There Never Is A Perfect Shot

No matter how many deer you shoot — they will always surprise you, says Patrick Laurie

- Patrick Laurie

We have passed the height of midsummer, and already there are signs of autumn.

The elderflowers have withered away and now their berries have begun to swell in twiggy little bunches along the hedgerows. The haws are growing daily and every fresh fall of rain seems to thicken the bitter flesh of the fruit. I don’t like to be the bearer of gloomy news but it looks like we’ve seen the best of the year.

Now is always a good moment to look for roe deer, particularly on the river’s edge where wide margins have been left to go wild beside the water. These marshy badlands flood during the winter when rain falls for weeks on the hills. The banks are transformed into a quaking mess of pools and ditches, lumbered with timber washed down from the glen.

In deep summer, drifts of meadowsweet and valerian lend a gorgeous scent to a summer’s evening by the water and roe stalk between the willows as if it were a jungle.

Cool mist