There is a fallow deer sitting in my garden...

For the second time this year there is a young deer sitting in the garden... just in the middle near the greenhouse and it has got one front leg amputated.... We don't usually have them any more because some hideous neighbours secretly bought the paddock land behind us and put a fence up - plus they keep a large and stupid dog, so our wild life has been a bit depleted in recent years. I just went down to take a picture but frightened it, so it has escaped back under the trampoline and into my other neighbour's garden. If his son was around he would shoot it - but it looked quite healthy despite the injury.

I wonder about animal symbolism...? Last time I went for a 'thinking' drive in the countryside near here about thirty fallow deer charged across from one field to another in front of me !Yesterday I went down to Kent to take my appendix-scarred daughter and her flatmate back for the summer term. She is 20 today and having a bit of a party, and my older daughter is coming from London to join her and then going on to Zurich for the weekend with her boyfriend. When we were in Margate hospital with the doctors who finally woke up to the fact that she needed to have that appendix out right now, a seagull came down and tapped on the glass door of her room until they went. I try not to be superstitious !

Must say journey was v. bad to start with - had to go up the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon first - anyone who lives locally will know that this road is a minefield of frequent accidents and long traffic jams - and sure enough... luckily we only had about half an hour delay (for about 1 mile..!) because I was able to shoot off through the villages and because the jam had just started. By the time we were heading south again the tailback was huge. On to Canterbury crossing the Dartford Bridge and the A2 roadworks about 3pm which is optimum time to be there, and not too bad. Reminds me so much of the joy of driving in Otago and Canterbury in New Zealand last year - no traffic at all!

I took advantage of journey back with a nearly full tank of petrol paid for by my husband (rare of him at 95p a litre !) to drive right up the A13 into London, parking behind the Appeal Court at 7pm and going to my University Library in Chancery Lane, which is doing the civilized thing of being open 24 hours for a couple of months for 'exam revision'. It was the second time this week I had managed to get there - and I had left my student ID card in another jacket - luckily one of the security guards is a New Zealander and knows I'm a regular so he let me in, and I tucked myself up at the top of the post-grad clock tower with a nice blank room and my laptop and got a load of work done.

My University Library
It used to be the Public Record Office until it moved to Kew. A very high Victorian Gothic Grade I listed building converted at great cost to a modern library - but they had to keep all the old small rooms and mezzanine floors that used to house all the 'Rolls' and manuscripts, so the book shelving sequence is very long and hard to follow . As a professional Librarian I would have to say it is not entirely 'user-friendly', but very nice to work in.

Clock Tower - haven for PostGrad thinking, but I always choose an internal room

Because this is too beautiful !

This is the distracting daytime view from the tower - at night the lights are really cool too!

And this is the Round Room - Reference Library - too quiet to disturb others with laptop noise, but it always make me feel a 'serious' researcher when I work in there.

Drove home at 1.30 am, only having to stop twice to refill the leaky radiator on my car - thanks to the 24 hour garage by the Millenium Dome - a regular stop of mine - thanks guys!

Actually the previous day I went to London by train to the Institute of Education so I will tell you about that in the next post - and why I now have a resurgence of faith in my dissertation.