Knowlton

Equinox ritual

The Dorset Groves open Spring Equinox ritual at Knowlton Rings, like the Clan of the Pheryllts, may have taken place in less than spring like chilly conditions but the atmosphere was warm and welcoming. The Dorset Grove always put a lot of time, effort and love into their open rituals, rituals which are multi faceted, today's included a Spring play, buns, cakes, chocolate, a Yew Awen coin, meditation, a piece of Apple wood, a seasonal sprig as well as a Shaman, along with the more familiar ritual aspects. Which was nice.

Here and Now, Live at The Bruton Castle

It happened that the legendary Here and Now band were performing a free/donations warn up gig in the Somerset backwater of Bruton on good Friday. Well, it would've been rude not to have attended. We first saw the Here and Now band 30 yeas ago supported by the Cardiacs and were blown away, since then I can't remember how many times we've seen them, or in how many manifestations, their albums (or live stuff) rarely far from the stereo.

Now, Slim Verhoef, Here and Nows guitarist, had posted 'get there early!', so filled with the fear of arriving only not to get in, which we remember experiencing in the 80's when going to see the band in Bristol, we arrived at the venue sometime before 5 O'clock. A bit previous perhaps; though better safe than sorry. The Bruton Castle pub was empty of punters, although we were afforded the pleasure of hearing the band rehearse, which was nice :o)  The Bruton Castle is a great little venue, friendly bar keep, nice beers, nice food, potato and leek soup only £3!, no complaints there. So we settled back and as the bar slowly filled we enjoyed a laugh, the locals banter and smiled as they bothered the band for a go on the drums, whilst a sleepy Keith the Bass, head resting in hand tried for a nap, and we waited for the bands performance. Just before 9.30 the band vanished from the bar area, our que to make for the back room.  

The band opened with a fantastic sweeping psychedelic jam which set the tone nicely for the rest of the show, followed by tracks including 'Floating Anarchy', 'Opium for the People' and a beautiful rendition of 'Ali Baba' from their 1978, 'Floating Anarchy' album, 'Jacques Cousteau', 'secrets', 'Fantasy shift' and 'So glad you're here' off the 1983 'Fantasy Shift' album, 'What you see is what you are' and 'Little things' (encore) from my favourite album, the 1979 'All over the show', plus a couple I couldn't remember the names of, finishing as is their way with 'So glad you're here', bloody marvellous, all played with vigour and enthusiasm. Man, what set! Keith The Bass (Bass), Mark Robson (keyboards), Andy Roger (keyboards) and Slim Verhoef (lead guitar) were joined on drums by a guy called Mike Giri (Normally it's Nik Nimbus on drums), now bearing in mind this chap had a mere 3 hour rehearsal and apparently had not even heard the encore track, he played a blinding gig (they all did), really knocking it out, fair play, man.  All in all, it was a fantastic evening, a memorable evening. The gig was a magic hat affair and I really hope that folk participated in the magic as the band had certainly done their part in creating some magic. As always, Here and Now never fail to leave you smiling and wanting more.

If you've never seen Here and Now, what's wrong with you! And more to the point, where have you been? Look them up, get to a gig and get blown away, you'll never look back, but you'll certainly be back for more :o)

Glastonbury

Glastonbury Tor in Somerset never fails to impress, no matter what the season or weather, it's easy to see why it has inspired people through the ages. An area steeped in history, mystery and magic.  During prehistory Glastonbury Tor would have risen  from what would have been a vast wetland environment of open water and expanses of reed, a rich and productive environment and one popular from the Neolithic to Iron Age and beyond until draining the land began in the Roman period.  As you climb the long path which rises up the spine of the Tor, you are afforded views which extend for miles in all directions. The weather was cold and windy today otherwise we'd have stayed a while and really taken it all in, rather than descending as quickly as we could after are arrival at the summit.

Nunney Castle

What?

What?

The Avon Valley

It's easy to imagine the Avon valley in prehistoric times, when the Barrow building cultures of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages build the funerary monuments on the high ground bordering what was then an extensive estuarine wetland, which from the Iron Age had the impressive fortified settlement and important trading hardour of Hengistbury Head at its mouth.  When the weather is wet, areas of the landscape revert to their former prehistoric state and standing water is common for several months of the year.

Wetland

Storm clouds race over a forest wetland.

Pony

Born in the forest, a life in the forest and a death in the forest, the New Forest ponies, so much part of the forest. You see them throughout all seasons; enduring the harsh winters with ice on their coats, bearing foals in spring, seeking shade amongst the woodland fringe from the bright summer sun and gathered in great groups for tail marking in the autumn drifts. The most sturdy of equine breeds.

