Country Diary II (getting to be like a 'real' diary this!)

[See 'Country Diary (or as near as you'll get from a townie)' first]

On Friday, two days after my encounter with the handbrake horse, I went walking up toward Cottingham again, mainly to see if I could get photographic evidence of those roe deer I told you all about, (I really wanted to prove that not all the wild life around Hull is the kind with ASBOs.)

I had even worse luck than on Wednesday to begin with, but at least the horse who was responsible for my muddy fate the other day trotted over to say "hello," (if she'd have done as much as a canter, I'd have legged it, just in case,) I'd like to think she was saying "sorry" too, though she was probably just investigating to see if I had any food about my person. At least she looked sorry.

I'd forgotten to bring any carrots or apples with me, to bribe the horses. I'd passed a sweet shop on the way, but I'm afraid I'm still not quite at the polo mint stage yet. With my lack of 'booty' I knew she wouldn't stay long, but I overcame my terror and stroked her head a little; I was able to take a quick snapshot of her before she galloped away, and even managed to dodge the mud from the kickback.

I realised I'd also forgotten to bring my glasses with me. I used to wear them all the time, but have had the need for bifocals or varifocals as I've got older. I broke my varifocals about a year ago, and could only afford to replace them with single vision jobbies, so I tend to leave my glasses off most of the time, unless I particularly want to see something at distance; consequently, I often forget to pick them up before I leave home.

This particular day of course, I particularly wanted to see something at distance, to wit: the elusive roe deer, but with my limited eye sight, I didn't stand much of a hope. There certainly weren't any stood in the middle of any of the fields this time, and there was no way I'd be able to pick them out amongst the distant trees with these eyes.

I chatted with an old chap out walking his dog, who said (the old chap, not the dog,) that he'd occasionally seen the deer in the fields on the opposite side of the road, so that meant that there was either more than one bevy (impressed eh? I've been swotting up on my collective nouns,) or that they sometimes crossed the main road. He also told me that there was a bridle path back the way I'd already come that led down the side of the fields toward the trees. I was surprised I hadn't spotted it, but decided to give it a try.

I found the bridle path. I set off to walk along it. It was long. It was muddy, and by the time I'd passed the trees at the back of the fields there was still no sign of the deer. Beyond the trees were more fields, as the path led on past farmland. After a while, squinting, I looked out over one of the fields, and thought I saw a few dark spots poking out from behind the raised earthworks alongside a drainage ditch.

Using the zoom on my camera as makeshift binoculars (or more accurately, a makeshift telescope,) I confirmed that it was indeed, roe deer sitting in the distance, partially obscured so that not much more than their heads were visible.

I took a photograph anyway, though I knew that even at full zoom, there wouldn't be much detail, but I also knew that once I got home, I could enlarge it digitally and even possibly enhance it.

I walked a little further, trying to get a better view of the deer, and after a time, they started moving around a little and I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were a lot more of them present than I'd previously thought. It looks like my local roe deer are surviving the winter well. Here's to seeing a lot more of them when the warmer weather arrives, though they're so elusive I think I'll need someone to lend me a really good telephoto lens.