Avalon?

For a while now I have puzzled as to whether the ditches around round barrows were designed intensionally to fill with water? And whether this represents an early manifestation of the connection between water, or rather crossing it, and death? An idea that later appears in myths such as 'Charon' the ferryman to Hades, or Arthur being taken to the isle of Avalon; that water or a river connects and separates the worlds of the dead and the living.

Red Rise Brook

Even though rain has remained a feature, Red Rise Brook has retreated back within its banks.

Winter Solstice at Stonehenge

The proceeding weather would have suggested a different morning, one of dense cloud inundating the land, but no, we were afforded an almost clear sky, with just enough cloud to facilitate interest on the horizon as the Sun rose swiftly from the East. The gathered masses at Stonehenge were euphoric at the Suns rising.

Winter Solstice

From the depths of winters cold embrace,
Through the horns of the Moon we glimpse a face.

The face of the reborn Sun,
Giving us hope for the summer to come.

Have a cool Yule y'all.

Red Rise

Markway Bridge

The course of Red Rise Brook had become lost in the watery me-lee which presently runs through the valley, only distinguishable to those with prior knowledge of the shade and stream. The waters run high, the flow only centimetres from overwhelming Markway Bridge.

Another 44

Another piece of  '44' graffiti, again from Wilverley, but from the other end of the enclosure, over a mile away.  This time just the numbers, no accompanying letters or name.

Great Huntley Bank

By the time Highland Water passes through great Huntley Bank, it's beginning to grow to resemble a small river, rather than a stream. It wont be long now, before Highland Water leaves the shades of the forest as nears its union with the Solent.

Brinken Beeches

The mature Beech stands of Brinken Wood have a special magic about them, a majesty, a presence; in spring the canopy will thicken a fresh and create an almost cathedral feel to the enclosed space below, now though, open to the skies it is a different space and yet the magic remains.

AH 1944

AH was in Wilverley Enclosure in 1944, quite possibly, like others, a serviceman passing through in preparation for invasion. Although this enclosure has several graffiti hot spots, this is the first war period piece I've found. Below the initials and year are what appear to be 3 vertical lines; I have no idea what they represent and like many other woodland graffiti marks, will remain an enigma. The mighty Beech tree has graffiti from other periods too, the earliest being from the 1883 (the Beech was probably about 100 years old at the time, give or take a decade or two), when sections of the enclosure was relatively newly planted.  Though stretched through time, the figures '1883' are still clearly legible, although the letters which accompanied it are stretched beyond recognition. Wilverley was first enclosed 1775, then again 34 years later in 1809, but then thrown open in 1846 and re-enclosed in 1896. 

Causeway sunset

A far more muted Sunset today, not the riot of bright colours captured from Puckpits; the Sun over the River Avon disappears beyond the cloud strewn horizon through risings mists, growing in density by the moment. Just as colourful, yet more diffused and pastel in nature. The low laying land around the causeway, no longer fit for cattle, becomes an extended playground come feeding area for myriads of Swans and other water foul. Historically this area would have been wet throughout the year, a wetland estuarine environment, packed with resources and popular with humans since the Mesolithic, and in all likelihood far beyond that in to our most distant past.

Puckpits

Our Timeless forest.

 

'Nowhere, too, in the forest, than in these woods [Puckpits], have I seen more lovely sunsets' John R Wise, 1862: The New Forest.

Milliford Brook

Milliford Brook, just above Milliford Bridge, runs shallow and slow at the moment, giving no indication of the torrents which can race through the woodland after rainfall over its extensive catchment.

Tyneham Valley Sunset

The Sun goes down on another glorious day in the Purbecks.

Tyneham Valley

Preserved in time as a consequence of the worst excesses of human violence.

Tyneham

Stolen away from the people who lived there as part of the war effort, with the promise of safe return; the ruins of Tyneham remind us that our government doesn't alway hold to its word.  Derelict for more than 60 years, these hollowed halls once echoed to the sounds of county life, mostly unchanged for hundreds of years. Now only accessible at weekends and a couple of other times through the year, for the most part they're off limits as part of Lulworth Ranges. Though, looking down on the village from Flowers barrow, I wondered what the land, untouched really for 60 years, would have looked like if the military had not requisitioned it. With access to the bay, where a small fishing community was already established, and its idyllic location and aspect, could the valley have become over developed into something ugly.

Lookout

Nonchalant to their feathered friend, cows relax on the slopes above Duck Hole Bog as the crafty Magpie surveys his surroundings from the safety of his beef stronghold.

Ober Winter

The forest streams have quickly receded, the Ober below Markway Bridge was running gentle and slow, fordable in wellingtons today. The ground though, remains sodden and represents awkward walking throughout.

Regeneration

Only harvested earlier in the year, this section of Wilverley has already been cleared and prepared for a new crop of coniferous trees to be planted. This process continues yearly throughout the forest and particularly evident through the patchwork of old and new, deciduous and coniferous which is Wilverley.