Buckler’s Hard

It’s been a wet day. This morning I visited the Palais des Vaches, an art gallery taking part in Hampshire Open Studios. An interesting place that I may return to. Then later I travelled over to Buckler’s Hard where SiL and husband, and their two beagles, are staying. Coffees whilst the worst of the rain passed through, and then we walked to Beaulieu for lunch at the Montague Arms.

I returned to Buckler’s Hard early evening, as we had booked a meal at the hotel. The image was taken before I left for my accommodation, the clouds had cleared and it is a starry night. I am on the other side of the Beaulieu River, so travelled through the New Forest. Firstly a mare and her foal were standing across the road, I managed to edge past. And then a group of fallow deer, with fawns, travelled across in front of me. The Forest is a place to travel through slowly and with care.

Buckler’s Hard is interesting. Planned as a sugar port in the 1720’s, it flourished as a naval shipbuilding centre for 100 years. In the eighteenth century many warships were built here, including some which fought at Trafalgar. Difficult to imagine now when the place is so quiet and the six mile long River is crammed with yachts. A view of the village in extras.