sometimes surprises come along and totally take your breath away
and I have never been more surprised than when an order came in late last year for a papa hare by a customer whose first name is ~ Leveret ~ !!
omg! a person called Leveret?!! yeah! really!
wow! I was totally floored!
for those of you who don't already know, a leveret is a baby hare, and I adore all things leveret and hare, why ofcourse I do!
and so after ascertaining Leveret's tastes and likes I rustled up a papa to suit
with deer, celtic symbolism, grey herringbone tweed and a lilac grey harris tweed, some sparkly xmas tinsel from my tree, and one sparkling brown eye and one glistening night-sky-blue eye
and after considering the rich information I had to work with, I sat with the beautiful hare for a while to consider his name, and since all my hares are named 'by the stars' - I waited for his name 'to come to me'
and ofcourse it did, and Leveret's hare was graced with a suitably beautiful name
~AryanStar~
and I rustled up a neat fun story just for AryanStar
and printed it out and made it into a purdy lil book
though, cause it was kinda special, and I was so excited about making a hare for a Leveret :) haha, I used the hardback cover of one of my old Russian books
and added some stuffs that reflected AryanStar's story
I always make sure to personalise my hare stories as much as possible
it is so much fun to write them!
infact if I am doing it correctly then they always write themselves
I added some pics along with his story - those salt piles kinda look like stars eh, cause he was named after the Orion constellation
- every evening as I fall asleep I have the sparkling stars from the Orion constellation shining in my windows, looking over me -
and because Leveret loves the book The Never Ending Story, and the amulet in that is called Auryn, I sorta mixed the letters around to incorporate it into his hares name, Aryan, - (yeah, the u became an a), and the pronunciation is the same, -Orion-Aryan- and added Star on - cause we all come from the stars!
so some more salt stars....
~ a hare for a Leveret ~ what could be more perfect?
and omg! i jsut saw this on facebook tonight doing the rounds
a leveret of another sort - this one is a New Zealand rugby player -
and honestly! I kid you not, he runs exactly like a hare!!!
(the resemblance is uncanny!)
(and he's kinda cute too!)
Post by DJ Reminise.
so...
AryanStar was inspired by Leveret's love of The Never Ending Story and anthropology - best you go grab a coffee and make yourself comfy, enjoy...
Papa Hare AryanStar
One very cold night a new baby came into the world. It was
an early winter’s evening and the stars blanketed the whole night’s sky as he
made his appearance. His mother gasped in disbelief when she first saw him but
got to work immediately licking him dry with her soft tongue lest he get a
chill. As soon as she was done she bundled him into her warm underbelly and
gave him his very first meal. AryanStar guzzled and suckled away and soon he
was fast asleep amongst her fur with only the slightest bit of his little rump
showing. And em, it was a very unusual rump at that and mama just sat there and
stared and stared at it the whole night long. Because it was the first time she
had ever seen a leveret with a ridge of fur on his rump. And not just any ridge
of fur, but a very pronounced ridge of fur, my my! And not just any very
pronounced ridge of fur but a sparkly silvery very pronounced ridge of fur,
goodness gracious me! Not to mention the unusual markings on his hindquarters
too.
By morning mama had managed to collect herself, having
spent the whole night staring and exclaiming, and was now nearly sort of over
her astonishment of her baby’s fur. She was rather tired and suppressed a yawn,
unlike AryanStar who had slept soundly the whole night and on first light
peered up at her, smiled then squeaked ‘mama’. Mama softly patted his head and
whispered AryanStar, and upon hearing his name he grinned in delight.
Last night, not a few minutes after mama had licked him
dry one of the stars from the well known Orion constellation fell to earth and
brought with it his name, as it is a well known hare fact that all baby hares
are named by the stars and that the stars give them their names not long after
they are born. The mamas just have to be a little patient at times and wait for
it to arrive. Anyway, mama knew there and then that her leveret would be called
Orion, from the hunter constellation, as no hares ever leave earth when it is visible
in the night’s sky and so it protects the hares from hunters, from all hunters,
and there are many, many hunters of hares. And she also knew that because her
baby had that astonishing and very, very unusual sparkly silvery pronounced
ridge of fur on his back, and those interesting squirly markings on his flanks,
that that was really part of a star in him, and his name would have to reflect
that, and so she named him OrionStar.
