smokingboot (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
smokingboot) wrote2025-07-15 07:49 am
smokingboot) wrote2025-07-15 07:49 am
The Valley of Lune
...is beautiful whether you wander it, or just look at it through the glass of a champagne flute from a hot tub. Guess which option we went for? 😁
We met some dear mates and enjoyed a time of brilliant warmth on every level; sunshine, great conversations, fab if damaging cocktails. The morning after my birthday, I woke early and wandered out to look across the way. The sheep were not up then and the farm down the hill had not brought out its horses but the light was bright and warm already, and a large solitary rabbit lolloped 'across my path' as elders might say. It was so big and at ease I thought it had to be an escaped pet. Then it sat up and turned its head and I saw the white backs of its ears tipped with black, no rabbit but a hare and bold as brass. The folklore connecting hares with witchcraft and magic was prevalent in many places but none more so than Lancashire, and it makes special sense in a place named after the moon.* The last time I saw one was at the entrance to the venue for my hen night celebrations, when it just stared at me. This one may have noticed me or not, but wasn't concerned either way. I watched it for a long time.
I have some special memories of this weekend that won't do with pinning down in words, so I'll just have to keep them safe and for once trust myself not to forget.
*The most popular theory for the Lune's etymology has nothing to do with the moon. It comes from the name Iolonus who appears to have been a Celtic god of meadows/clearings and was respected around here. This deity is only known about from three dedicatory inscriptions, two of which were found in this area. I like this because it's poetically apt:
We met some dear mates and enjoyed a time of brilliant warmth on every level; sunshine, great conversations, fab if damaging cocktails. The morning after my birthday, I woke early and wandered out to look across the way. The sheep were not up then and the farm down the hill had not brought out its horses but the light was bright and warm already, and a large solitary rabbit lolloped 'across my path' as elders might say. It was so big and at ease I thought it had to be an escaped pet. Then it sat up and turned its head and I saw the white backs of its ears tipped with black, no rabbit but a hare and bold as brass. The folklore connecting hares with witchcraft and magic was prevalent in many places but none more so than Lancashire, and it makes special sense in a place named after the moon.* The last time I saw one was at the entrance to the venue for my hen night celebrations, when it just stared at me. This one may have noticed me or not, but wasn't concerned either way. I watched it for a long time.
I have some special memories of this weekend that won't do with pinning down in words, so I'll just have to keep them safe and for once trust myself not to forget.
*The most popular theory for the Lune's etymology has nothing to do with the moon. It comes from the name Iolonus who appears to have been a Celtic god of meadows/clearings and was respected around here. This deity is only known about from three dedicatory inscriptions, two of which were found in this area. I like this because it's poetically apt: