No-Eye Deer

I left it a tad late to go walking with MrsB in Tatton Park tonight. The gates shut to the public at 19:00, and we only arrived there with about 30 minutes to go.

It is literally about 400m from house door to park gate for us, so I can't understand why I don't go more often (MrsB goes a lot). As it happens, I think we have stumbled upon a great little secret because - a: it is getting late; b: the car access gate is already shut by 18:00; and c: no walkers want to gets locked in. The result was, we seemed to have it pretty much to ourselves.

It did strike me that it would be quite a nice place to actually get locked in and camp-out like Night at the Museum, though who knows what would come to life after dark. Certainly I wouldn't want to get into a tangle with these Red Deer, even if they antlers are all soft and velvety at the moment. The sign at the gate saying 'Beware Deer are Calving' is the clue, and I once saw a chap literally thrown through the air when a deer gave him a 'Glasgow Kiss' between the shoulder blades at nearby Dunham Park. He was feeding it and then ran out of food but turned his back - oops, fatal!

You could bump into the ghost of Tatton garden designer Humphry Repton roaming the place he designed in one of his famous Red Books in the 18th century; Joseph Paxton who designed the recently refurbished Glass House; or owner Lord Egerton himself; More recently, US General George S. Patton was based here with his American troups in the run-up to D-Day.

The place is about to go mental in July with the overnight flourishing of the hardy annual that is RHS Tatton Flower Show. It currently also has the Flights of Fancy art installations of Tatton Biennial on at the moment, and which I keep banging on about (sorry, but it is my job!).

Anyway, it's 'Over and Out' from me, as Spain vs Portugal SF is just kicking off on BBC1. Time to crack a cool drink I think.

Here to end is a little Youtube video of this historic 'romantic landscape'. However, it ends with me warning ominously "Never turn you back on a deer" - I imagine, given my subconscious memory of the Dunham nutters. If you look carefully you will catch a distant glimpse of MrsB.

This actual photo was one of the last taken as we were leaving, but none of the buggers would look at me. So it seems fitting to title it 'No-Eye Deer' after the famous joke:

Really Bad Jokes #76.
Q: What do you call a deer with no eyes?
A: No eye deer

Postscript: In Tatton Park again on 28 June and got this nice one for Blipfolio