I ran away from marking yesterday to go for a local walk with Dan and Emma. We struck out west of Penkridge and mostly squelched through muddy fields, meeting nobody. The animal life had returned - kestrels, yellowhammers, reed-buntings and best of all, a pair of hares, not too far from us. They even had a perfunctory go at boxing. If only I'd had my camera… Hares are great - they're quite rare (and apparently very tasty), they have massive ears and back legs, and run very, very fast.
16 comments:
I love hares. Do you think rabbits are domesticated hares? I have no idea; but dogs are domesticated wolves. Allegedly. So if we found and bred docile hares we might end up with rabbits. Possibly. Do rabbits and hares interbreed? I have had hare having helped in an hotel and heaten some. Here hare here. Can't remember what it was like though. Hares also feature quite strongly in The Wicker Man. And in Kit Williams' art. Which is another story entirely.
Yeah hares are cool, and very tasty.
There were loads in Northumberland.
Oh, yeah, and one or two birds two.
Hen Harrier, Brambling, Fulmar, Woodcock, Sanderling, Tree Sparrow, Brent Goose, Scoter, Eider, Bar-tailed Godwit, etfc...
How come you lot all know different bird species? Do you have elvish ancestry? I only know a couple of species, identifiable through broad characteristics like size and tendency to hover, and I usually get them wrong. I must be an orc.
Kit Williams - weirdo.
Zoot. I don't know birds' names. I have a Dan, who does. I prefer mammals really.
We saw a heron too. Very impressive.
Rabbit: oryctolagus cuniculus.
Hare: lepus capensis.
Zoot - you're an astronomy expert aren't you? It's all about lists…
Is that really the latin for rabbit? Sounds quite rude to me, reminds me of that Ludacris song.
What Ludacris song? And yes, it is. Hence rampant rabbit, perhaps? I must look up what the name actually means.
Boring. Oryctolagus means digging and cuniculus means burrowing. Coney is derived from it.
That still sounds rude.
In the South after dusk. Orion stands over Lepus the hare with the dog star chasing him. It's like the dog eternally chases the hare, intent on cuniculus. Eridanus is in the same part of the fundament. Sorry, firmament.
You know, the one Ben put on that compilation CD for you. I wanna lick lick lick you from your....
And talking of the throbbing wonder of astronomy, radio 4's 'History of the World in 100 Objects' opened with the 'sound' of the pulsar at the centre of the supernova remnant in Taurus, now known as the Crab nebula - listen to it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pgxn3/episodes/player
Dig that beat. The supernova was visible in broad daylight in 1054, and remains the strongest source of gamma & X rays in the sky, despite its distance of around 6300 light years. It looks great too. What got me thinking was, because of the marvelous spacetimewarps of relativity, what was the state of earth when the star actually blew (around 5250 BC)? Well, apparently, our sceptred isle was still waiting for farming to be introduced from Europe so we could grow woad or something, while in Greece they'd been reaping the benefits of an alphabet for about 500 years. So there you go. The first in a history of 100 things that happened before I was born.
How the fun are bramblings feathered vermin? What are you whittling on about? They eat seeds for goodness sake.
Has your love of folk music spread into a hatred of anything that doesn't originate in England? If it is any help I can assure you that small finches are not actually taking any of 'our' jobs or marrying any of 'our' women.
Incidently, I think Einstein kept domesticated rabbits (wait for it) because he couldn't tame his hair. Eh? Eh?
A book that outlines the folk/CP/anti-commercialisation of popular culture debates going on in the 60s, and is itself a decent attempt to document Dylan's '66 concert (Judas!) is C. P. Lee's Bob Dylan: Like the Night - The Road to the Manchester Free Trade Hall. Even if you don't like Dylan it's innerestin... and if you do like Dylan it's a dweem (swoon)
Vole: I was teasing. And you rose. Immedeately.
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