My Sunday Photo... One Shot!

When you read the title of my Sunday Photo... 'One Shot' you might think that I'm referring to my photography, but sadly in this case I'm not.

(Please if you can spare the time, read until the end of the post)

Yesterday, I was woken by an explosive gun shot and I immediately jumped out of bed. 

(This was quite a feat as it wasn't even 6am) 

It is incredibly light here at the moment with the summer solstice, so we can clearly see everything throughout the whole night. 

To my horror I saw two gunmen who had killed a deer.

They put on blue plastic gloves and gutted him there and then... slinging his limp dead body into the back of a truck!

They were quite a distance and my phone camera couldn't really capture this horror... which is probably for the best. 

As I watched through the binoculars a tear ran down my cheek.

This beautiful gentle beast was just minding his own business and then some mindless cretin decided to end his life. 

I'm sorry if I am going on here, but the day before I had taken so many photos of this buck and felt very privileged to have him visit.

To say this event spoilt my morning.
I felt sick and couldn't contemplate eating breakfast.

I can understand the need for culling where necessary, but there is absolutely no need here at the moment. The most deer I've ever seen together were four and that was only once.

As the truck drove away I snapped their photo, but once again it's blurred.

It was later in the morning that my son came to me whispering... "he's back"

I couldn't believe it... they hadn't killed this stag, but another deer. 

I'm still terribly sad for the loss, but thankful that this stunning buck escaped the gunmen (this time!)

At least it allowed me to celebrate my 39th Wedding Anniversary with a meal later in the day.

Thankfully venison wasn't on the menu!

I'm linking up with Photalife with My Sunday Photo as usual.

Chief Chook and a Sprout Loving Bambi... PPF

Happy New Year Everyone.

I hope all your wishes come true in 2018.

I didn't realise that I was going to have a blog break, but that appears to have happened.

So my apologies for not making any announcement before my disappearance.

I hope you'll forgive me.

As I type here this morning, I can't help but feel grateful that I can touch type. 

It is so dark, as the heavy clouds burst and send copious amounts of rain down upon us, but that doesn't stop my happy mood. 

Yes it's January and some say the most depressing time of year, but 

I thought I'd tell you about my enrolment into an online art course. 

It starts on Monday and is a Bootcamp with Lilla Rogers from Make Art That Sells

I thought as I'm nipping into the Paint Party Friday link today, fellow PPF's might be interested in hearing or reading all about it. Lilla is fantastic and such an inspiration... so friendly and encouraging too. There are live video links and discussions every week and assignments every Monday, plus access to a special Facebook meeting place for all fellow classmates.

I seriously lost my mojo last year and just couldn't find it... but Lilla has a way of making you think anything is possible.

So with that in mind here's my first piece of artwork for 2018.

I hope to improve and fly with my art as the year progresses.

Obviously, this first one had to include a chook (chicken).

Just a fun piece to hopefully give me a kick start!

Now that I'm back to blogging, I'd also like to share my sprout loving visitors.

I personally don't mind having them eat all the sprouts from our veg plot, as I've never eaten them nor do I intend to. But I do fear that our new seedlings and plants this coming spring might be on their menu!

But seriously how cute are these Roe Deer?

 The numbers have expanded this year from the odd one or two to five.

 Is that a guilty face or what???

So there's plenty for my first post of the year.

I hope to keep the momentum going.

Wish me luck!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you soon.

My Sunday Photo.... Guests Pop In

Autumn has well and truly arrived.

And so did an unexpected guest.

I walked into our garage only to find this little wren. 

He had nipped in whilst the garage door was open and had accidentally been shut in.

Also other visitors arrived... these two deer were having a tasty treat munching away in the afternoon sun.

I still have to stand and stare when I see such sights.
I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing nature up so close.

I'd often wondered how the deer would react if they came in contact with the resident fox.
Well, I actually got the answer because I witnessed a confrontation.
The deer charged towards the fox, chasing him off and soon had the field all to himself.
It was like watching our own personal wildlife programme.
Such a privilege.

