gryllosblog   Gryllo's (aka Ian Lewis') blog. All things to do with travel, wildlife especially birds, history, architecture and anything else that interests me.

The New Forest is at its prettiest in the late autumn.

Heavy rain has flooded large areas including this garden.

The pretty town of Beaulieu.

The tea room where we first met.

The house in Hythe where Margaret lived when I first met her.

Each morning Margaret used to catch the little train to the end of Hythe pier and take the ferry to work in Southampton.

The Hythe railway is the oldest working railway in the UK.

Back in the New Forest we drove to the historic ship building village of Buckler’s Hard.

The Beaulieu River at Buckler’s Hard. From 1580 onwards wooden ships were built by and launched on this river.

The historic cottages are lived in to this day. Volunteer guides dress in traditional costume.

The museum has reconstructions of what life was like in those days …….

… and a model of the village in its ship building heyday.

We finally stopped off at Blackwater arboretum where the nearby stream was in flood.

Blackwater is a well-known winter roost site for Hawfinches, but we only found one in the fading light.