My Hero had booked us a couple of days in the New Forest for my birthday.  We'd been curious about The Pig for a while and it seemed like a good opportunity to check it out.  Sadly, my birthday falls at half term (always has) and it was rather busy!

Our room was the Hen House, with appropriate views and curtain fabric.

It's a "shabby chic" sort of place and this proved a rare opportunity to take a photograph without too many people in it!  Normally, this room was full of people sprawled over sofas.

Rest assured that any cracks in the wall are intentional and mere tromp d'oeils.

Anyway, we had better things to do than sprawl on sofas, and headed into Lyndhurst, to the New Forest Centre to get our bearings and see what's what.

The New Forest Embroidery is here and as soon as I spotted it, I knew where we might head next.

Before we moved on, though, I wanted to take a closer look here.  I loved the scene with HM The Queen planting a tree to commemorate something or other!  Somehow, those few stitches have created a remarkable likeness, don't you think?

Into the Forest then and though it was a dank and dreary kind of day, the autumn colours brought the place to life and we enjoyed this characteristic landscape.

It was with my heart in my mouth that we crossed the A31 to get to it though.  Two lanes of fast moving traffic, coming downhill and no choice but to wait - and wait - for a gap, take a deep breath and go for it.  Aaaaagh!  Heaven knows how this manoeuvre is still permitted, because there must surely have been accidents there?   Our reward was to have the Rufus Stone to ourselves and we caught our breath, thanked whoever it was taking care of us this morning and vowed to take a different route back!

For the rest of the day, we mooched around the New Forest then, enjoying the Autumn colours and encounters with some of the locals.

When the car in front stopped to have a conversation with a couple of donkeys, we smiled and waited patiently.

The car moved on and so did the donkeys...

Sorry, nothing to eat here.

We'd better head back to The Pig and continue the birthday celebrations there.