Beer + Deer = Saturday Night

Most people on Saturday night call their friends, get dressed up, and go off to the pub/bar/club to drink, dance, socialize, and at the end of the night mate (if you're lucky).  But after a while this routine can get a bit boring.  The older I get the more I realize that I don't like to always go out on a Friday or Saturday, making myself look half way presentable to stand around in a crowded bar, push my way to get an over-priced half stale drink, and yell at the person next me in order to have a conversation.  Frankly, it gets old and I get tired as hell a lot earlier than I use to.  Call it being in a 3 year relationship, call me old, shit even call me annoying,  I don't care but - what you can't call me is boring because while most of Bristol was out in pubs pounding back drinks, I was out in the dark with a torch in hand taking a "walk" through the woods of Ashton Court/Leigh Woods with some good friends.  Over the course of three hours I walked through some mud, had some laughs, drank some beer, saw a shit load of deer, and managed to crack my crotch over a steel fence - beat that Saturday night!

Before I begin I want to clarify something.  I am not trying to say that I am "better" because I don't necessarily like the bar scene.  On the contrary I am really trying to illustrate how much I have seen myself grow into a woman who is taking control and dictating how she wants to live her life.  Although I am strong willed I, like many others, can be easily persuaded to do things I really don't want to do.  For a while I haven't really liked going out on the weekends - I didn't like the hangovers or what it was doing to my body. Once in a while is cool with me but I really prefer hanging out in people's homes with some good home cooked food and wine, or exploring something random. But, for some strange reason I didn't want to really admit this - weird and kind of stupid I just thought I would be seen as "boring" or "uncool".  Now, I honestly just can't be bothered with it all - so hanging out in the woods last night with Mike and Alex and Vic (the red neck loving, Utah crazy British couple in the earlier posts) was liberating in a way.  To each his own and I am finding "my own" to be the outdoors, whether in daylight or moonlight.  I like what is does in terms of keeping my mind and body sharp and I like the people I am meeting in these new environments.  But I digress...onto the night!

With beers in our rucksacks and torches in hand and on heads we set out into nearby Ashton Court, a large wooded area just a few miles outside of Bristol city.  The night was crisp and clear, with stars dancing in the night sky lighting the way through the dense woods and open plains.  Throughout the walk Vic and I talked non-stop and Alex and Mike walked ahead telling us to "shhs" so we could see deer.  At one point we saw a bunch of doe and fawn behind the fence in this picture, their eyes like green dots in the thick darkness.  After cracking open a beer ("because we could" as Vic said) we continued on until we came across a holiday party in the old Ashton mansion further into the complex.

While leaving the grounds we had to hop a 4 foot steel fence - technically the estate is not open at night so we kind of just came in through an opening in the surrounding fence so we kind of had to make our way back to that opening.  Now since the fence was not that tall I thought I could just kind of hop right over it.  Trying to be cool, I ended up slipping, with the end result being my crotch painfully landing right on top of that steel fence.  If I was a man I would have needed ice. 

Anyway, making our way back we had to cross through a deer walkway.  Vic and I just kept talkin and walkin until Alex said "would you two shut up and look to you're right!"  As we stopped and turned a clan of deer - stag, doe, and fawn - were starting back at us in the dark.  The points of the stag and the bodies of the deer in the silhouette made a dramatic impression upon the landscape.  No words were spoken for a minute and we just watched in awe as more and more deer joined the herd.  It was like a Wild West show down as the deer sized us up and we just stared back in amazement.  After a while we heared what sounds like a fawn crying...then silence...then another fawn crying...then silence...then more staring...then...one of the stag lets out this cry.  If I were fluent in deer I am sure it would translate to "Get you're asses off my territory" - or at least that is how Vic and I interpreted it.  So we turned and walked our asses as fast as we could out of there until we reached the little gate and were "safe" in the open dark plains. 

As we made our way back to the car Vic and I continued our conversation - a nice "getting to know you" talk in which we shared past stories and future plans.  At one point I looked around me and realized that I was in the middle of a forest, in the dark of night, walking through mud - and I was happy.  Truly happy to just "be" - to just be in the moment with little else on my mind but not falling down and keeping up with the others.  And you know what, it's a nice feeling to have.  So for me beer + deer =  a damn good Saturday night.