• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Waveney & Blyth Arts

Creatively connecting people with place along the Norfolk/Suffolk border

Accessibility Tools

  • Home
  • About Us
    • Constitution & Policies
    • Membership
    • Resources
    • Opportunities
    • Archive
  • Events
    • Two Rivers Book Fest
      • Christopher Lloyd’s Top 20 Paintings
      • Grace Adam’s top three to see in London
      • Independent & Second-hand Bookshops, and Libraries
  • Competitions
  • Blog
  • Members
    • My account
    • Sculpture in the Valley Artists
    • Creative Members Directory & Member Events
    • Newsletter Form
  • Join us
  • Shop
    • Basket
    • Checkout
You are here: Home / Blog / Looking Out, March 2021

Looking Out, March 2021

8th March 2021 By Genevieve Rudd

Three Hares Running

Morning walks cheer us

Hares run unhindered in fields

We are one with nature now

 

Pink sun on silver frost. I see the hares. Out of the oilseed rape, across the ditch, onto the plough. Three hares running, running not crouching in the tramlines or jinking erratically for cover. It lifts the spirits this early morning race. Tugged by sap rising, March hares put life into empty fields. Today they own the landscape. They remind me of the symbol of three hares, the mystical motifs found in Devon churches. Three hares each with two ears but only three ears between them.**

This year I saw them in February and some mornings I would catch them in a dance of eight or nine running and circling. They have woven their magic after a full moon night. Give them space to run and a place to shelter. Three hares running.

It is March at last and after a long winter of flood, snow, frost and lockdown we search for signs of spring. There is warmth in the sun when it appears and the longer days mean that birds are on the move. Winter has stripped the countryside bare. The trees are shrivelled by cold winds and frost, branches snapped, last leaves tossed to the fields. Gales felled hedgerow trees tumbled in a sprawl of ivy. Dried tufts of grasses are flattened by the wind, shrink wrapped against field edges.

This is the ‘Hungry Gap’ – the end of winter when last year’s food reserves are at their lowest but there is still little growth to provide new seeds and insects have yet to emerge.  The Hungry Gap was named by gardeners for this time of year, when all that was left on the allotment were a few cabbages, potatoes and carrots. The winter diet was uninspiring and yet the new crops were only just being set and a long way from providing food.

The yellowhammers have been here most mornings, their cheery song bursting from the hawthorn bushes, a splash of citron caught in first light. There are usually eight foraging on aniseed coated seed that spills from the bird feeders. No reed buntings or tree sparrows now – just two species that have been rubbed out of our landscape.

But we look for signs of hope and March brings one of the first of the spring migrations. On warm moist nights the toads are moving. I organise the toad rota in the village and each night someone goes out to rescue toads who are setting off across the road for their amorous tryst in the village pond.

Toads use the lunar cycle to co-ordinate their gatherings, ensuring that enough males and females come together at the same time. They arrive at the breeding sites, mate and spawn around the full Moon. This maximises their breeding success and reduces the odds of being eaten. But they also need night-time temperatures to be above 5 or 6 degrees.

There is a magic about toad collecting. We drag ourselves away from the fire, take buckets and torches and walk up to the green. A Little Owl calls its mournful whoooo. Pigeons clatter, disturbed from their roost. Dusk falls. The air is quiet. Then a squeaking call from the ditch. Toads emerge, tentative, a face peering from grass verge, venturing onto the road, heading for water.  For an hour we follow a route round the pond and down the side roads from where toads are emerging in ones and twos. Some are already paired up. ‘The bucket dating agency’ one of my patrollers says.

We count males and females, frogs, newts. Some nights we collect hundreds and remove those we didn’t manage to save from passing cars. Gently they are released into the rippled depths of the pond. The torch spotlights them. Some make off, strong kicking back legs, needing to make up for lost time. Some hang there, floating, back legs splayed, remembering the feel of water after a winter in earth and wood.

There is much to enjoy about the coming of spring, the feeling of release as the cold and the dark lose their grip on the countryside. Armed with camera, notebook and pen I try to capture the sights and sounds, smells and tastes of March.

**The story of the search for the three hares motif is told in a book published in 2016 https://www.newscientist.com/article/2082809-the-three-hares-motif-is-an-ancient-mystery-for-our-times/

Figure 1 European Hare: Piet Munsterman

Filed Under: Blog

Primary Sidebar

  • E-mail
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Join Us

Waveney & Blyth Arts relies on membership to fund its programme. We welcome new members from any individual or organisation that supports our aims. Become a member today to join our likeminded community of creative individuals and organisations.

Join Us

Events Calendar

December

January 2023

February
MO
TU
WE
TH
FR
SA
SU
26
27
28
29
30
31
1
Events for January

1st

No Events
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Events for January

2nd

No Events
Events for January

3rd

No Events
Events for January

4th

No Events
Events for January

5th

No Events
Events for January

6th

No Events
Events for January

7th

No Events
Events for January

8th

No Events
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Events for January

9th

No Events
Events for January

10th

No Events
Events for January

11th

No Events
Events for January

12th

No Events
Events for January

13th

No Events
Events for January

14th

No Events
Events for January

15th

No Events
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Events for January

16th

No Events
Events for January

17th

No Events
Events for January

18th

No Events
Events for January

19th

No Events
Events for January

20th

No Events
Events for January

21st

No Events
Events for January

22nd

No Events
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
Events for January

23rd

No Events
Events for January

24th

No Events
Events for January

25th

No Events
Events for January

26th

No Events
Events for January

27th

No Events
Events for January

28th

No Events
Events for January

29th

No Events
30
31
1
2
3
4
5
Events for January

30th

No Events
Events for January

31st

No Events

Follow us on Twitter

Tweets by @waveneyblyth

Promote your events

Remember, if you’re a member of W&BA as an artist or arts organisation, you can promote your events, exhibitions, talks and shows through our monthly newsletter, website and social media.

Submit Your Event

Footer

Contact Us

Waveney & Blyth Arts
W&BA Secretary postal address: Field House, Thrandeston, Diss, Norfolk, IP21 4BU

Get in contact via email
info@waveneyandblytharts.com
general enquires about W&BA

newsletter@waveneyandblytharts.com
newsletter and marketing, bookings, membership and payments

  • E-mail
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Local Co-Ordinators

Learn more about us Here

 

 

Newsletter Sign-Up

To promote your activities on this website and get all the other benefits you need to become a member – see Join Us – but if you just want to be kept informed about Waveney & Blyth Arts activities join our free mailing list below:







    Site Map / Privacy Policy / Terms & Conditions
    Copyright © 2023 · Site by Mustard

    MENU
    • Home
    • About Us
      • Constitution & Policies
      • Membership
      • Resources
      • Opportunities
      • Archive
    • Events
      • Two Rivers Book Fest
        • Christopher Lloyd’s Top 20 Paintings
        • Grace Adam’s top three to see in London
        • Independent & Second-hand Bookshops, and Libraries
    • Competitions
    • Blog
    • Members
      • My account
      • Sculpture in the Valley Artists
      • Creative Members Directory & Member Events
      • Newsletter Form
    • Join us
    • Shop
      • Basket
      • Checkout