scare.

You could easily miss parts of entry number 8 at Beehive Cottage, 86B Everton Road. Firstly, why ‘Crow White’? Surely she is ‘Snow White’? Not if she’s a scarecrow, she isn’t.

Then, she bemoans lack of help with the housework.

If you look up to the bedroom window you will see the wicked stepmother reflected in her mirror;

but unless you investigate the Land Rover parked in front of the garage, you won’t see the ugly old woman into whom she was transformed, with the poisoned apple on the dashboard. It was useful to have my Driver’s extra pair of eyes to take in all this.

Looking decidedly out of her element was ‘The Little Mermaid’, the Hordle W.I. entry number 12.

This evening we dined on roast beef, new potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, and green beans, with scrumptious gravy. I finished the Fleurie, and Jackie drank Hoegaarden.

Tourist Time

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On a much brighter morning, Jackie and I transported two more large bags of garden refuse to the recycling centre. This time we returned with yet another garden bench. All we have to do now is find a space for it.

We then drove around the forest, parking at Burley where we both wandered around among the crowds of tourists, most of whom were foreigners who spoke good enough English to make us feel honoured.

When I published Witchcraft on 22nd June 2013, I gave the history of this New Forest village’s spurious historic association with the practice which draws visitors by the car and coach load. The two young men in the first picture, obscure the witches in the window as they make a beeline for the shop doorway.

The narrow alley beside the shop leads to the public car park. It is always filled with people, many wearing colourful backpacks, at this time of year.

Ice cream cones and mobile phones are very much in evidence. The children in the bottom right of these last two pictures are trying out the produce of Face the Music;

this young lady was soon going to have to choose between phone and cornet.

This woman,

and this little girl had clearly made their choices.

Forest Leisure Cycling drew quite a bit of custom;

and for those who preferred more leisurely transport, there were Wagon Rides. After checking out the form and the cost,

this little family took their seats.

When the horses had been adequately watered they were ready to step it out.

There was an opportunity for children to pose as witches by sticking their heads through holes in a suitably painted board. After the eldest of this flaxen haired trio had arranged her siblings to her satisfaction, she joined in the fun. The girls knew they were meant to be malevolent; their brother preferred the angelic look.

After I had taken the first shot of a sextet of girls on a stump, I pointed out that some of them had their back to me.

They consequently obliged by posing beautifully.

Having shown them the pictures, I wandered off. Soon one of my models ran after me and asked if she could copy this last image into her iPhone. Thinking this would require some technique that was beyond me I asked her if she knew how to do it. She did indeed. She photographed my photograph from the image on my screen.

This evening we dined on second helpings of Hordle Chinese Take Away food with treacle tart and ice cream to follow. Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank Reserve des Tuguets 2012.