In February 2016 – I bought a curious brooch of a ‘golden’ faun from an online dealer in the Netherlands – I call the brooch ‘Mr. Tumnus’ after the famous character in ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ by C.S. Lewis.  It has such a benevolent face.  Ever since acquiring ‘Mr. Tumnus’ – I have been metaphorically disappearing into Narnia myself. Magical things just happen when I slip through my secret doorway to the other side – to a wood I call ‘Shedland’ – because it’s where I sighted four mythic stags and found two incredible sheds…Yesterday – 21st May 2016 – I was taken by an impulse to go there again for my early evening walk – ‘just’ to smell the heaven scent of bluebells after a day of rain.  There are no paths – I just go wherever fancy takes me…Walking through the wood – I found a wet feather – brown and a little bedraggled – probably that of a tawny owl.  I was so pleased, I knew it would soon fluff up and smooth out again once at home near the woodburner…

Moving on through the wood – I suddenly noticed something else brown.  At first sighting, it looked rather like a small tree stump in the wet grass – only different. Sort of striped and speckled – and furry – with black-tipped, tufted ears and a half-open eye…I have never come across one of these little darlings before in my life; only having seen them in fairy tales – and natural history programmes on the telly – I could hardly believe my eyes – or luck. There in front of me was a living, breathing Bambi.  A tiny, curled-up Roe Deer fawn contentedly dozing on the woodland floor – a brown speckled cushion of loveliness, perhaps born on today’s date of the Full Moon.  It was very small indeed.

Even though I would have liked to take it home  – I kept my distance and used the zoom function on my camera to get as close as I could.  Roe Deer mothers leave their young like this while they graze nearby – so I knew that it was imperative not to touch or disturb the vulnerable fawn.  After stealing a couple of photographs – I quietly backed away realising that I’ll probably never ‘stumble upon’ such an exquisite find again – and hoped my camera had captured the moment for keeps. Luckily I’m thrilled to report that there was one precious shot – and here it is…

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Walking home on cloud nine – I noticed how the low Sun highlighted my other lucky find; even if my few shots weren’t in focus I knew I had this beautiful fawn-coloured feather as a reminder of a magical moment in time when I found ‘A brown speckled cushion of loveliness’.

Oh! And there will always be Mr. Tumnus too!

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Today – 22nd May 2016 – I find myself unexpectedly being mother to a pair of fawn-like creatures – Mimi and Luna – my doggy nieces ‘The Whippets’!  They are looking at me doe-eyed wanting to go out for a walk – so we are off out very soon for a long, gentle walk around the quiet roads. There’ll be strictly no straying anywhere near ‘Shedland’ though – because somewhere amongst the bluebells and foxgloves a little fawn will be napping.