VERY SPECIAL

For years I’ve yearned to smoke a pipe

On the moors of England on a foggy night.
A favourite briar, an ounce of shag,
A glass of whisky and an historical lag.

The path was a wide track, perhaps just over the width of a one-lane road. It was late in the afternoon and it was heavily overcast and cool and had recently been misting. The ground was just shy of hard and the water in the several walleye hatchery ponds was lightly frozen over with the reeds and cattails showing up through the ice cover.

I had seen no other walkers or dogs, my only visible company being birds and an unnamed little animal the size of a chubby cat with a long tail which scurried across my path at one point.
I was comfortable with warm clothes and blackthorn walking stick and most flavorful cigar…reconnecting with one of my several fantasy worlds.

And then, in the words of Clement Moore [sp?], What to my wondering eyes should appear..., but a HERD of deer, on the path, just ahead…2/3 of a hatchery pond away.

They were in a group and I counted what I thought were five or six.
And then they began to cross the drained pond, and the six turned into 12 or 13.

The last time Dear Wife and I had seen more than a few deer in one place at the same time was in the ‘90’s on the estate of William Cecil, Lord Burghley.

A good walk had become very special indeed.