Christmas Roundup

Early December took us to the first of our Christmas festivities. We went to lunch with our Portsmouth friends.

I won’t list everyone since you know who you are.

 

We’ve had some very interesting weather this December as has the rest of the UK. Here is a photo from one of the better days.

Ponies on Rockford Common

 

Peter and Sue -  chez nous

Sorry about the yellowy photo, but that’s what the ‘candlelight’ setting does for it. Not too good. the subjects make up for it!

Then the snow came for a second time. View from the bedroom window before the rush hour began. I went back to bed.

Out walking with ski sticks (walking poles) I thought I would never use them (Glyn - remember Lidl in France). They have had plenty of use recently.

Geocaching is very difficult with loads of snow on the ground, but we managed to do this one. We went to the pub (High Corner Inn) afterwards for a hot chocolate.

Snowy logs – just in case you hadn’t guessed

Ringwood in the snow

 Sue all togged up for the snow.

 We were very kindly invited to Jane and Ron’s for Christmas and Boxing Day lunches. We were very well fed with scrumptious food and I drank some very nice wines. We stayed overnight so that I didn’t have to drive back on Christmas Day. Thanks for a great time.

Jane and Ron

 

 Sue and I wish you all a

Happy New Year

This is the end of this year’s blog. Next year’s can be found at this address

http://thebuchans2011.blogspot.com/

Ringwood Roundup

We had a really nice few days in later November so we decided to go out for a walk that also finished off a geocaching circuit we started in the summer. Here is Sue half way around – she is standing next to The Gallops at Whitsbury. This is where they train some very expensive racehorses. We had a picnic nearby and saw 3 deer in close-up.

 

I’ve led a couple of rambles recently – here is the group on the Maurice Barker bridge in the middle of the New Forest. Look for that special hat!

I recently bought a new camera, Lumix TZ10, for our trip to South Africa in the New Year. I decided that my other camera was too heavy and so needed one which is lightweight, but versatile.

On a sunny afternoon we went into Ringwood to take some test photos. Here are the results.

Coxstone Lane

 

Old Cottage Restaurant, West Street

This was taken at 25mm wide angle - below

Church of St. Peter and St. Paul

and this taken from the same position with the camera set to 300mm telephoto – pretty good I thought.

I had said to Sue that there was a surprise for her on the trip. I had to employ some delaying tactics so that we arrived at the new CHOCOLATE SHOP as it opened. Who’s reflection is in the window?

Guess who was there first customer – we enjoyed the chocolates in the evening.

Lyn and David came for a meal so this was an opportunity to test the indoor capabilities of the camera. This was taken without the flash – I couldn’t work out how to turn it on – I can now.

 

 

At the time of writing we haven’t been out in the car for 3 days. We have had the largest amount of snowfall here in Ringwood for 10 years.

The neighbours engaged in mortal combat in the close.

Thomas trying to land or take off. He’s been reading too much Harry Potter!

Sunday - the snow has gone and despite the grotty weather forecast we had blue skies and sunshine. We went off to Mudeford for a walk and a drink at the cafe. Here is Sue amongst the lobster pots, some of them from Peterhead (PD) in Scotland.

Small motor boat struggling against the out going flow of water from Christchurch Harbour.

That’s it for the time being – just hope the snow doesn’t come back.