Only unbeknown to her, mama had gotten the spelling
slightly wrong.
Not to worry, the stars would see to it that her leveret
would get it right later on when he was able to read and write.
A few days later mama took him out for his first
excursion. It was pleasant and sunny and even slightly warm, so they meandered
slowly along the meadow and mama pointed out this and that and that and this.
AryanStar gasped and paused and smiled and smiled and paused and gasped. There
were just so many, many exciting things in the world!
Then, very strangely, they came across an unattended picnic
blanket. Goodness!
Mama blinked in surprise and looked around her, surely it
must be a mistake? No-one in their right mind would be having a picnic in
winter. Good grief.
Anyway, she surely wasn’t going to waste any time and let
an opportunity fall by the wayside, so she immediately got to work and started
poking nosily about, sniffing the folded newspaper, glancing at the jackets,
turning the wicker basket over to see what fell out.
AryanStar immediately darted inside the wicker basket and
mama heard him let out a small gasp. He was in there for quite a while before
emerging with a stash of long smoothly shaped white things in his paws. His fur
was smeared in something and he smelled simply awful. Never-the-less he bundled
the things into a sheet of torn newspaper and eagerly licked his paws with
satisfaction. Then started on his fur, licking it over and over and over,
smacking his lips closed every single time, completely enjoying himself.
Meanwhile mama went over to the jackets and gripping the
corner of one with her big strong teeth she dragged the heavy lump across the
blanket to see what treasures lay underneath it, or fell out of the pockets.
Mama had never failed to be surprised yet.
And today was her lucky day, because lo and behold, as the
jacked slithered across the blanket it revealed a very strange and unusual
looking book nestled underneath it.
Mama was about to inspect it but before she got there
AryanStar had spotted it and raced over first, his heart beating wildly. He
squealed up at mama and hopped about madly, yes yes yes! he wanted this big
thing. So mama grimaced a little as she shoved the book with a paw. It was
rather indeed very heavy, but she fashioned a rough bag out of the cloth lining
inside the wicker basket, and slung the book over her shoulder. They would have
plenty of opportunities in the summer to carry away the chocolates and cheese
and crackers, but for today this book would suffice. AryanStar grabbed his
newspaper packet with the awful smell things and they made their way slowly
home, mama having to stop every few paces and rest to get her breath back with
that huge book, the weight of an enormous boulder on her back.
Meanwhile AryanStar ran circles excitedly around her all
the way home, his sparkly rump sparkling away.
Mama was hoping that the book had an interesting story and
not filled with some hocus pocus nonsense about fantasy and strange things and
all that kind of stuff. That would surely send her to sleep in no time,
afterall she was the one having to do the reading.
That night AryanStar got mama to read the new book to him.
When they had gotten home he had cleaned up his brand new collection of chicken
bones and arranged them nicely on his bedroom shelf, then he had been watching
the clock all day long, eagerly waiting for bedtime and his new story.
And that evening the little hare was not disappointed
because it was indeed a very, very interesting story. Though mama’s reading was
a tad bit annoying as she was continually yawning, tut tut. And she made a
couple of comments about the strange smell in his room, and had he remembered
to lick all his paws before bedtime, and wash behind his ears, because if you
don’t, you know, the fur will get smelly. And with that mama looked at him
enquiringly and wrinkled her nose.
And as mama read thru the rather long winded and sometimes
repeating scenarios of the book, her leveret sat there contentedly and happily
soaked it all up. He was particularly excited though when he heard about the
special armlet, and then he mulled the name of it, Auryn, and then one evening
he suddenly announced loudly and determinedly to mama that his name would now
be spelled ‘AryanStar’ as it sounded nearly exactly the same as his star name
and it would have those special letters from that special magical armlet in it.
Amulet, mama corrected him. Armlet, AryanStar repeated.
And with that last utterance he fell fast asleep in mamas
arms, a little smile on his furry lips.
That night though he had a restless sleep and dreamt of
nothing. Well, it was the nothing actually, and he woke up in a
sweaty-fur-stuck-all-together state and had big bags under his eyes. In the
morning mama asked if he was okay and he shook his tiny head and was about
to say no, ofcourse not, and tell
her about the nightmare and the nothing thing and how it was ghastly and nasty
and awful and ugh, but then he stopped himself, because mama might stop reading
the book to him.
