Avebury Ave!

Yesterday I made a daytrip to Avebury, to admire
and investigate its ancient features.
Here's a good link about it all:
http://www.stonehenge-avebury.net/aburybuilding.html

Primarily at Avebury one thinks of its stone circle...
best appreciated by walking around it, or failing that
from arial photos such as this from Google Earth..

On the ground the stones grab the attention...





But the ditch around the outside of the circle
is just as impressive in its way...

I liked the textures of the stones, this one with
accompanying lichen growth...

and this without.

Stretching away from the Avebury ring
is the West Kennet Avenue, believed
to be a ritual walkway of some kind.



and running out into the chalky downland,

towards what would once have been another impressive
circular structure now marked out with modern stone markers:
interesting to see, but not easily illustrated with
a photo (sorry about that).

Around about in nearby fields Round Barrows
abound....

some of which can be spotted for miles around
due to the clump of beech trees growing on them!



Such spots seemed a particular draw to those
of a pagan persuasion and this one at least
had a little makeshift shrine on its "summit".
Was the draw here worship of the trees? or worship
of the ancestors entombed here? (if the later it seems
a little arbitary. What about those in the tombs not
so lucky to have trees on, or those in barrows long
ploughed over?) I thought the plastic sunflower "planted"
at another location was pushing the whimsy just
a tad far....

Fortunately no-one got around to ploughing
over this other major feature hereabouts....the West Kennet
Long Barrow. You may think Hetty Pegglars Tump
is impressive, but that's peanuts compared to this one!!

Big, impressive "doorway"

into cavenous interior with plenty of
headroom

and even substantial side chambers. Splendidly evocative.

One last site to behold as I walked back towards
Avebury (and my car) was the massive artifical
Silbury hill. To get a sense of scale, note the white
van/lorry passing by. Big! Lets hope the fears
of it collapsing are unfounded!

Completing a Loop

I left home at 5.30am and was in
Hay-on-Wye by 7.30am. Then after walking
5 miles and ascending 2000ft I felt
it was a good moment to stop, admire
the view from Hay Bluff....and have some
breakfast!

The aim thereafter was to walk from there
along the long Hatteral ridge and down to Pandy Inn.
This image, from Google Earth conveys something
of the experience, although one should picture the
far end swathed in grey cloud, dampening the later
stages of my days walk!

So I continued on my way across the winding path
on windy moor....birds, sheep, ponies and the
only very occasional other walker for company.

There may have been few walkers today
but over the years there have been thousands,
each of us wearing away at the peaty soil, as
testified to by heather-topped stumps such as this..

Finally descending to Pandy Inn after
61/2 hours (four of them on the hilltop!)
I achieved an end to a major phase in my current
walking project. The circle joining Monmouth
and Hay, via Wye Valley walk and Offas Dyke path
is now complete. Hurrah!

Random lines

Here's a little collection of pictures from my
last set of day's off....with a bit of a linear
theme!

Avoiding the heat of the heatwave days
with an early walk gave me the opportunity
of catching this shade of sunlight colouring
on a stubbly field....



In Westonbirt Arboretum, more lines.....



...and a bit of attractive pattern on the trunk
of a Tingiringi gum tree (I like that name!) .



In the grass, occasional spiders webs retained
pearl drops of dew (lines and globules!)



Speaking of spiders, and lines.....a spider on
a sedge leaf in my garden pond...



Also found in my pond, a feather...



Two final photos that are just nicely
colourful (forget the linear theme now!)

Meadow campion



...and a gatekeeper butterfly, enjoying the sun.
(I hope you have been too!)

Holiday in Norfolk: well, visiting Ely in fact.

Before leaving East Anglia entirely
I tool the opportunity of dropping in
on Ely to revisit the cathedral

whose two highlights (for me at least)
are the cental tower and its internal
"Octogon", and the remaining pieces of
stone carving (having survived the Reformation)
in the Lady Chapel

Unusually I was able to get a view up
to the Octogon from a directly central position.
Normally this is occupied by an altar but this
had been moved for a "Rave in the Nave"
youth service.

This next shot I took on a "fireworks" setting.
I like the effect, don't you?

What's going on in this shot? Answers on
a postcard please....





A "Green Man"

and another one...



Finally, I could not resist this amusing
composition (no disrespect to the bishop!)

Holiday in Norfolk: Across the Brecks

I drove homeward via the Brecklands.
Around Thetford are large plantations
of conifers, but away from there are
striking long avenues of scots pines

These started out life as managed hedges,
planted as windbreaks in the 19th century
to cut down on sandstorms as the topsoil
blew away from the brecks (temporarily
cultivated fields)

I stopped off to visit Grimes Graves.
(Link: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/ConProperty.24/chosenImageId/2)
Having visited the small display at the reception
office I had a look down in the cool depths
of the flint mine pit open for viewing.
Then I wandered over the "minefield" interested
not only by the pock marking of the surface from
1000 years worth of flint mining....

..but, as you might expect, by the fauna and flora
around me.
This is an essex skipper (butterfly)

and unless I am mistaken, this is a silver-spotted
skipper (its quite rare, but increasing, I believe)

This is rock rose...







this is some sort of vetch

..and this is a speedwell (apparently
the breckland heaths have several
varieties of speedwell, to the great
delight of the more knowledgeable)


.... as for birdlife, well I managed to add
another "first" moment to my holiday.
I visited Weeting Heath and was able
to watch some stone curlews (big yellow eyes
"knobbly knees". Quite rare) ...and here's
a photo to prove it!