Miscellaneous Monday

I've got no problem with ducks doing what ducks do but if they're going to do it outside my tent late at night and early in the morning, I would much rather they kept the quacking down to a civilised level.

Not content with ducks the campsite had a swan too.

There we go, that's better. Once I've got my morning cuppa in hand then I feel much more tolerant to noisy wildlife. If my tent looks a bit lop sided to you, that's because it is - it had a rather heavy collision with somebody in my absence at Moniave and one of the poles is now partially old fishing rod and duck tape (now there's an idea for keeping ducks quiet).

You may remember in my last blog that I'd been to Stonehenge. This blog effectively covers the rest of that Monday. On the way round I passed St Mary the Virgin's Church in Potterne. Not running the tightest schedule in the world, I saw no reason not to pop in for a look.

 I think they definately get the prize for groovy alter cloth of the trip

Well done to the Rose and Crown for being very up to date with your pub sign. There are at least 8 Rose and Crowns in Wiltshire and I have forgotten where this one is. If anyone knows, please say.

After my visit to Stonehenge it was a few hours on the motorway, where it is neither sensible nor unduely interesting to take photos. I was on my way to Haverhill in Cambridgeshire to spend a pleasant couple of days with old school chum Duncan, his wife Fiona and selected offspring. 

This house in Haverhill was built by Henry the eighth as a wedding settlement for Anne of Cleves in 1540

When he was looking for a fourth wife, Henry dispatched the artist Holbein to Germany to paint Anne and her sister, Amalia with the instructions not to be flattering in his paintings. From the painting below, Henry chose to marry Anne. It seems though that Holbein may have helped Anne a little and Henry was distinctly disappointed with the real life Anne. Their marriage was annulled and there after Anne was refered to as the King's Beloved Sister. Anne outlived Henry so it may be a little deceptive that Haverhill has a pub called the Queen's Head considering Henry's reputation for removing them.

Outside the supermarket is this little monument to the ginger tom cat called Owen that used to live in the car park between 1985 and 1996.

They've even carved a few mice round the granite for him

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A leafy gate at the end of the High Street.

And there's me and the rest of the High Street reflected in it.

Stonehenge

On the Monday of my trip I popped down to Stonehenge before I went off on my next leg. I had seen Stonehenge before, briefly out of a car window on the way past but had never been. It's not on a bus route and in order to get their you need your own transport or be willing to fork out for a bus tour. On the forking out front, I did rather well as my Historic Scotland membership covers this as well.

As far as I can sift from the great piles of writings about the circle, work on the circle started about 3100 BC with the circular banks and ditches and a circle of wooden posts. In about 2600 BC the first of the standing stones appear to have been brought to the circle. Over the course of the next thousand years the arrangement of these stones were changed and added to. Much speculation has been made as to how the site was made and how the stones were moved but your guess is probably as good as mine or anything else you might read anywhere else. What does seem quite certain is that some of these stones (the ones refered to as the blue stones) were brought from as far as Wales - I saw a program on the box a couple of years ago stating that they think they have found the exact quarry where the stones originated. It's worth noting that underneath the carpark, 4 postholes have been found and dated to 8000 BC which is considerably older than any of the local ancient monuments.

There is a lot said about not being allowed in amongst the stones and I'm not going to chuck my penny's worth in because after visiting it, I'm not sure what is right. I would have loved to have wandered amongst the stones but if I was allowed, then so would a couple of hundred others that you see some of in the picture below - this was at 11 o'clock on a Monday morning so I dread to think how busy this is on a Weekend afternoon. Perhaps after all, my best view was from the low barrier just outside the circle.

The Creation window

From the first full day of my little tour to the last. I had arrived in Wales the Wednesday afternoon to visit Bev and on the Thursday we drove over to Chester for a look about. The main event of the day was definitely a look at the Cathedral where we found this magnificent window in the refectory. One of the ladies serving food took ten minutes out of her day to show us a few points about the window, which greatly increased our appreciation of it.

The window was made for the cathedral in 2001 by Rosalind Grimshaw. Each panel represents one of the 6 days of creation. The dove of peace over the top of the window is patently obvious but I didn't notice until it was pointed out to me that the hand of God is outlined in white right across the whole window.

Days 5 and 6 - creatures of the waters and the sky and the land  and man.

In the picture below, just  underneath where the two white lines cross is a butterfly. This was drawn by the artist's daughter.

The bottom parts of each of the 6 panels all show a more human aspect of the 6 days of creation. Below for the 6th day, when man was created, we see an ultrasound picture of a baby in the womb.

In the 1st day frame, Ms Grimshaw reproduces the effects of long exsposure photographs of traffic moving on a road, to convey the creation of light. In the background are urban towerblocks.

For the creation of the Earth she has pictured the earth as it would be seen from the space shuttle - part of the shuttle can be seen in the bottom of the picture.

As if the window were not remarkable enough on it's own, what makes it doubly so is that in 1983 Rosalind Grimshaw was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. This is represented in this panel which shows the brain scan of a person suffering from Parkinson's.

Swallows at West Kennet

 It's catch up time on the reading and writing blogs front. As an excuse I must say I've been away for a while although that only accounts for a week. It was a very varied week, admiring the passing world and taking a mighty pile of photographs of the more interesting things that come my way. I have no intention of documenting my travels chronologically, mainly to aid variety but for a first serving I will begin at the beginning with a day in Avebury.

Avebury isn't just a jolly impressive stone circle - the entire area is full of evidence of life in ancient Britain. In the first picture is Silbury hill. At 37 metres high and, comprised of chalk and clay, it is the largest prehistoric man made mound in Europe. Carbon dating has found that it was started in 2400 BC plus or minus 50 years. Excavations of the hill from the 18th century onwards have damaged it badly and now the general public don't have access to go on it.

Burial mounds near the sanctuary. These are early bronze age - about 4000 years old. They're quite common around the area - not all have survived though, some have been excavated or ploughed into fields.

The concrete markers below don't look much but they mark the post holes of the prehistoric circle known as the Sanctuary. Dating from about 3000 BC it is thought that it would originally have been a circle of wooden posts which would have been replaced at a later date by standing stones. It is linked to the main Avebury circle by one of the avenues of ancient stones.

Silbury hill from the West Kennet Longbarrow

The longbarrow itself.

The front of the barrow is faced with several large local sarsen stones

Behind the middle stone, you find the way in.

At some point during excavations, somebody has installed a couple of skylights in the barrow so you can see perfectly well inside. It's very atmospheric and to me feels quite comfortable

As I was turning round to leave I spotted a swallow flitting in and out.

By standing in the shadows of one of the chambers I was able to watch them as they attended to the nest they had made in the opposite chamber.

It was a very pleasant day catching up with some old friends I haven't seen since last year and having a pint in the Red Lion and of course what visit to Avebury would be complete without a wander round the stones.

Moniaive Folk Festival Part 2

Alas it seems that the Moniaive folk festival part 1 blog has been eaten up in the problems that Blogger has been having this last day or so and I just don't have the time to type it all out again. I do have time to leave you with a mainly pictorial tour if the rest of the festival, No particular story to it except that it was all excellent and involved a very late night. My friends over on the Dark Side may find these pictures a little familiar.

The Cairn Chorus

Cassard

Martin Carthy

Chris Parkinson

Breabach

And of course lots of music in the pubs and cafe.

I'm off in the car for a few days now so there will be minimal appearance on me here until my return - hopefully with plenty of tales to tell.