‘Back to work’ a three word phrase perhaps as dispiriting as ‘replacement bus service’? (see the comments a couple of posts back!). But all good things, including long summer teaching holidays, have to come to an end I suppose.
To add insult to injury, the weather in the first week of September usually takes a turn for the better after the damp squib which has been August. Certainly our first Monday at least was lovely. Starting how I meant to go on, I got out that evening for an ascent of Arnside Knott. The following evening I was out on my bike, after that my resolve seems to have crumbled – or probably the weather returned to our new norm of rain, rain and more rain.
During a recent visit to ours, The Sherpa and The Prof were speculating on how many times I’ve climbed the Knot. To be honest, I don’t have a clue, but I think that they estimated, I don’t know how, a figure of around a thousand times. That might be a fair guess. This particular ascent stands out from the many not just because of the lovely evening light, but because of this pair of Roe Deer which stared at me for a while, but then went back to browsing the woodland floor seemingly quite unconcerned even when another walker passed and threw us all a cheery greeting.
My guess is that this pair are siblings, although I couldn’t tell you why I think that. I’ve noticed that the deer are occasionally more brazen in our garden these days too, particularly when we are in the house when they seem to have no qualms approaching quite close.
Addendum: I’ve found some more photos, which I took on my camera and hadn’t downloaded, and this is in fact three deer – a mother and her two fawns, so I wasn’t so far off with my siblings guess.
Here’s the mother:
Whilst I remember both sets of deer, I have no recollection at all of photographing this caterpillar. I hope that it was in our garden, I once found a very colourful Garden Tiger Moth in a spider’s web on one of our window ledges, but it would be nice to think that we have resident Ruby Moths too. One day I’ll get around to making or buying a moth trap and then I suppose I’ll find out.
Beating The Bounds 
Lovely sunset photos in this post, they seem like such a distance away at the moment and the wind howls outside, when will it change
I heard a piece on the radio, apparently the last 18 months have been the wettest in UK history since records began. Easy to believe! They interviewed the chairman of a football club who have 10 matches left to play in three weeks and are having to borrow pitches for their home games and the owner of a campsite which has to keep turning away customers because the site is so water-logged.
Worrying that a man from the North-West should think it is wet. I remember walking down the street in Preston in the 80s when the thought came to me that I couldn’t actually remember the last dry day . . .
I had the same thought during my first autumn in Manchester. But during the last 18 months or so, a day without rain, or a couple of decent consecutive days have become such a rarity. Apparently doctors are noticing a rise in cases of depression as a result!
Yes, big city, constant rain . . . I can feel my happiness decreasing as I type. 🙂
I know, I struggle in cities now, but I was most reluctant to leave Manchester and move up here. Crazy!
I dream of the rain-swept hills of my ancestral county, but I have to say that after forty years in the south and thirty in the suburbs, I’m not sure I could survive in the country. :-}
We adapt when we’re young, don’t we, but I think it gets harder as we get older.
That is certainly true. A weekend away with no maps, no plans and a sleeping bag on a floor used to be fine. Now I need a sat nav, an itinerary and a bed with en-suite facilities and access to cereal and yoghurt. Ah, sic transit gloria mundi, as we often used to say . . .
I have hundreds of photos of moths on my phone I have no idea where they came from!
A moth fancier is hijacking your phone? How odd!
Ha that would be something. But no, I took them
Stunning opening image!
Thanks! I was in that vicinity on Friday evening. The channels have completely changed, but I took some photos which I think are excellent – I may get around to posting them sometime in 2025!
Ha, Ha!
I’ll be waiting.
I’ll second that, stunning first photo. And I don’t think I’d ever tire of seeing deer in the garden
No, I never get bored of it.