Reedbed Muntjac

My daughter and I had intended to spend the day playing cars but things didn't go to plan. She is a very good and sympathetic communicator and took a family member, who has has recently been diagnosed with a serious disease, for a coffee and a chat. I spent the morning trying to help MrQ with issues relating to his BT email account.

We got together at lunchtime and afterwards I made a quick visit to Fishers Green. This muntjac deer caught the last few rays of sunlight as it emerged from a reedbed. He's a pristine young male, unlike the one with torn ears that I photographed in our garden the other day. I was surprised to read that these animals can live up to nineteen years. Muntjacs are the oldest known deer, thought to have begun appearing 15–35 million years ago.


Today's poem is I Look Into My Glass by Thomas Hardy. http://www.bartleby.com/121/51.html


This reminds me of our French master at school. He believed in calling a mirror a glass or looking glass and abhorred rolled up sleeves. I avoid looking into my glass, as like TH, "I am conscious of the humiliating sorriness of my earthly tabernacle." However the point of the tabernacle was not its beauty but what it contained. :)