Deer Summer, please visit again soon...

As the summer fades to a fond memory, I make sure I find time to embrace any remaining sunny days.
The sand quarries on the hills are a favourite haunt. Small lakes, pioneering rough scrub, and Gorsy slopes, are framed by mature woodland in a sea of green fields dotted with church topped villages.

Of course my romantic eye chooses to ignore the semi industrial elements, but not the signs warning me of impending doom. The silt pools ARE dangerous, and you really have to watch what you're doing. There's something a little concerning about a 6 foot sign warning you of quicksand that has sunk up to its neck.

It's these pools and the new growth on the silt that brings the deer to graze. I often see Muntjac, but there is also a herd of Fallow deer. I'm impressed how such a large animal in good number remain unseen throughout the day. I can spend hours following the tracks trough the woods and across the sands, it's fun to see what they've been up to.

This is the wallow hole that they visit almost daily. In its base is the perfect imprint of a large deer that has been lying on its side. The forest floor when disturbed sends up clouds of mosquitoes, and a coating of mud helps prevent bites. I was tempted to try it, but instead opted for higher mozzy free ground...

Up on the hill I settled for a while to watch over the surrounding land, hoping to spot some wildlife. The Buzzard screeching a warning overhead, combined with my lack of patience, meant I had no luck.

I knew the deer were out there somewhere in the mist comforted trees. Maybe it wasn't a lack of patience but more my rumbling tummy that sent me on my way.

Down in the mature woodland I managed to forage some Sweet Chestnuts while I was waiting for the water to boil for my coffee.

A quick simmer and they hit the spot for a yummy snack.

Hedgerow Hazelnuts provided some perambulant picnicking...

... as I headed homeward through the picture postcard scenery.

Summer's on it's way....

It's the shortest day of the year here in the northern hemisphere. My ever faithful GPS informs me sunrise was at 8.15am....well you don't think I was going to get up to see for myself did you? Horrible time of day morning, all cold and full of grumpy people.

Sunset is at 3.53 pm. That's a mere 7 hours and 38 minutes of daylight!

Of course it's so overcast and foggy here that the daylight is further curtailed. Realistically it doesn't get properly light until after 9.30 (so I've been told), and nightfall creeps in from as early as 3.20pm.

The blazing sunshine sometimes doesn't warm things up at all!

The decrease in natural light has a marked effect on our psychology. Melatonin increases disturbing our sleep patterns and serotonin is reduced causing lethargy, despondency and generally making us very bad tempered. Well, this the excuse I'm using for the behaviour of a certain cat....Max. He was sitting peacefully on the windowsill, so I bent down to say hello. Normally this would be greeted with a touch of noses and a purr, but today he decided to swipe me around the eye with razor sharp claws! With an angry cat now attached to my face, I grabbed his paw so he couldn't pull it free causing more damage and managed to carefully unhook it from my lower eyelid. We then had a scrap on the lawn which I made a point of winning. Later we made up over a saucer of milk (Max had one too). Winter is getting to us both.

Now I have a swollen eye that makes me look like a Rembrandt portrait.

By midday the sun was quite high, I assume (it was still obscured), and the temperature soared to nearly 1 degree.

It is traditional to light a fire to chase away the darkness. It is meant to be the largest log you can find as to last through the longest night. I was a bit short on massive logs so I instead celebrated, and marked the passing of 'Mr. Stick'.....Mr. Stick is made of stout pine and helps me explain things to those not willing to learn. He has been to hand when I had that run in with car thieves (See previous post 'Men in Black' gone bad...5th April) After years of faithful service in the role of home defence, Mr. Stick met an untimely end after a bizarre fly swatting accident!

Thank you Mr. Stick, you'll be sorely missed.

Nightfall was premature in the town tonight, but better longer lighter days are a coming, here's a boot up the arse of winter!.......

A cunning plan.....

It wasn't much of a summer. We had a warm blip in spring, then it rained for months, then, summer...2 whole days! Wad yer mean you missed it?!
All this topsy turvy global warming malarkey seems to have got Mother Nature a little confused. The Ceanothus is in flower again. It's meant to flower in spring, and it did, and then again in summer and then again now!

The Magnolia tree, one of the first signs of spring but it's flowering for the second time.

Not only this but the bulbs are coming up, what's going on?

