Quite a few of you have made comments to me about where I live and wondering about the lovely countryside and coast that is around me. So I thought I would share some photos that I have taken of all around where I live. I know its not really a crafty post but I hope you enjoy it anyway. I am fortunate enough to live in the New Forest area of England, which means I have the beautiful forest all around me and am within 20 mins of the south coast.
{make sure you keep going down as there is more writing and lots of photos}
I think quite a few of you noticed recently all the wonderful birdsong in the last couple videos and I guess being in a village with the forest and countryside all around makes a great environment for birds and other wildlife too. I frequently see foxes, particularly after they have had their litters as they seem to like to come into the front of our house and play. You can imagine what our Daisie Mae thinks of that!!!! I have also seen badgers. Actually the first time I saw one of those in our garden it scared the whatsits out of me because all I could see at 3am was this bush shaking. I had no idea that it was an animal cos it didn’t look right and then this, what I now know, badgers bum backed out of the bush, I was thinking the aliens had finally arrived cos it looked so strange, and the white bits where its head was moving side to side, kept appearing at the edges of its bum, but the white was kinda luminous in the moonlight. So all I could see was a bush shaking and strange round bumpy shape at the bottom that kept having this luminous light coming at the sides of it! No wonder I thought was an alien! I then jumped some more cos Daisie suddenly barked, but that did make the badger move and allowed me to realise it was a badger not the alien I thought – my  dreams of earning a fortune from the press dashed lol! I watched as it ran off in our garden and popped under the gate. In the morning Daisie spent a lot of time nose glued to the ground following the scent like a blood hound.
Anyway I live with my parents in a lovely bungalow in quite a large village that is actually just outside the official New Forest National Park. However the forest itself continues all around where I live and as I say although it is not the official new forest, it is essentially the same forest and whem you walk in it, without even realising you will cross the ‘boundary’ line. Â The New Forest is a former royal hunting area here in the south of England and was created in 1079 by William I (known as William the Conqueror) as a hunting area, principally of deer. My family tree shows that I am in fact a direct descendent of William the Conqueror so maybe I should go and claim my land. In all seriousness though my family history on my paternal side, shows a direct path to William himself and obviously as a result many English and French Kings and Queens along the way. So if it had been me instead of Kate Middleton to marry Prince William, they could not have said I was a commoner! I try to tell my mum thats why I don’t pick up after myself etc because its my blood to have people do that sort of thing for me, funnily enough that didn’t really cut any ice with her! can’t think why!?
Anyway back to the New Forest, according to the official New Forest website ‘It is a unique area of historical, ecological and agricultural significance, and retains many of the rural practices conceded by the Crown in historical times to local people. Principal of these is the pasturing of ponies, cattle, pigs and donkeys in the open Forest by local inhabitants known as commoners. The New Forest has also been an important source of timber for the Crown.’ I won’t go into more here now as if you would like to read more about the history and the practices that they still use to this day then just click the link.
I am also fortunate that where I live is very close to the South Coast which gives you miles and miles of beach and wonderful coastline, inc of course the world heritage site –  ‘Jurassic’ coast line. Again I won’t go into detail here and if you are interested in more info on that then just click the link there as well.
Now the photos I have added on here are all my own photos that either I or my Dad have taken. As I go along I will tell you any info about them that might be relevant but I will try to make sure its not like one of those dreadful ‘come and see our holiday snaps’ type moments lol! Just a point about photos on this site though, all photos on my site you can click on to make larger, but even then there is a little button in the top right corner to make it larger still. Its quite amazing on some of the colouring images to see the detail. But if you are happy with the first click bigger there is also a ‘play’ button at the bottom of that image to create a little slideshow of the pictures that are on that post so you can have the computer just go through them all for you. So its worth having a little look at that. So here are the photos, hope you enjoy and please feel free to ask me any questions in the comments or the message me page.  BTW on the message me page the box to write your message isn’t all that big, have tried to change that but every time there is an update it goes back. However in the bottom right corner of the message box you have a little ‘handle’ thing that you can drag the box down and therefore bigger, if that helps anybody who was struggling 🙂
Amanda, these are some wonderful pictures. It is amazing how you picture some place in your mind at how it might look then to see how different it is. I love the bull. I live in Arkansas and we have many different climates in this one state. In the south (near Louisiana) it is humid. But where I live in the Ozark Mountains. It is lush and beautiful. Thanks for sharing your corner of the world with us.
