Church Hare

Notes the website of the English village of Stow Bardolph:

Stow Bardolph centres around the site of Stow Hall, a stately mansion constructed by Nicholas Hare, Esq., Master of the Rolls and Lord Keeper of the Great Seal in 1589. Nicholas Hare also constructed Hare Chapel – a large annexed dormitory for the internment of himself and family adjoining the Church, which is dedicated to the Holy Trinity.

Since that time, the Hare family have played a significant role in the village’s history. In 1622, Sir Ralph Hare built six almshouses, and provided them with 86 acres of land for division among the inmates. Later, in 1744, Sarah Hare committed the “sin” of sowing on a Sunday. Whilst doing so, she pricked her finger and, shortly afterwards, died of blood poisoining.In her will, she requested that six poor men from the parish act as her pallbearers, and they each receive five shillings for their services.

She also bequeathed two shillings and sixpence to each of the poor residents of Alms Row, and requested that an effigy of her face and hands be made and placed in a Mahogany case, close to where she was buried. The effigy still remains in the Hare Chapel of Stow Bardolph’s Holy Trinity Church, acting as a warning to Sabbath breakers. It is the only funerary effigy of it’s kind outside of Westminster Abbey.

One pub remains in the centre of the village – the Hare Arms. The original building was erected during the Napoleonic wars (at a time when Nelson travelled through the village en route to his ship in London) and the transformation of the house into an inn took place when Captain Thomas Hare offered it to three soldiers.

Opening image: All Saints Church, Stow Bardolph, Norfolk, United Kingdom. (Photo: G. Butler)
Images 2 and 3: Photographers unknown.

A Summer Blessing

Blessed are you, summer
season of long days and short nights,
you pour forth light from your golden orb,
energizing the earth and calling forth growth.

Blessed are you, summer,
with your generous gift of heat.
Your warm breath animates creation,
encouraging all growing things to stretch toward the sun.

Blessed are you, summer,
you call us into playfulness,
encouraging us to pause from work.
You renew our spirits.

Blessed are you, gracious season of summer,
you surprise us with a variety of gifts from the earth.
We, too, gaze into the earth ourselves,
beholding gifts waiting to be honored.

Blessed are you, nurturing season of summer,
your fruits and vegetables appear on our tables,
changing them into altars.
Tasting of your life, we are made strong.

Blessed are you, summer,
host of a star that shines with passion.
Sun-soaked, we reach for your energy
that drives us upward and onward.

Blessed are you, sacrament of summer,
nature’s green season, sweet echo of spring.
You speak to us in living color as you renew the earth
with symbols of life for our bodies and souls.

Blessed are you, summer,
season of roots that reach for water.
Even through the cracks in the sidewalk
the song of your seed can be heard.

Blessed are you, summer,
season rooted in reality.
Even as the perspiration collects on our brow,
we experience your earthy joy.

Blessed are you, summer,
with your firefly evenings
you minister to the child in us.
You feed our hunger for beauty.

– Joyce Rupp
Excerpted from The Circle of Life:
The Heart’s Journey Through the Seasons

Related Off-site Links:
Summer Solstice 2023 Marks Longest Day in the Northern Hemisphere as Earth’s Seasons Change – Daisy Dobrijevic (Space, June 21, 2023).
“Excessive” Weather Events Mark Summer Solstice in the U.S. – Madison Roberts (NPR News, June 21, 2023).
Nine Ways People Celebrate the Summer Solstice Around the World – Kristen Pope (Smithsonian Magazine, June 20, 2023). Ten Temples, Tombs and Monuments That Align With the Summer Solstice – Jamie Carter (Live Science, June 20, 2023). Thousands Gather at Stonehenge for Annual Ritual Marking the Summer Solstice – Pan Pylas (AP News, June 20, 2023).

See also the previous posts:
• Welcoming the Summer Solstice
• Hare in Summer Field
• Summer Hare (2017)
• Summer Hare (2021)
• Summer Boy
• Boys of Summer (2021)
• Boys of Summer (2022)

Image: Photographer unknown.

Headwear

Hats | Caps | Helmets | Headdresses

See also the previous posts:
• Headwear – January 30, 2023
• Headwear – April 30, 2022
• Headwear – February 21, 2021
• Headwear – September 8, 2020
• Mon Bel Ami – January 22, 2015
• Bel Homme – May 20, 2012

Images: Subjects and photographers unknown.