As usual I'm linking up with My Sunday Photo over at Photalife.com
If you'd like to see lots more photos then follow the link above.

Have a great day and thanks for adding to my visitors this weekend.

I hope to see you again soon.

Summer Slips Away and Autumn Arrives

Summer has slipped quietly away and I for one will miss it, even though it wasn't a particularly good one for us up here in the North East of Scotland.

I'm hopeful that our Autumn will be spectacular... and so far it's not doing too badly. 

I thought I'd highlight just a snippet of what's happening around our place.

The fields of gold have been harvested with this beast!

It doesn't look particularly large on this photo but this was captured on my zoom lens... the machine is approx 250 metres away!

Trust me it's huge.

It must be a terrifying thing to see and hear if you're a little wee beast.

With all of the various changes with autumns arrival, our little elegant resident roe deer is in the process of changing his summer coat of reddish brown to grey.

I've done a little research and I believe he might be between two and three years old.

He appears regularly near our house and settles down to rest, which is a huge honour. 

He must feel safe.

I think it's pretty special having such a majestic neighbour.

 I'm not sure if I've mentioned in previous posts, but I've been trying to photograph one of the few wren's that frequent our garden. 

Yesterday I had a chance but oh my word he's a flighty little critter!

The photo below was taken from my kitchen window across to the decking steps... as you can see it was also raining, so not the best conditions for a photographic shoot.

But I'm happy that it's not just a blur.

The blackbirds are enjoying this time of year too with lots of goodies available.

This particular blackbird is enjoying the berry bonanza.

If I'm showing you some of our visitors, then how could I not include our new robin.

He's looking mighty handsome in his new red waistcoat and is still friendly.

Everyone knows I love to take photos of the busy bees and I'm including this one because who knows it might be the last visit of the year!

Oh how I'll miss them.

But there'll be lots of other wonderful sights to capture with the coming seasons.

I'll hopefully have my camera at the ready and be snapping away, so feel free to pop back anytime.

I'm linking up with My Sunday Photo over at Photalife.com

and Image-in-ing.blogspot.co.uk

Have a great weekend and thanks for popping over to my place.

Whatever the Weather

Name any kind of weather and I bet you I can confirm that we've experienced it here today.

We've had rain, sleet, snow, sunshine, thunder and lightening... all accompanied with an Arctic blast of freezing wind!

The sort of wind that my Mother used to call 'a lazy wind'

The kind of wind that doesn't go around you... it just goes straight through!

I remember December was so much warmer than this.

If at any time today I looked out of the window, it definitely looked like we were in the grip of winter. 

But along with this changeable weather, we've seen some spectacular sights... from the sun kissed snow capped mountains, with dramatic stormy cumulus clouds behind them adding to the drama, to the beautiful snowflakes drifting slowly down to earth making a white magical landscape. 

But my favourite sight of the day, was to see the local roe deer sparing. 

Not quite rutting, but perhaps practicing for tougher bouts ahead. 

I think it's possibly a yearling (or young male) testing his strength against an older buck. 

The younger deer has been taunting and baiting the elder all afternoon. 

There is a doe (female) involved, but she got bored with the proceedings and after finishing eating, she wandered off to possibly take a snooze in the thick yellow flowering gorse.

Meanwhile, the boys were tearing around the field and didn't even notice her departure. 

I did think at one stage that I really should go to set up my video camera... but then I thought I'd rather watch and enjoy them, than miss it whilst searching for the camera.

Yesterday, I witnessed the female chasing off a fox, who had obviously come into her personal space.

Later this afternoon, I was rewarded by the deer coming right up to our boundary to nibble on some new shoots.

Stunning isn't he? 

I'm getting so used to them walking nearby now, so much so that I'm thinking of names for them!

They have the habit of visiting up near the house at night time too, whilst we are sleeping. 

Well we are until they set off the intruder light! 

I hope your week is going well and that you have been able to appreciate nature too in some form or another.

Today, I thought I'd link up with Our World Tuesday and Wordless (on Tuesday at image-in-ing)

I hope you enjoyed your visit here today and will come back soon.

Hopefully, I'll have some springiness to share with you.