A special 10-year old trip!

Claire's birthday present from us this year was a little trip away with me (mom.) We went to the New Forest, a 145 square mile forest in the southern part of England. It is a beautiful place, an ancient preserved forest (William the Conqueror's 'New' Forest) that used to be a popular hunting ground of Norman kings. (William II was fatally wounded here in a hunting accident in 1100.) As you can see, there are ponies in the forest; in fact, the forest is literally full of these 'wild' ponies. (Thus the draw for my 10 year old girl!) Claire took 39 pictures of these ponies, here are a few:







The one above is a picture outside our B&B's window. No-one who lives in the New Forest mows their lawn (or fertilizes either for that matter!) Actually all the ponies are owned by different people. They just roam freely throughout the park, and are gathered up semi-annually by 'adjusters' who check the health of the ponies and make sure they are marked (this is done by branding or by cutting the tail of the pony in a specific pattern.)


The ponies have 'right-of-way' everywhere. They roam freely wherever they please. These ponies were fast asleep in town in a pub parking lot.


Here is another pony trying to decide to cross the street. Or in this next case, some ponies just decide to eat leaves in the street:


One of Claire's favorite things was having this next pony make friends with her as we slowed down to take it's picture.

We had to shoo it away because it kept trying to eat her juice bottle (it was orange, she probably thought it was a carrot!)


One special treat was being able to take a ride in the forest, here we are getting ready:

Here is Claire on her horse, "Daisy"

Claire making friends with a black lab 'Pearl' where we stayed.


Another favorite past time in the forest is mushroom hunting. We were duly warned not to pick any mushrooms because many are deadly with no antidote. Another family who stayed at our B&B were very knowledgeable and showed us their day's 'catch.' Evidently this hobby can be quite lucrative, but both Claire and I decided we wouldn't try it, too risky!


We brought back a little treat for everyone! We had a wonderful time and we are also happy to be back together.

What a blessing to be with my girl~we had many good opportunities to talk and laugh and simply enjoy each other. I know that many will say that quality time is better than quantity time with your children-but this weekend I would say that quantity time produced some real quality conversations. We had the opportunity to have some wonderful spiritual conversations, some great discussions about girl things, and the chance just to enjoy each other without a schedule. I highly recommend this!