Saturday 22 August 2009

More New Forest Days

A Forest mare and foal. The collar she is wearing is a reflective one so she will show up if she is crossing the road after dark.


I've not finished writing about my holiday yet, though it seems just a memory now. My forum friend "Yarrow", who has just been to stay with me here, also drove down to meet up when we were in the Forest. She brought her two children with her, and as they had never been to the Forest before, I knew they were in for a special day. First off, we had a lovely wander around Burley and all its "witchy" shops. There were donkeys in the car park, and ponies which were happy to be petted as well.


Then we drove across the Forest to Lyndhurst, the "capital" of the Forest. We used to catch an early bus to go riding here (from the pub below) and get off at Ashurst and walk across the Forest, which was magical so early in the day. There was a beautiful windy stream which we called Snake River . . .



This is a pub in Lyndhurst which in the 1960s had a riding stables running from it. The ponies were kept in the old stabling at the back of the pub, and we mounted up in the old stable yard and then - stopping the traffic - rode out down the High Street in Lyndhurst to reach Bolton's Bench and an hourly ride that side of the town, or else we would take the road straight across from the stables and ride around the edge of the Golf Course and into the Enclosures. The memories are still crystal clear to me. In the churchyard near Bolton's Bench is buried the lady who, as a child, was the model for Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland.

Had we gone straight across, we would have passed this shop, which has a wonderful window display and now sells beautiful scented gifts.

Memories of bygone days.

Then we stopped on the way back to Burley and had a walk. It made a change to explore a totally different part of the Forest.

This shallow lake turns out to be a boating lake, but only dog-walkers were about when we passed it.


A very bad picture of me (on the left) and Yarrow, who has a wonderful blog here. We get on so well - it is as if we have known each other from a previous life. I am so grateful to the Internet, forums and blogging, as I have made lifelong friends. Even the lovely Ann of the Forest, who we house-sat for, is a forum buddy of mine!




I will try and write about the Downton Lace tomorrow, but in the meantime, a piece of yesterday's home-made ratatouille-topped pizza beckons . . .

4 comments:

  1. It's great to read your posts, as the pictures are similar to mine, but your thoughts are of course different. Although, not greatly different, and we're even wearing similar coats!!!

    Thank you again for a lovely week :)

    Kim x

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  2. I always go to Lyndhurst whenever I go back to the Forest. It is a very special place to me - happy memories of bygone days, as a grown up as well as when a child. I once took my ex-husband's gran down to see her sister in Dorset (last time they met up I believe, before they both died) and we stopped in a lovely little pub in Lyndhurst for a drink on the way back. She was so pleased to have gone back to her Dorset home one last time.

    There was - for decades - a fabulous butchers there, dealing in venison from the Forest, and staying open well into the evenings to get the tourist trade for pies and stuff too, but sadly that stopped trading about 5 or 6 years ago and it's now something else (might even have been the shop/cafe we got our lunch in, come to think of it).

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  3. Hi - thanks for visiting us in the Fens!

    Lovely blog you have here too, and I shall be visiting you again, I think.

    I have fond memories of caravan holidays in the New Forest as a child - it is a magical place.

    Morgan
    x

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  4. Hi Morgan. Hope you will visit again. The Forest is a magical place - especially under snowfall. Then it really becomes a wonderland.

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