Out of the Rut

Hallelujah! Finally finished those pesky accounts an hour before Chelsea vs Man Utd kicked off at Stamford Bridge.

I dashed out for a quick walk and blip explore in Tatton Park, after briefly considering just photographing the excavated gas mains currently dug up outside our house. It was that touch and go!

Tatton was very quiet which was to be expected given the drizzle. I ended up walking up the old Beech avenue that relates back to the 19th century Samuel Wyatt designed house and gardens layout, or perhaps even further back to the original Humphrey Repton 'Red Book' design of 1791.

I don't know about the healthiness of all the trees in Tatton, but it came to mind today, especially with all the Ash Dieback being in the news and Ash tree import bans starting tomorrow.

If I'm honest I would say, the programmed re-planting of trees should have started happening 60 or so years ago in Tatton, as it looks to me like there is going to be a real gap in years to come as the old trees naturally die-off. Saw one huge ancient Beech with its spring buds still on, but totally dead. That can't be right.

There was a sign outside the park gates saying "beware of Red Deer rutting" and a few big bucks were strutting their stuff. One in particular eye-balled me for a while, and won the staring contest.

This is a view looking up the old Beech avenue, and in the foreground to the right are some branches worn smooth by (I can only presume) the deer rubbing off the velvet from their antlers and sharpening them for combat. The worn wood has a slight reddish tinge to it, but think that was the polished and wet beech wood. As in one of my earlier autumnal blips, I love the blue-purple tones of the mud path here, set off against the green and russet leaves.

Back home now writing this, and listening to the football live on Radio 5. United were 2 goals up just before half time, but damn it, Chelsea have just equalised 2:2. Am tempted to turn off and wait to watch it on MoTD2 tonight.

Postscript: 2:3 to United in the end, and who cares about the odd offside goal awarded amongst friends? Three points much needed.