ENCHANTED WALK

My favourite short walk exceeded expectations this afternoon. As I walked along the path, surrounded by a cloud of dragonflies, I saw this hare basking in the late sun. It let me walk very slowly towards it, even though I was upwind and it could see me, until I was only about 15 or 20 yards away. While I was approaching it a young deer came out onto the path but wasn't nearly so obliging and vanished as soon as it saw me, but without spooking the hare. After the hare ran off down the path, I saw a flock of wigeons which have come back for the winter being started up by a marsh harrier, and some curlews and geese looking askance at a heron in their midst. I was extremely glad I'd stirred myself out of this morning's torpor and gone for some fresh air.