Pferdeschorschi

By schorschi

Egg Hunting

Correction - almost every single word below is wrong. After posting this, 15 seconds later a message came through from daughter Kate that the location was wrong and was taken in my father and stepmother's garden in Middleton-One-Row in Co Durham, several hundred miles away!

She is absolutely right and I should have known better. The barbed wire had disturbed me from the word go as had the poor state of the grouting and the shrubs planted along the wall. What should though have given the ultimate clue was the height of the wall. Ours was at least 6 feet probably 8 feet. I had also been a bit disturbed about the exact angle of the trees but not that different. I have decided to leave the original text for now. Perhaps I will find an appropriate photo and can then correct it. I don't fancy dreaming up all the text again sometime later!
The date, however, is correct, I think! Even determining that had been a task. It couldn't have been 1985 as Jonathan would have been just one.
Thanks, Kate, good to have someone looking after my Alzheimer progress.
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Easter Sunday searching in the wild walled part of the garden which was later to be the home of Kate’s first white pet rabbit. Sometime later and I can’t exactly remember why the rabbit was "set free" in the New Forest. I have a nasty suspicion that it was unwell, nobody could bring themselves to do “the” deed and with the images of Watership Down and Bright Eyes by Art Garfunkel still fresh in our minds, we hoped that by running free, the rabbit would be cured. And remember the film was largely shot on location in Hampshire where the New Forest is located!


Saw the film in Guildford with brother in law and Bliper purbeckdavid49  and our children. He lives quite close to the New Forest but hasn't reported seeing our rabbit (probably named Snowy) or her offspring.



I bet that if Kate & I were still living there, we would have loads of chickens running around in here and/or the odd lamb and/or the odd piggy.

 
Reviewing and posting this photo in March 2018, it occurred to me that the large trees in the background must have been felled that year or 1997. The had fallen victim to Dutch Elm disease which is only connected to the Dutch in that they identified the fungus in 1921 that had come from Asia around 1910 and had been intermittently causing the trees to die. A particularly virulent form arrived in the late 60s and early 70’s and wiped out much of Europe’s elms especially in France and the UK which alone lost some 25 million.
 
 The elm features prominently in the 19th century John Constable painting of Salisbury Cathedral. Today the Russians expelled exactly the same number of British diplomats as Mrs May had done a few days ago of Russian diplomats from the UK.
 
The Tate gallery has a description of the painting which includes the following words. It would be nice to think there is some hope this matter can be solved sensibly:
“and the centre foreground is occupied by a black and white sheepdog whose intent gaze is turned inwards towards the cathedral as if to direct the viewer towards the building or the storm that sweeps over it. The spire pierces a sky full of billowing clouds; a dark rain cloud hangs directly above and a streak of lightning flashes over the roof; but a magnificent rainbow arches over all, promising that the storm will pass.”

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