Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Hare-raising

Today

I was browsing a Facebook page called "Girls that make stuff" and someone was displaying some beautiful images burnt into slices of wood. She asked for suggestions as to creatures that she could feature and I suggested a hare.

After all, you hardly ever see a real hare these days.

In My Day

I joined Cantilena Choir in 1988. When the day came for our Spring concert I found that the rehearsal time was so close to the performance start that I would not be able to get home, fed and changed and back in time.

A fellow soprano offered me a way out. "I live close by; come and have supper with us and you can change in my bedroom. I was very grateful for this and she took me to her rather beautiful home near Street.

Supper was served in the hall which was really a whole room in itself. As I sat down I looked about the room. The walls were decorated, not with paintings, hangings or photographs, but little plaques, each of which had a hare's foot mounted on it. I gazed at these grisly trophies in horror. I kept my eyes averted and tried to attack my food with some enthusiasm. .

However, there was no averting them from my colleague's husband who just then walked in the front door. He was in full regalia: a black tail coat. white breeches, shirt and cravat and black boots. Clearly he was a master of beagling, just come home from hunting. I found excuses to avoid future invitations.

I find it strange to think that there are people walking around for whom this is a perfectly normal thing to do.

It's no wonder that these beautiful creatures are in decline, although Becky tells me she saw one in Essex the other week. 

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