Early doors

It was early doors for Geoff and I this morning and, man, was the fresh forest lovely; all rich colour and wonderful light. With his dense coat Geoff doesn't favour this hot weather, so we were up at 0400, and by 0520 were already under the canopy as the sun rose and flooded the stands. Deer featured prominently on our walk, they appear to be omnipresent, with groups and individuals everywhere; I mean everywhere. In fact even before our walk, two stags had emerged from the high roadside bracken directly in front of us requiring me to test the brakes, and test my sphincter; luckily both passed.  The early forest was ours for the majority of our walk, which is always nice; the popularity the forest endured during the early period of covid appears to have abated (touch wood); although I still have issues and concerns around the over promotion, and consequent commodification, of the forest...although that's another ramble. After a 10.5 mile walk taking in the wonders of the summer forest we were back at the car before 0900, with the day still ours. Well worth getting up early for.