18th June 2010

I watched the Hare walk calmly and quietly along the path approaching my studio this morning, entirely unaware of my looking on from my hide away. He seemed to me, the relaxed country cousin of the gentleman hare in the story of Alice in Wonderland. He was apparently far from late for anything, indeed seemingly absolutely with out agenda! So often when we see hares, they see us and we directly perceive their fear, naturally their agenda at such a point in time is to to get away from us as hurriedly as possible. Perhaps it was chance meetings such as these which inspired Lewis Carol to portray the Hare as an anxious fellow always hurrying away . Why if he had based his character portrayal on observations from my studio surely he would have fashioned him with sun hat chewing a stem of grass in the attitude of a dude smoking a reefer! I watched him saunter across the lawn and disappear out of sight before remembering that I in fact did have an agenda... that I was indeed late for a very important date! I was to accompany Neil on his mission to fix the Ryewater dragon, which it seems has lost (or never found) its ability to huff and puff, which really just wont do! The plan; that I should wonder around the garden taking butterfly photos whilst Neil 'examined' the Dragon and came up with a diagnosis.

Well, it's now late afternoon and I simply just can't settle to my artwork, so for reasons I shan't even bother to attempt to justify I'm writing about my day instead. I can report that Neil thinks that he can fix the Dragons condition and have it 'up and puffing' in no time! I managed to take several worthwhile photographs of delightful small blue butterflies, their 'proper' name I might add, and just as their name suggests they are indeed, small and blue. Unlike, lets say the 'dingy skipper', which to my mind isn't the slightest bit dingy!

Sadly I had to conduct a funeral for a young woodpecker on my return home (a shallow grave beneath the beech tree... a posy of buttercups and daisies). No idea why he had to leave this world so abruptly, though Mum and Dad did overhear an early morning squabble today, with the shrill notes of a woodpecker and the cackle of magpies. My sadness at this loss was only compounded by the discovery of yet another lifeless young woodpecker between the garden sheds, only identifiable by a fanfare of exquisite feathers. I held my heart still, drew in a deep breath and gathered a number to take into my studio collection... it somehow felt like theft and yet by the same token, criminal to leave them there. At least I can hold their beauty in my gaze , perhaps that way all is not wasted... conversely perhaps I should have left them to dance into the wind... oh dear!

Well! Just as I begin to feel morose, the hare appears again, this time to stroll back along the garden path and into the tall grasses. Time I took a path that leads some where cheery, perhaps indoors to make Neil and I a lovely garden salad supper, we have ruby red new potatoes (named after some duke or other according to Falkland) some tasty radishes and a buttery soft head of lettuce all bounty from Ryewater. Actually, it's a shame that I can't ask the hare to join us, I'm sure it's a supper that would suit him nicely. I could never figure out why a hare would want to go to a tea party if there was no lettuce on the menu... even in Wonderland with Alice as guest of honour. Perhaps, as a reader, I should have invested a little more in the story, believing what I was told rather than turning a different page in my mind.

...all this waffle, it was a Rabbit in the tale of Alice In wonderland wasn't it!