Barking Deer's Bottom

It was quite busy at John Lewis in Welwyn Garden City. Life's too short to stand in a checkout queue so I left as the light was good. I got back home in time for a golden hour walk. I heard a crashing of undergrowth and the above muntjac, also known as the barking deer, bounded into view. Their scuts stand on end when they're alarmed. What a beautiful and perfectly clean bottom this male has. :)

Today's poem is Musée des Beaux Arts by WH Auden. http://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/musee-des-beaux-arts/


During a brief trip to Brussels with Christopher Isherwood Auden saw a collection of Brueghel paintings and wrote the poem shortly afterwards. I find it fascinating, particularly as I read a very interesting piece in the paper by Charles Saatchi recently about Brueghel's work The Netherlandish Proverbs. I had never seen or heard of it  before.