Now that AryanStar is all grown up, though he’s not a real
papa yet, but maybe one day, though he has done some leveret sitting and
looking after smaller and younger things than him, anyway he can happily tell
you that he has read the book, The Neverending Story at least 15 times. It
could be more, but he long ago lost count. And every page is well-pawed, em, thumbed.
It is his most favourite book ever and even mama grew to like it, because every
now again he would read bits to her and his enthusiasm was rather infectious.
He is also very proud of his bone collection. He’s got an
assortment of bones from all sorts of species that he’s found, scattered thru
the meadow and down by the river’s edge and it wasn’t long before his shelf was
overflowing with them, so he had to find another place to display them all. But
no, mama definitely did not want any skulls peering at her from the livingroom
display cabinet, so AryanStar had had to keep those ones in his bedroom.
AryanStar is looking forward to relaxing on your armchair
by the French windows with a view to your garden. He sees that you have a very
beautiful garden and he’s sure that there will be some bones of some sort out
there for him to find and drag back in. He just has to rummage around in the
leaf litter and by the edges of the fence to find them, he’s found that that is
where most of them are. A few times he’s come across bones at least 20 times
his size, and he’s absolutely certain that they are dinosaur ones, what with
them being so big. And a few times he’s come across bones that even looked like
hare ones, ugh! how ghastly, brrrrr! now that was scary!! But apart from that,
he is so excited to think about digging around in your garden to see what’s in
there.
What was that, you like bones too but not in that sort of
way. What other way is there then, I mean, a bone is a bone after all and when
you have them all laid out nicely on a shelf, well they just look so em, nice.
And talking about shelves, how about your get rid of some of that clutter on
that one over there so he can place his collection on them. Here, he will give
you a paw to do the clearing, you go and grab a rubbish bag.
And he can also place his special little friend on there
too.
Ages ago, when he was still tiny, mama came across some
unusual material on a picnic blanket one day. Infact I do believe it was the
lining of a jacket, and she must have just nibbled the seam then ripped a big
swath off. Anyway, she stitched up a very special little ornament for him, sort
of like one of those special toys that look really cute and that you want to
hug and play with all the time, but you’re not allowed to. Well, this was a
very special one because it was just like a little minature of him and even had
a raised rump with sparkly shiny stuff on it. He thinks it was tinsel that mama
used, but it will do. Not as nice as his rump ofcourse, but still, it will do.
So, yes, a space on the shelf for this tiny RyanStar will be just grand.
And his book can have pride of place by his pillow,
because every night he still reads it. He’s excited to know that you have read
that book too. And he’s excited to know that you are studying it as well. He
will gladly help you with your dissertation and give you his 2p worth. I mean,
he’s read it well over 15 times, how many times have you read yours? And
there’s no need to mention him in your credits, just pass off his wisdom as
your own. He is your forever hare companion now, so what’s his, well, his
opinion, is yours too. Oh, and you are doing a paper on bones as well. Hmm, how
coincidental is that? So he knows a lot about them as well and can tell you
exactly which meadow and field each and every piece came from. Um, excepting
that piece over there, it came from a sort of different meadow that had
rectangular shaped boulders in it, but please don’t be telling anyone about
that, as the next day there were screaming people all over the place when they
noticed the small hole he had made and the excavated dirt everywhere. It’s
rather a nice bone isn’t it now? What do you think?
Infact he just had a thought, don’t you think it would it
be a nice idea if he dragged his pillow up onto your bed and every night you
read to him, then when he’s fast asleep you can carry him back over to his own
tiny bed and tuck him in. Or even on the very cold nights how about you just
pull the downy up over him and he can snuggle up with you. I mean if cats and
dogs are allowed in beds, why on earth can’t hares be? It’s not like he’s gonna
wet the bed or leave little surprises in it. Oh okay, maybe only 1 or 2, but
hare surprises are like raisins, so they are easy to brush over the side and
onto the carpet. Unless you get one underneath you, and then, oh my god, it’s
like sleeping on a pea all night! What a pain that is.
So how about it then, he’s on page 1082, what page are you
on in yours?
xxx
thank you :)
