Home from Home

I guess that over the years I have been fortunate in travelling quite a bit and privileged to visit some pretty enchanting places.
But there’s nothing like coming home. Especially when the New Forest is on your doorstep and as they say, wild horses won’t be able to drag you away.
It’s a remarkable place where ponies, cattle, pigs, donkeys and deer roam freely. Oh yes and in open areas of heathland like this you need to be wary of snakes. Perhaps the adder is the most common to areas like this, but you might also find grass snakes and the rarer smooth snake, although I’ve been coming here for years, walked these heath and grasslands and have yet to encounter either.
We’ve seen deer in the garden and you can bet your life you don’t have to go far into the Forest to come across the regular animals happily grazing.
Paris, Rome, Berlin or Madrid are all enchanting places and capable of capturing your heart. I wouldn’t have missed the finer points of Tokyo or Seoul and Honolulu, Nassau or San Francisco on numerous visits overseas.
But there’s this 200-plus square miles of a special place which borders the Solent which holds the warmest place in my heart.