Occasionally, just ocassionaly something rather special happens that remains with you forever. Yesterday I had one of those memories resurface as I sat in Bunnyopolis with Iona, Jura and Aaran, our three continental giant rabbits.
All three have different builds, even though they are from the same litter, Iona is rather, how shall we say, plumpish even though we measure out food she manages to hoover up anything that drifts into the garden. Aaran is more robust than chunky and is a more like a bumbling dog with his massive paws that he uses to get attention with, Jura on the other hand is slender, often concerned and very hare like in stature. Last night she did her little peculiar stretch which involves letting her back legs flick out like a frogs and a bit of a crawl forward until she is at maximum stretch, which is over three feet, then she yawns and pulls everything back together, very hare like. It was that that triggered my memory.
Way back in 2010 we were visiting a gallery and had set off very early in the morning, one of the roads had been closed due to an accident so we were detoured off the main road and into a sleepy village. For some reason our satnav decided to reroute and take us down the road equivalent of Narnia. It was quite strange, as we pulled off the small village road and down a tree lined we both remarked how quiet it had suddenly become. Further down the road the early morning sun shone through the trees the fresh dew sparkling like jewels as the road started to narrow. The edges of the tarmac became rather ragged and eventually succumbed to weeds and grass along it borders, the road looked like it hadn't seen traffic in many a year and we were wondering if our trusty satnav was having a laugh and we would end up plunging off the edge of a precipice or at the very least find out we were trespassing up some driveway and would most likely be shot by the gamekeeper.
When, to my right, out popped a hare from the hedgerow. I don't know who was more surprised, me not expecting a hare or him not expecting a balding lost idiot staring at him whilst he was out for a stroll. And you know what, he plodded a little lopingly along beside the car. I kid you not, this rather large hare was steadily keeping pace with us, occasionally he would glance up at me wondering why I was following him with some annoyance but undeterred he carried on.
He accelerated and ran in front of the car, steadily weaving around and we followed him. No really, we were mesmerised, it's not very often you get to witness something like this so we slowed down and just enjoyed the moment.
I was so engrossed in Mr Hare that I didn't see the cliff edge and off we plunged. We didn't really do that, I made that bit up but what we did do was follow him for quite a long time before he decided that he really had had enough of this hassle and disappeared back into the hedge row. Now here's the strange thing, he popped back in the hedgerow directly opposite our next turn which our Satnav gleefully announced as if she had suddenly remembered where she was. I like to think he helped us find our way back to the main road but I think he went home that night to the missus and said 'can you believe it, I go out for a stroll and some balding pillock starts to follow me.'
Anyway, not much of a story today just a nice little memory for me, an annoying one for a hare.
www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Foreverbunny and the Impossimals
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