bunn

Brythen and I are off to an introductory Treibball class this evening on Dartmoor.  It is supposed to be a herding game for dogs, using balls rather than sheep.

I have a suspicion that I shall arrive and find we are in a class of border collies...

I just hope he stays awake.  If he gets everything wrong, but stays awake, at least everyone will know he's trying.

"Grattius, too, writes that "great glory exalts the far-distant Celtic dogs" and refers to the Vertragus, an ancestor of the modern greyhound. "Swifter than thought or a winged bird it runs, pressing hard on the beasts it has found" (204ff).

Arrian has much to say about the dog in the Cynegeticus, written in Greek about AD 150 as a supplement to the manual of Xenophon. Arrian suggests that Xenophon must not have known of the Vetragus, which was named for its swiftness; otherwise, he never would have written that a hound cannot catch a hare except by luck. If the Vertragus does not run down the hare, it must be because of broken ground or a concealing thicket or ditch. A hare startled too close will not even have a chance to run at all.

"Splendid animals, the best bred of them, with fine eyes, fine bodies all over, fine coats, and fine appearance" (III.7), they should be long from head to tail, with a sturdy build, a muzzle that comes to a point, and large soft ears. The eyes should be prominent, large and bright and "should astonish the man who sees them" (IV.5). Again, he corrects Xenophon: "The color makes no difference, whatever it may be, not even if hounds are black or tan or white all over" (VI.1)."
(from http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/miscellanea/canes/canes.html )

Now here was I thinking that the Large Soft Ears were just him! Not that he would catch a hare, but mostly because he agrees with Arrian : " "For one does not take hounds out in order to catch the beast, but for a race and competition, at least if one is a true sportsman."

It's been a while since I reported on the This Will Not Do campaign - ie, dealing with Brythen's tendency to disappear over the horizon and come back when he felt like it.

( On and on and on about the Big Puppy, longlines, recall and bunnies. Bunnies everywhere! )

Yesterday was an odd weather day.  The clouds were sitting very low over the country, hovering barely out of reach above the hilltops and occasionally sending down streamers of mist onto the taller hills on the edge of Dartmoor.  Under the cloud, very still, clear air, so that despite the mists, you could see a very long way - all the way along the coast, way past Plymouth into the South Hams,  and West as far as the china-clay spoilheaps of St Austell.   All of this under a close-fitting lid of thick grey cloud. 

( In which the Big Puppy is Bad. )
'We still don't know if we will have to move house or not, and likely will not know for a while.  Part of me is saying that it would be interesting to go somewhere different rather than lurking here in my traditional rut, and it might push me into doing new things, or provide new opportunities. 

I have definitely BEEN in a rut for some time, and it has been a little depressing.  In a way, the sudden uncertainty is welcome because ruts are dull.  But another (lazier) part of me is groaning at the thought of the sheer effort and expense of it all, and thinking that 1) I like my rut and 2) I could probably climb a *short* way out of my rut and try something new without actually going to the effort of having to put everything in boxes.

I am having a happy moment about Az.
( Read more... )