The New Forest

We went to the New Forest yesterday. It was pretty close to perfect! From us, the Forest is about 2.5 hours away. For some people that may seem far, but for someone who does a lot of driving it doesn’t feel very far and it’s a pleasant trip.

Our weekend started on Friday with dinner round at friends. We had a great evening and decided to leave the car because J offered to pick us up the next morning to go and get it. So it was decided we would get a taxi home and the wine started flowing. They are lovely people and we seemed to talk about everything and anything – silly to serious. We had a wee hangover the next morning and were running late, unfortunately, J wasn’t, so we left him in the front room reading a book about hens as we raced around getting ready.

I put together an absolute feast: sandwiches, bananas and cake for lunch, salad with tuna and new potatoes for supper with strawberries for desert!

Before long we were on the road, with an excited dog and enough food for about six people! We hit nasty traffic problems in west London but eventually got down to the Forest around 1pm. The sun was shining and we pulled off and found a quiet part of the forest to lay down our blankets and laze about reading the Guardian and eating our lunch. Pluto was very happy and took himself off to explore, occasionally he would trot back and lick our faces unexpectedly just to say hi or he would sit sunbathing at our feet. Around 3.30pm we headed over to Burley for a gorgeous cream tea and a look round the shops. Despite Burley having only about 8 shops, my partner managed to buy a new cycle helmet and wallet and bizarrely I fell in love with a peg bag decorated with witches and bought that! (Burley is famous for its witches!). We then headed to another quiet part of the forest, where Pluto was chased by an over protective mare looking after her foal, I had a nap, my partner went for a walk and then we had the most gorgeous supper outside in the sun. We popped back to Burley, went to the pub for a drink before heading back home just after 8pm...

I am finding it increasingly difficult to leave beauty to return to chaos each time. I love the countryside, and I’m afraid London does not provide the succour it once did. But as long as I have my partner and my dog, it’s fair to say I have more happiness than most, and could live pretty much anywhere. Very soon we will be house hunting again so that hopefully we can live in our own little bit of paradise...

Off to see the fantastic Dulwich Ukulele Club this evening at the Brockwell Park Bandstand.

All in all, a great weekend I think you'll agree!