Deer and Black Moments

I wrote here on 19th February that I was almost up to the Black Moment in my wip HD. Here I am, 15 days later, and still at the same point! What are my excuses? I have gone through the story again from page one because I wanted to check and change a small point to make the end of the story better. Also, having 3-day breaks kind of disrupts the flow and I wanted to make sure I was clear before I moved on. So, I am at that point NOW, so no more excuses. Once I have finished this, it's off to the wip.

The picture above captures a magical moment on the road from Loch Lugainn to the A835. Dh was driving, which freed me up to gaze out at the scenery and I saw a stag 100 yards away up the hillside. We stopped immediately, I got out the camera and wound down the window. The stags were lying about in the heather, and one by one got to their feet - six of them! They are so wary. In spite of the fact that we were so far away, by the time I had taken two or three shots they were all on their feet, shaking rain out of their coats and watching us suspiciously. Then one shot off up the hillside and the rest followed. My last picture is of an empty hillside with one rump disappearing behind a convenient rock!

I felt guilty for disturbing them. Driving down the A835 to Ullapool, I noticed more antlers sticking up above the skyline - another group. Now I wonder if they drifted down to the lower levels because they sensed the snow coming, for next day we drove south through horrendous rain and wind with visibility down to about ten feet on the busy A9. We saw flooded land around Aviemore and the Tay was very high. We got home to a weather report that promised snow over much of the Highlands, including Ullapool and by Saturday, the snow had arrived.

Perhaps those deer have a built in early warning system. I'm so glad we saw them.