IT`S NOT THAT FAR...

One of our New Forest visits reminded me - and I`m not quite sure why because the contrast could not have been greater - of one of the lyrics from the wonderful but sorely missed Kirsty McColl.   "From an uptown apartment to a knife on the A-train, it`s not that far.......from the sharks in the penthouse to the rats in the basement it`s not that far"....and so on.

And our visit to Boldrewood on a mid summer weekend afternoon was perhaps not the best time to go - car park full, all those people determined to get away from it all only to find themselves surrounded by all those people.   And on our way back to our probably illegally parked car, I spotted some rising smoke from the inevitable barbecue.  This photo I took gives a flavour of what a summer barbie in the New Forest might look like.......

But if you take the trouble to walk away from all that you can find an area set aside for deer watching. It`s not that far. The silence is deafening, the mayhem left behind and if you`re patient and lucky, as I was, you might just catch a glimpse of what the Forest is really all about.  Here`s a photo I took of that quiet moment.......

Oh yes - and on the subject of Kirsty McColl`s lyrical song writing, one of her most sad but hopefully predictive lyrics included the line, "Now it`s England 2 Colombia 0 and I know just how those Colombians feel......"    Another reminder of her remarkable genius?  We might find out tomorrow evening.