ahh thank you – I loved him too. We have some big heifers just around the corner in the forest right near us too but they are not quite as stunning to look at this fella. Although one did start to chase me and Daisie proved her corgi cattle herding heritage and was snapping at his heels so fast back and forth between all the legs that he couldn’t keep up with where she was and it slowed him down. Scared the whatsits out of me though seeing her all around this enormous heffers legs, thought she would be killed! Sounds wonderful in the mountains, I love lush environments like that – you should post some photos on my FB page 🙂
Oh Amanda, what memories you stir in me! I have thoroughly enjoyed your wonderful pictures and stories. You certainly have the photographer’s eye! My Mum, and the rest of my family – when we lived in England – lived near the Sherwood forest! I remember very fondly taking walks in the woods and by the babbling brooks. As we lived in the Midlands, we were about as far away from the beaches as you could get – 90 minutes from Skegness – 😉 but we visited Cornwall several times for family vacations with my husband’s parents. We usually stayed in a caravan, but enjoyed it immensely! Where we live now in the US – the state is West Virginia – we are again about 5 hours direct drive to a beach, but we love to go to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina (10 hours straight drive). They have wonderful wildlife and the area is protected with limitations on buildings, and even signs and shops. Thank you again for sharing your surroundings with us, Amanda, what fun! Hugs Julie
ahh im glad it gave you some good memories, but i have to say i can’t imagine being that far from the sea. I think i would feel hemmed in if that makes sense. mind you the states is so massive it is prob hard to feel hemmed in anywhere isn’t it? And it certainly sounds wonderful all that you described 🙂
I understand what you mean, but the area we live in is quite green and, although in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, has quite a lot of open areas which are tree covered, but in the summer, a gorgeous green that fills my heart to brimming!
ahh sounds wonderful 🙂
Amanda, These pictures are just breathtaking… Thank you so much for showing us where you live. I always wanted to go for a vacation in the UK, and I hope that one day I will be able to do so. 🙂 Hugs from Dallas, Texas
Ahh thank you and glad you enjoyed them and hopefully one day you will get to fulfil you dream to visit the UK 🙂
Wonderful photos! Thank you very much. We live in the Pacific Northwest right on the shoreline. Piers, surf and beautiful sunsets. And there are cattle here, too!
ahh sounds wonderful 🙂
Hi Amanda
your pictures are fantastic. The scenery is so beautiful and old world looking that I love what it inspired in me. The bridge, water and trees are all so beautiful. I can see why you love living where you are as it’s so natural, green and so romantic. It reminds me of the fantasy movies I use to see when I was younger. UK certainly has it’s beautiful areas just like here in USA. The wildlife is so lovely to see and all the animals are wonderful to be near. They keep us grounded being around them. I love your dog Daisie too. She is so sporting with the ball in her mouth. We have things in common as I live about 2 blocks from the ocean and on our left we have a Eucalyptus forest and other trees. We take walks through the trees and always have to watch out for these huge widow makers. They are the big branches that come loose and when they fall can make a widow out of the wife it it falls on you. Thus they call them widow makers. The aroma is wonderful as it smells of Eucalyptus oil from the trees. Our coastline is similar to yours however we have cliffs and boulders in some areas. We can see at a distance the Fair-line Islands on a clear day. Much of the time we have fog or mists. I am delighted to see the aesthetic environment where you live. One can really breath in such an environment. No crowding of the body or spirit. Thank you so much for sharing this with all of us. It is beautiful, and I love hearing about your ties to the King. What a wonderful history you have. There is something about the air along the coast, it doesn’t have the pollution of the cities. The air is fresh and clean as the sea breeze is always there to blow it away. Thanks again Amanda..loved it…
pat
glad you liked seeing it pat, my favourite part of country is cornwall and the coastline is all little rocky coves that might open out to sandy beaches when the tide is out. There are quite a few where when the tide goes out you can walk from one cove to the next for miles along sandy beach, but you have to watch it cos if the tide comes in you can get caught. But that is my favourite place in the world is cornwall and i have been fortunate to travel a reasonable amount 🙂 I was fascinated to hear about your widow makers, what a wonderful, but slightly scary name lol! you should share some photos on my Facebook page of your area 🙂
Hi Amanda,
Lovely place you live in. Love the forest. I live in California and it is terribly dry now. The bridge over the river reminds me of Monet painting. The coast you have clear waters beautiful. Thanks for sharing the photos of where you live.