Sunday 8 June 2008

A Place to Relax

Everyone needs somewhere to do their own thing undisturbed. To roll on the ground, to splash in cold water and scratch and rub those itchy parts that you can't ignore. Blacka's red deer like this spot beside a stream which at that point has just slowed down enough to have a bit more depth. The ground has been rolled over so much that the surface has become a bed of dead crumbly bracken. All round is evidence of rubbing against the trees to scrape off the velvet layer on the new antlers.




Not so long ago someone anonymously wrote a very odd and mixed up letter to the Sheffield Telegraph complaining about those of us who opposed SWT's daft cattle grazing plan. In the letter he said that he could no longer come to a place on Blacka where he had once brought a small baby to sit beside a stream. He implied that SWT's cattle would clear away the bracken and other vegetation from this sort of place. Of course they wouldn't but if they did come here they would leave a dreadful mess and a lot of unwelcome excrement. The deer have cleared this space and have left no droppings here.


It has always been my contention that natural solutions to natural situations often occcur. The deer have come and done just that.

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