Of course there are some signs of autumn, the leaves are falling, the squirrels are gathering nuts....

...but also I've seen some birds beginning nests.

Personally I'm not looking forward to the cold, dark damp days of winter. Mother Nature is confused....I have a cunning plan!.....

If we can convince Mother Nature that winters been and gone, we can get our lost summer back. I've already started by placing this old diary, along with subtle hint in a prominent place in the garden. This will plant the seed of doubt in Mother Natures mind.

As I mentioned, some of the bulbs are already showing themselves. All they need is some help and encouragement. A short length of elastic tied around them and up over a branch should do the trick.

I've collected some of the not so bad leaves, all we need to do now is.....

....peg them back on. Come on all you summer lovers from the northern hemisphere, don't fail me now, we can still turn this thing around........

The Muntjac Quest...

The weather is warm, T-shirt weather in fact! Spring is definitely here. Time for a good walk to immerse oneself in nature. After a 2m drive & parking at Manorial Wood (recently fenced off after 30 years public access...those fences are just so flimsy, seem to get blown down by the wind almost every week!!!) I proceeded north to the woods at Moneymore, as it was known before the M6 Toll ripped through it! I stopped briefly to watch the Land Rovers etc go around the newly dug off road course. The tank is there to recover any stuck vehicles. "Can I help you?" the muddy man aggressively asked, he seemed to think I was there to complain. I was polite, (after all he did have a tank!). After a few words he realised that I was a fellow petrol head and went on his yomp jumping way.

On a familiar path I came across one of my favourite trees. Photos don't do it justice as its scale is lost. Sycamores, the much maligned British tree and often considered a nuisance or weed rarely gets the opportunity to do its stuff. When given the space and time they transform from that ungainly sapling with continually wet slimy bark to become a majestic tree, silver flaking trunk and a broad permanent girth. This one has a hollow that the sheep hide from the rain in.

I love this bit of countryside. It used to be "outwoods" (land beyond cultivation where you could freely forage & hunt), but during the "inclosures" of the 1800's many of these trees were planted as boundaries of the newly laid out fields. Left undisturbed this ivy growing on an Ash tree has reached epic proportions.

I came across the 'real' "My Little Pony". This one comes with horse blanky and interchangeable hooves!

Why do horses always follow me? They never seem to leave me alone. Perhaps that sandlewood soap I got for Christmas is really just saddle soap. This one followed me the length of its field (receiving several shocks off the electric fence) I had to give it a pat on the nose just as compensation.

The storms this winter have left loads of trees in this perilous state. I have to try hard not to go and give them a shove. My destructive nature often gets the better of me!

At last signs of Muntjac....no, this is deer but too big.

Badger tracks. I used to try and follow these, badgers leave really good pathways that look just like human paths, but after tracking them for a mile or so you enevitably end up in a tangle of undergrowth. I'm 6 foot plus, badgers 1 foot minus; how many times have I ended up in brambles on hands and knees determined to see it through!

It's most defineately spring! At last! I used to like winter when we had one. Snow and ice, something to skid your car around on. But now, nothing, it's gone a bit dark, Oooh..a frost how will we get to work? Global warming, if petrol was cheaper I would leave my engine running overnight!!

I keep finding these. Walking along, in happy world of your own, whats this? Looks like the back of a sign, I'll go and see what it says. Why am I always on the wrong side of them? I suppose it explains why my feet are so muddy and my legs so very tired!

This tree has rescued me so many times. The "quarry people" keep on pinching hills. A useful landmark like a hill just can't be relied on anymore! One week it's there, the next week it's a 200 foot hole filled with silt. How am I meant to find my way home? This Beech tree has such a distinctive shape and has survived the wrath of quarrying for nearly two hundred years. It is really up high and I can always get home from here.

It's really starting to green up in the countryside now, but the trees are still bald..roll on summer.

Still haven't spotted any Muntjac. Time for a cunning disguise! (my head isn't that pointy)
Strange... they can still see me!

That's it, ...COMPLETELY invisible!
This mask is really warm and comfortable, to the point where you forget you're wearing it. Only when you say "Morning" to the frightened dog walker do you realise you're mistake!

This where the Muntjac hang out. On the silt beds. They like the new growth that springs up from here as the water evaporates.

Of course there's none here today, but that's because I've brought a camera!
Best go home then......