Deer on Mill Hill at Nightfall

[abu nuwas]

I have a natural dislike of the use of the present tense to describe stuff which happened in the past. I find journalists just the same ( Dusting down my best frock, i nervously enter. Sir Alan speaks on the phone, giving no sign of having noticed my coming. He barks down the phone to the Prime Minister, as if he were a candidate for the Apprentice.....)

So, it takes a lot to overcome my little idiosyncrasy, but this little cameo did --- I expected a 'darkling thrush' to make an appearance at any moment! I checked 'whitethorn'-- it is what I would call white hawthorn. I am desperately trying to think of a proper crit, but I can't.