New Forest

This is one of my favourite spots in the Forest - a pool of water surrounded by a clump of mainly birch trees with clumps of bog myrtle - all looking their best in September / October sunshine.  Crush some leaves in your hand for the scent of this spot.  If you want to find it yourself, it is easily reached on foot from Beaulieu Road Station (assuming you can find a train that stops there - try a summer Sunday).  Carry on following the route of the railway (passing the boggy bit) for a quiet walk where you may spot deer in the clearings.

I often stop here on my bike rides through the forest. Just outside the village there is an area of grass between the walls of the stately home and a tidal section of the river Beaulieu.  A busy road (which I've omitted) cuts through, but otherwise its a quiet spot with donkeys grazing.  Not quiet enough? then you need to seek out the little side road past Exbury gardens, fight your way along the overgrown path and find yourself on the river, opposite Bucklers Hard. I'll leave that for you to find.

Each Autumn, pigs are let out into the Forest to eat up the acorns, so the ponies don't fall sick consuming them. These two little paintings come from the 2023 season, when I found a sow and her piglets near Furzley, and then later found these three asleep in the crook of a fallen oak.

This view of a patch of forest in the Autumn is typical of the week when the leave turn and fall.  This is usually around the first week of November.  This spot is somewhere in woods to the North of Ober Water.  I don't have a precise location, but head uphill form the middle bridge, crossing the track, and its somewhere in the woods beyond.

This view came from a winter walk North from Brockenhurst.  I came to a small clearing filled with frost, and with the sun behind the tree captured this misty view.  Turning it to a painting was a challenge requiring the layering of different light effects.  To find the spot, follow the path leading to Lyndhurst, but turn off (North-ish) down a quiet little path after crossing Ober Water.

Although not within the bounds of the New Forest, Town Common, just North of Christchurch has the same terrain, and a nice walk along a sandstone ridge that few other than the locals know about. This view from the ridge comes from a winter's day with the low sun straddling the heath.  In the Summer there can be a refreshing breeze blowing up through the ridge.

Also outside the bounds of the Forest, although all but surrounded by it, is the town of Lymington.  Its big draw is the quay side and the little cobbled street running down to it.  But here I've found interest in a little kiosk offering boat trips.  I can just imagine the pirate cruise, full of children waving plastic swords bought from the tub.

Walk either way from the quay and you find interest. The cobbled street that leads from the chandlers goes past shops selling buckets and nets and of course New Forest ice Cream - rumoured (only by me) to be made by the ponies themselves! Grab a cone and lets wander up to the high street.