Woburn Deer and Floor Repair

The work on the floor outside the bathroom has now been completed, so there is no chance of any of us falling through into the hallway beneath.

The cooker may need to be replaced, as it seems that it's beyond repair. It is actually up to our landlord to sort it out. We hope that if it is replaced it's done well before Christmas, as we don't want to have any problems cooking our Christmas dinner!

I went to collect Carol from the Academy in the car as she wanted to drive over to Woburn and go through the park to see the deer. Yesterday was quite a misty day, and the deer were near the road so we could take some quite good photographs of them out of the car window. I have posted a few here.

This particular stag was lying down on his own down near the roadway which leads to the Abbey. Carol was driving the car and said 'get out and creep slowy up to him! You should be able to get some good shots.' I reluctantly got out of the car and walked cautiously towards the stage, who was still lying down. I walked closer and stood by a tree, at which point the stag stood up and began bellowing, although I'm not sure if it was at me as a sort of warning to keep out of the way, or to attract the attention of other deer, but I managed to get this quite superb shot, if I say it myself. I soon moved quickly out of the way on my way back to the car, as I wasn't over keen to find out what the stag was likely to do. Would he chase me? Would he attack me and run into me with his antlers? Was I invading his territory, which might account for his bellowing? I wasn't going to hang around to find out the answers to any of these questions, as you might imagine!

The main road runs through the centre of Woburn park and when you drive in from Woburn village you go through an area of rhodedendrons and beside several lakes, then you go over a cattle grid on either side of which are two lodges. The road to the left if where cars come out from the Woburn Safari Park, and directly opposite is the road which goes up and round to the Abbey. We drove on and up through the park and then we saw herds of deer  on the left hand side of the road in the distance and near a road which leads off to the new Going Ape attraction. We drew the car in and took the first set of photographs, three of which I have uploaded below.

It's quite a difficult and dangerous job trying to get photographs when other motorists are speeding though the park. We tried to keep the car at the regulation 30 m.p.h., but there is always some idiot who is so impatient that he has to come up really close behind  our car. On the way into the park there are signs stating the number of deer which are killed each year; 3 this year and 9 last year. I would say this is due to peoples impatience. If the deer wander into the road surely you'd slow down and let them get out of your way, rather than speeding up and running into them? Seems fairly simple to me, but it's obvious that some motorists are just ignorant.