Neolithic & Other Wonderments

Before heading to the historic blipmeet, I spent a day and a half with son#1 - apologies but this is going to be a long entry with many links! He collected me from the airport and we zoomed off to the airbnb (unexpectedly and very pleasantly I had the whole flat to myself as my host was elsewhere). We then walked down to Bristol Museum to see the Grayson Perry tapestries: The Vanity of Small Differences Truly astonishing - so complex, witty and erudite. Then on to watch The Isle of Dogs - beautifully done and very funny and poignant. Followed by a massive pizza. 

Day 2 with son and we nipped across the border to Wiltshire for a day of Neolithic wonderment. First up Avebury . No matter how many times you go, you are stopped each time in your tracks by the sheer wonder of it all  - a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the largest henge and stone circle anywhere and everything is colossal! There is even a very pleasant village inside the circle! The stones are massive as are the mighty banks of the henge itself. How on earth did they do it? And why?

It not actually raining,and fuelled by cheese and spinach scones, we decided to walk on to Silbury Hill , my favourite monument ever. Again, it is gigantic - a huge green pudding in the landscape. We walked through damp fields full of primroses and mating black beetles, following a small river, watched all the time by Silbury which seems to roll gently along the landscape,  Built around 2500BC it covers 5 acres and no one really knows what it is. The burial place of King Sil - he is said to be in there somewhere on his horse. Or  is it the Goddess resplendent in the landscape? We got quite close and I was thrilled to see its watery moat for this only happens at this time of year - the Goddess being impregnated according to some. It's been excavated numerous times, once famously televised by the BBC, and apart from a bridle, which has since vanished, nothing has been found. It Whatever it is the energies are rampant.

We then walked through more wet fields, crossed a small ford (best boots now wrecked) and went up to admire 
West Kennet Long Barrow - a burial chamber in use for 1000 years and constructed 1000 years before Silbury. From up here the views were sublime and everywhere on the landscape were dotted interesting things- barrows, tumps.

Finally, we trudged through more waterlogged fields to find a holy well - yes, a truly ancient spring that may be the cause of all this. It was magnificent - approached through a wicker arch, a huge old willow now curled over, festooned with clooties, the spring flowing underneath. Again this is only really full of water in the Spring. We loved it but son#1 was now weak with hunger so we had to hurtle back to the cafe before they closed and refuell. We were impressed to find we had covered seven miles!
A shower and we treated ourselves to supper in Canteen. Phew!