It was just about warm enough on a not very bright morning for us to visit Mum in the
beautifully designed, planted, and well maintained, garden at Woodpeckers this morning.
While waiting for my mother to be wheeled out I enjoyed a conversation with the gardener who works on this plot with the help of a group of volunteers.
Our visit lasted an hour with much more to talk about than is possible inside and through a screen. There was no difficulty with hearing each other and we could listen to and discuss chirping smaller birds and chattering jackdaws while watching a pair of robins darting backwards and forwards with beaks full of wriggling things.
This was Mum responding to the story about my fall in the flower bed. She was delighted to know that her photograph would be going round the world..
Afterwards we drove to Helen and Bill’s at Fordingbridge, briefly to deliver Jackie’s sister’s sunglasses and sunflowers she had left at our house a couple of days ago.
At Hale, while its mother picked daisies, a foal stirred itself to roll over and attempt to rise at the sight of my camera, then, deciding it couldn’t be bothered and flopped back into its ditch-bed.
The spreading limbs of an ancient oak framed the cropped landscapes of the green.
Along with a couple of other groups we picnicked overlooking the moorland below Abbotswell.
Beside the well-stocked woodland verge of a North Gorley lane
sprawled the gnarled arms of a broadly smiling Green Man.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s flavoursome savoury rice as a base for succulent roast chicken thighs, and prawns, both hot a spicy and salt and pepper preparations, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Shiraz..