Antler Growth

I went out for a walk with a plan to cut back the vegetation around the entrance to one of the footpaths I use regularly.  It has now become so overgrown that it is almost impossible to work your way through the 8 foot high weeds and even if you do you'll en up stung by nettles.  It took about half an hour to cut everything back with secateurs.  I'd have like to use a scythe or machete, but research indicated that had I been stopped by the police, I may well have been charged with carrying an offensive weapon!  I imagine I would have been unlucky to be stopped; Police aren't that visible in the country lanes around here, but I wasn't taking the risk.

I then started what turned out to be a long telephone conversation with Stella2, who I have know for more than 30 years, including working together for a number of years.  The conversation started with a discussion about cameras, but then ranged through various subjects and it was a surprise to see we had been chatting for almost 2 hours when I got back home.

It didn't stop me taking photographs while we were chatting, including catching up with the red deer stags from 50 days ago.  The increase in the size of the antlers is impressive.  I saw 4 of them that have at least 16 points developing.  This might be something of a worry come rut time as there now seem to be quite a few who might vie for being the dominant stag in the herd.  I imagine most of them are related, father and male offspring.  The herd isn't that large, so there is likely to be quite a lot of inbreeding going on.

IN the end I had to back track for over a mile when I realised I'd dropped a top while walking along.  Still it was lovely that I was chatting to Stella all of that time and hardly noticed the extra miles I incurred.

Day Miles: 7.0 miles. Total Miles: 847.2 miles