another early morning walk, and two more roe deer sightings; one with pictures this time.
yesterday we followed a deer hidden, but evident, all the way along the woodshore. it would scurry a bit further off, then wait until our presence was too much to bear. finally I could see it standing very still with its back to me from the same place amongst the tree trunks as before, until it trotted off again into a safer, deeper part of the wood. I tried the camera, and got nothing but trees. this morning the wood was vacant, so we went in to see if there were fraying posts or hoofprints, dogs firmly under control.

looking out, you can see it would be as difficult to see a human in a grey jacket standing still outside the wood as it is to see the deer inside.

there are still violets dotted all over the floor

and ground ivy, just a slightly darker shade of purple.

spring continues, and the beautiful big beech in the wood is just about in leaf now

bracken fronds are unfurling

and this morning we found a roe out in the open

here is a closer version chopped out of the first photo. there was not a lot of light as far as the camera was concerned, and I had to change lightness and contrast quite a bit.

of course, what with me holding the camera up to try to get a better picture, she was soon off down the hedge, and there was no trace of her round the curve of the green lane. I put Tilda on the lead just in case, I was lucky she hadn’t spotted the deer at all.

wonderful thrush singing near Glebe Farm this morning. I miss hearing one in my garden, the sparrow hawk may have got him earlier in the year.

a glaze firing to open up this morning, with all those glaze tests. at first sight they do not look at all what I wanted.

more later.