Waterworld

After some very cold days and nights, the rain returned.

I'd enjoyed the beauty of the frosty world, but not how the cold makes me tense my muscles and then ache all over. Though maybe that's the menopause.

I went for a trot to visit the Goddess Oak at the Reserve, but on the way was wowed by the trees at the still lake's edge.

As I needed an offering for the tree, I was on the lookout and found a mushroom, which I placed in what had been the bees' home (under the hornets' nest).

Then I sat at the base of the tree and waited for the world to resolve into something that makes sense. It wasn't warm. My feet were going numb. But I just waited. Sat. Still. Silent.

In time, I saw a female muntjac browsing under the trees in front of me. she gradually came closer, moving in and out of vision. At one point she raised her head and looked at me, then turned and continued browsing but heading away.

My eye caught movement further away. Another muntjac. More active. seemed to be bounding about. Too far away. I couldn't see.

The female seemed to be feigning ignorance. She must have known the other was there, but she started to walk up and around me.

Then he, for it was a male, began to come closer. He was moving faster, but not hurrying. He seemed, when he crossed her trail, to be following her scent. He was closing in, but slowly. She was leading, he was following. She wasn't fleeing, he wasn't chasing.

They bounded over the ditch which is now a stream and disappeared. She maybe 30 yards ahead of him. Maybe more.

"You see," said the tree, "the Horned One follows where the Goddess leads."