Meadow Brown

I did some baking this morning; a few banana muffins to use up one over-ripe banana, and then a tray of apricot, oat and seed bars. I also made a birthday card for an old friend of ours, who has a birthday on Sunday.

After lunch we took the card and delivered it through our friend’s door. He happens to live right opposite one of the entrances to Lord’s Bushes, part of Epping Forest, so we headed over the road from his house for a stroll in the forest’s dappled sunlight. At one point I saw a group of people with a few dogs in the far distance, so when what looked like a dog ran across the path some way in front of us, I wasn’t surprised. I then did a double take, thinking it looked rather like a muntjac. Although I know there are muntjac in the larger areas of Epping Forest, we’ve never seen one in Knighton Wood or Lord’s Bushes before, which is a smallish area of woodland of about 100 acres, surrounded by residential housing on all sides. 

Almost immediately, though, a second animal crossed behind the first, and I realised we definitely had seen a couple of muntjac. I only managed a very poor photo of the two of them (in extras), but at least it proved that we’d seen them and they weren’t dogs. I chose the meadow brown as my main photo and some attractive fungi as a second extra.