As It Should Be

You have to pinch yourself when watching some scenes in the regenerated wildness of Blacka's best parts - then say slowly that this was over managed grouse moor and is now a paradise for wildlife. Then say even more slowly that there are institutions and charities with managers who want to take it back to more managed land, more like farmland and more like the grouse moor that it was.

The deer have now begun to reclaim parts of the hillside. Hormones have a lot to do with it. The hinds were always down below in the woods and to get to them the stags have needed to overcome their reluctance to patronise the land occupied by smelly and defecating cattle.



This is The Baron, not the same stag as the one on Lenny Hill with two hinds a couple of days ago. The tines at the crown give him away. Today there were six accompanying him including two just months old, born in the woods below. Their faces are hard to resist, threatening to turn even the most hardened of us into sentimental fools. But this is as it should be. Natural beauty wins all arguments.