Fallow Deer at Bushy Park

I cannot remember a previous Christmas when we have had such crap weather. It has been grey and raining every day, and today there was the addition of an icy wind. It is bad enough with the threat of Covid hanging over everything, now the weather is making things gloomier!

Luke left home at 7.30am to play golf with friends, it was an awful day for it with challenging conditions. Gavin, Pip (who arrived last night) and I went to Bushy Park for a walk, but it was so exposed there in the wind that it wasn't very pleasant. Xena had a great time discovering all the new smells.

We came across this herd of fallow deer. Did you know that much variation appears in the coats of fallow deer? Their coats can be common (chestnut coat with white mottles), menil (spots more distinct than common), melanistic (black with greyish/brown shades), leucistic (white but not albino). We saw examples of all those colours in this herd. There is also an extra of some buck play fighting.

Tonight we are going out to supper, at least the restaurant trade in England has not been subjected to more Covid restrictions as in other parts of the UK, where many are really struggling to survive. With Omicron being a much weaker variant than Delta, and now that it has taken over as the dominant strain, it is hopeful that this is the start of the natural end of the virus. Maybe one day Covid will be treated in society like a cold? Already many countries are reducing the isolation period, the US announced today that for asymptomatic cases it is being cut from 10 days to 5 days.