Trains and Horses

Sue, taken on Easter Sunday afternoon. It was sunny, but a little chilly. Recently the weather had been very wet and we had been negotiating many flooded paths. Needless to say we were geocaching and this was our last one of 5. The clue was ‘are you feeling tyred?’
 It was a short walk from the cache to Moors Valley Park and the miniature railway. Being such a nice day they had out many of the engines and business was brisk with trips around the lake.



At this stage there should be some photos of Maggie and Brian from Poole, who joined us for a lovely evening. Unfortunately the hard drive on the computer had to be replaced and some of the photos have gone with the old hard drive. I didn’t know anyone to do the repair so picked someone who had Checkatrade accreditation, they were excellent. If you want any type of work doing go to Checkatrade.com and read about the people first.
This last Sunday, 18th April, we went to a heavy horse event in Harbridge, near Ringwood. The blacksmiths making shoes for the horses, big horses need BIG shoes.
 
The Jane Wordsworth outfit.

Ploughing demonstration. It’s amazing what commands the horses manage to learn.

The return journey.

The steam boiler weighed about 5 tons.

Carriage racing – it looked rather dangerous around such a small course

Sue with one of the heavy horses.

I’ve been out in the New Forest checking out some walks recently. Having had biblical amounts of rain I have been rambling in wellies. With the lovely weather of late the forest is once again, very dry.
Here are a couple of photos from a walk I am leading on the 21st April.


Recently we were in the middle of the forest doing a geocache, which was placed in this yew tree. The tree was unusual because a square portion had been cut out for an oven door (see to my left). This tree had been like this for well over 30 years. Another couple arrived, also cachers, with their 5 month old dog which was a real bundle of fun. Control – what control! They call themselves Bella’s Pack. We had a long chat and walked back to the cars with them. They have done over 2500 caches.

I had my motorbike serviced this week and wanted to give it a good run out while the weather is good. I went to Calshot, about 30 miles, to see what ships were leaving Southampton and this huge container ship was just entering the Solent.
You can just see my bike with the now defunct coastguard tower in the background.

That’s it for a while now, we are off in the caravan on the 26th April for 2+ weeks so hopefully will have plenty to write about when we return.