Living Next To A Forest And Hearing Gunshots.

Could that have been a Hunter or a Poacher ?

Living in the country has its many identifying sounds. At least I like to think so. Our house being a mere spitting distance from the forest, has more defined sounds than others. Now and again we hear what sounds like a dog barking for minutes on end, but that is only a stag ready to mate...calling his ladies to action, or sometimes barking up the wrong tree !

Last night, while dozing off, a series of shots formed a background to the pristine silence that you only achieve in a rural setting. Just about a minute before, a car had driven past. We hardly have any traffic past our house, so most cars are memorable.

Having just read a bit of a murder mystery Killing the Shadows ( a bit of reading before bed to calm the mind !!! ), the sounds of gunshots fell on a receptive mind. Almost simultaneously several scenarios ran through my mind.

They ranged from a person being chased, to a poacher doing his illegal activity to the local hunter culling the various animals. Of course these gunshots do happen now and again and somehow I never even think to phone anyone about them.

Surely it must have been one of the local hunters. But I am amazed at their constitution. It was a few degrees below freezing and being out there in the middle of the night can't have been a picnic. Thermal undies only go so far in keeping one warm...

Come spring and summer, I am up with the sparrows to walk. But I make sure that I put on clothes that make me look like an illuminated Christmas tree. There is no way that I want to tempt one of the hunters, in the twilight, to mistake me for an " old dear "...

Biggi

P/S : Dear readers, some of you have written some great comments to me. Thank you for that. But unfortunately they are being handled by blogger as a " foreign " entity and I thus am hesitant to reply. Please could you give me your blog addresses without a cloaking link, so I can reply to you all ?