We awoke to cloudy skies but the sun peeped through, sometimes very strongly, so I took up residence on the terrace with my book. I am finding it very engrossing but have to admit that the surroundings here are equally as interesting, if not more so. I therefore kept wandering off on mini-safaris.
They always say that you get more from a walking safari than from one where you sit in a jeep and are driven to stare at a cluster of big animals. You may have far less chance of seeing a big mammal but the immersion in the detail of flora and fauna is just as rewarding. And so I found things today as I took my own mini walking safari of 'Camp 182'.
We had encountered deer on the driveway again when we returned from Lucca yesterday, so I was really hoping for an encounter today. I therefore had my camera - well, my rather old Samsung Galaxy phone - to hand all day. Sadly the lack of a zoom and a very show shutter response did thwart me on many occasions but hopefully I succeeded enough times to give you an insight into the life of the smaller of the 182 residents.
I was delighted to find quite a few clumps of wild cyclamen on the edge of the lawn and the terrace immediately below. In my uneducated opinion it seems early for cyclamen, or at least it would be in the UK, so I'm hopeful that these clumps will only get bigger as the weeks pass. Not that we'll be here to enjoy them but it will provide Helen and Stuart with some splashes of colour to frame the lawn.
Mid-afternoon I decided to walk up the driveway to check the postbox, again hoping to see some deer. What a sight I must have looked, clutching the post box key in one hand and holding out my phone, camera app poised in the other, all the while trying to tread very lightly on the mix of gravel and crunchy fallen leaves. However quiet I thought I was being, I must have sounded like a heard of elephants to any deer in the locality, who should be rightly skittish since the hunting season has just begun. Alas, all I saw was a beetle, and not even a Stag Beetle!
Back at the ranch I finally spied my safari prize - yes, the Big Two. A sleeping tiger and an elusive panther!
Sounds like a nice relaxing day to temper the two days of sightseeing, glad you're enjoying it. We're enjoying the blog posts although it feels like we're in an alterntive universe with other people (you) living our lives...it's very strange but very interesting to see it from the 'other' side. x
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