Among Spring Blooms

See also the previous posts:
• Among Spring Blooms (2017)
• The Return
• Hare and Meadow Flowers
• Crown of Blooms
• Enchanted Night
• Among Flowers
• Hare and Hedgerow
• The Art of Travis Chantar

Image: Artist unknown.

Trickster

Images: Pran Saikia (photographer unknown).

See also the previous posts:
• Trickster-Hero
• Boys Will Be Boys

Somewhere Today

. . . two brown hares are boxing.

The common brown hare is found throughout Europe and Africa, in open country, farmland, and woods. The hare can run amazingly fast – forty-five miles an hour at full gallop – but its sporting activities are not limited to running. When a female hare is being courted by a male, she often boxes with him.


Image and text: Somewhere Today by Bert Kitchen (1992).

Bel Homme

Image: Subject and photographer unknown.

A Beltane Reflection

On this Beltane morn I share the following excerpt from the book Earth Prayers, edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon.

_____________________
Spring, summer, autumn, winter – birth, growth, fading, death – the cycles of life turn, and we turn with them. Ideas are born, projects are consummated, plans prove impractical and die. We fall in love, we suffer loss, we give birth, we grow old. We are renewed, we are reborn, even as we decay and die. Our psychic energies are renewed in their deepest sources by this participation in the cycles of change within the natural world.

When we are aware of the Earth’s processes, seeing ourselves as parts of a whole, we learn to let go of the need to control life. We are reminded to accept the inevitable cycles of green and dry, birth and death, cold and warm, emptiness and fullness, light and dark, that characterize the events and activities of our daily life.

. . . Just as the spring has been celebrated for tens of thousands of years as the point of fertility, as a time when nature displays its beauty to bring about the conception of life, so too our own life has its birthing seasons.


Image: This beautiful work of art is by British artist Wendy Andrew. It’s from her book, Luna Moon Hare: A Magical Journey with the Goddess.

See also the previous posts:
• Beltane
• The Beltane Hare
• Beltane Morning Light
• A Beltane Blessing

And at The Leveret’s brother site, The Wild Reed, see:
• Beltane: A Time of Hope and Renewal
• Beltane: Casting Off the Darkness and Celebrating the Light
• Beltane Morning Light
• Beltane: Celebrating the Sheer Exuberance of May
• Beltane and the Reclaiming of Spirit

Morning Light

Image: Subject and photographer unknown.

See also the previous posts:
• Morning Light – April 7, 2020
• Morning Light – December 18, 2018
• Morning Light – February 18, 2017
• Morning Light – May 20, 2016
• Morning Light – April 7, 2015
• Morning Light – September 2, 2014
• Morning Light – August 30, 2013

The Beauty of the Hare

Image: Photographer unknown.

See also the previous posts:
• The Beauty of the Hare (2022)
• A Remarkable Creature
• Golden-Coloured Eyes
• A Still Moment
• Mostly Solitary
• Unhoused
• Solitary Hare

The Art of P.K. Benbow

Says P.K. Benbow:

Charcoal is a messy medium, and canvas is an unforgiving surface. But somehow I have managed to fall head over heals in love with the texture and mood they let me create in my work.

Related Off-site Links:
• P.K. Benbow’s Official Website
• “This Is Why I Make Art” – P.K. Benbow (via Facebook, September 26, 2018)

See also: The Art of Martin Bedolla | Avel de Knight | Frank-Joseph Frelier | Claudio Bravo | John Singer Sargent | Salem Beiruti | Ismael Álvarez | Stefano Junior | Alireza Shojaian | Frédéric Bazille | Saul Lyons | Barkley L. Hendricks | Alexis Vera | Mauna Nada | Ego Rodriguez | Liam Campbell | Richard Vyse | David Jester | Aaron Moth | Travis Chantar | Douglas Simonson | Guglielmo Plüschow | Vilela Valentin | Dante Cirquero | Nebojsa Zdravkovic | Brenden Sanborn | Wilhelm von Gloeden | Richard Haines | John MacConnell | Leo Rydell Jost | Jim Ferringer | Juliusz Lewandowski | Felix d'Eon | Herbert List | Joe Ziolkowski

The Easter Hare

See also the previous posts:
• The Original Easter “Bunny”
• Easter Bunny or Eostre Hare?
• Easter Hare (2011)
• Symbol of Enlightenment
• Eostre: Goddess of New Life Beginnings
• The Goddess Ostara
• Remembering Eostre
• Celebrating Eostre

Related Off-site Link:
The Pagan Roots of Easter – Heather McDougall (The Guardian, April 3, 2010).

Image: The Leveret.