The day before we drove over to meet Lesley and Steve I drove along a forestry road called River Extension Road to see how it had been changed. When we were here in ’06 Cath and I cycled it a few times. Unfortunately the path of these back roads don’t always remain the same – they are after all to help the forestry industry – and this one had changed quite a lot by going a lot further up Morrissey Ridge than it used to resulting in a 10% slope at one point (this part of the road was also pretty narrow with a long drop on the right). Anyway, past that and I was in and out of the car with my camera seeing what I could take photos of. Loads of meadows up there, and wildlife as well. Unfortunately I was usually driving when the animals were about, but I did see half a dozen white tail deer, a coyote, chipmunks and a couple of bald eagles. Cows are a bit of a surprise, only because you don’t tend to see them in forests in the UK, and the deer looking out from the bushes was a bit of a character. He could see me in the car with my camera, but was determined to eat the grass. A few minutes later he hid behind a bush and kept poking his head up to see if I was still there. We played hide and seek for a few more minutes before I had to race off for an appointment at Freshies to take some photos. I’ll show you the results of that later in the week. Finally, one little critter that I did take a photo of looked as surprised to see me as I was to see him, and he/she just stood and stared at me while I tried to take a couple of pictures. A second later and the foal was diving off into the grass to join its mum.

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