Dear Deer

I walked around Seventy Acres Lake and beyond today. It feels good to be getting back into walking. :)

It is so beautifully green everywhere after all the rain we have had. The comfrey beside the paths has a new lease of life and is coming into flower again. 

As I crossed the canal at Cheshunt Lock I came face to face with this muntjac deer. It didn't know what to do, trotting first to the left and then to the right and finally high tailing it away from me, spooking a crow in the process. Muntjacs are the oldest known deer, thought to have begun appearing 15–35 million years ago.

I walked out into the lake on a series of boardwalks which link little islands. I could hear a young great crested grebe piping. I got a shot of it trying to swallow what I thought was a fish. When I looked on screen it turned out to be a fearsome-looking crayfish. Probably one of those dreaded signals. They have a white to pale blue-green patch near the claw hinge like the white flags that signalmen used for directing trains—hence the name.