JulieAmaranth
Just when the villagers began visiting the Damson trees, no-one quite remembered. Not one villager could tell you, if you stopped and asked them, why they carried their willow baskets through the hills and hollows by the light of the harvest moon to Taghart Beag.
They just did, every year on a that day; the day called Damson Sunday.
If you've never tasted a damson fruit then I advise you never to eat them plucked fresh from a branch or you'll hate them. You'll curse their purple flesh as you spit it under your feet.
But boil them up with sugar and you'll have summer in a jar all winter long.
The villagers of Realaghan knew this well and over two days and two nights they would boil, bottle and store their jam for the coming winter months.
And so it was, until one August a hare was spotted around the village.
Why is is he here? The children asked their parents.
What does it mean? The parents asked their grandparents.
A visitor, one old woman replied, a visitor comes.