When in the New Forest one of the places I love to visit is Hatchet Pond, this is due to its wildlife and the many ponies that go there for water.  And because the car park is literally a few steps away and there are benches to sit on.   Anyway, on the Saturday of our weekend away, we drove to the New Forest.  And for the first time, in all the times, I visited, there were no ponies at the pond.  In fact, they were just over the road grazing on the grass.  However, I couldn’t believe how boggy the grass was.

They sure as hell must have had bucket loads of rain..  No way was I going to try and take a gentle stroll on that terrain. Instead, I sent him packing on a route march, to photograph nesting swans over on the far side of the pond, whilst I sat on a bench photographing the wildlife.

Unfortunately, it was way too boggy for him to get to the nesting swans.. However I did manage to photograph some ponies, because as we were leaving Hatchet Pond Car Park some ponies strolled to spot just over the road.

Entered into Lens-Artists Photo Challenge#33 – Nature