Help!

This lifebuoy, once positioned at the rear of the coastal path, now finds itself in need of saving as the fossil rich sticky clay landslips at Barton envelop it in their attempt to return to their watery birthplace.  The engineered slope of the cliffs here once had its base a meter or so behind the lifebuoy, with the shoreline 10 meters beyond, now though the slides have reached the sea and are eroded away at each high tide. It's only now, several weeks after the initial slump, that you can tentatively walk over the clay slides as they've dried a touch, although extreme care is still required if you wish to avoid loosing a boot.

Touchdown

Blue grey clouds, dark and menacing, sweep across the skies, hugging the horizon and periodically touching the deep blue as the weight of moisture became too much, merging withe sea, rejoining the endless cycle.

Scoured Sands

Although the Sun shone brightly, it afforded little warmth as Arctic winds scoured Studland beach. Fine sands, dried by the wind, raced across the intertidal as streamers of white fluffy cloud raced through the azure skies above us, far from shore white horses were driven landward; the elements were rioting, nature was flexing her muscles and it was a mighty fine day to be walking through it all.

Godlingston Heath Bunker

Godlingston Heath has 3 uniquely designed pillboxes situated on small knolls. They are semi sunken variant pillboxs with sloping fronts. This example has 3 stepped loopholes cover south, west and north, with a covered entrance. It has a red brick skin with re-enforced concrete fill construction, a re-enforced concrete slab roof, still exhibiting marks indicating position of wooden shuttering on inside and screed on outside. Access is through a covered entrance, there is the No 21 painted in white on entrance wall interior. Concrete loophole fillers incorporating steel handles present, the central loophole is blocked whilst the other 2 are open. On either side of the loopholes, 1 steel retaining hook remains. This pillbox remains are in very good condition, the interior is mainly clean and dry. The exterior is in reasonable condition; there is though a hole in the roof although this causes no problem and evidence of small arms fire on sloping front. One of a series of defenses responsible for denying access to South Haven Point and the beach from airborne (or other) attack from inland. Pillboxes in this area appear to have had different uses through the war, primarily to defend Studland beach from airborne (or other) attack from the rear and later possibly as range observation bunkers or targets. Documentary sources report a large number of military exercises taking place on Godlingston Heath and Studland Heath and this structure no doubt played its part. Interior rear wall shows small arms damage, with projectiles still lodged in wall by very good or lucky shot. Associated with site are extensive trench works, which form a defended hill.

Hordle Range

The tide was out at Hordle cliffs, exposing the wide flat sandy beach, overlaid by steep banks of pebbles which abut the cliffs. Amongst the pebbles are the eroding remains of massive concrete slaps, their reinforcing bars protruding and rusting. These are the remains of a military gunnery range used in World War Two, and began their journey to the sea from high above on the cliff tops, where a few platforms still remain. On the slab in the foreground you can still clearly see the what's left of the bolts of a gun mount, occasionally a .303 cal. case, badly decayed, can be found. It wont be long before the sea claims these artifacts, the remaining slabs slide slowly down the cliff face, before too long the site will vanish from sight and memory; a testament to our planets fluidity and the transience of human existence.

Grey

 I know it's very English of me to say, but, oh how I'm bored of this perpetual grey damp weather, oppressive, depressing, bland and so, so, boring.

Mistified

A view down the ramparts of Hambledon Hill, Iron Age Hillfort, through skeletal stands of waking trees, down into deep vales shrouded by silent mists.

Ancient pollard

Ridley wood is ancient woodland. For 500 years at least, trees have held tenure of the place, during the 1500's parts were managed woodland, pollarded trees with under-story grazing, this probably continued until 1698 when the practice was banned to create better quality timber for the navy.  This mighty Beech is representative of that latter period, a pollarded tree left to grow out, hence the multiple trunks, several of which have now been slighted age and the elements.  The old woodland of the forest holds a wonderfully deep sense of tenure on the land, histories swirl through the stands and to weave their paths is to walk through time.

Deer

As spring moves towards us the deer are stirring , more small groups, along with the occasional larger group, have become far more visible.  Alert to our presence, they don't bolt at first, they way us up, our potential threat. The stare off continues for a couple of minuets before the stag turns away slowly, listening intensely, pausing for frequent back glances, just to make sure, and finally the family leave the copse they were grazing in and disappear into an undulous mass of deep heather and scrubby gorse.

Mill Lawn Brook

One of the two forks of head water from which Mill Lawn Brook flows. 

Watering hole

Throughout the forest there are permanent pools, many may shrink some through the summer months, but they endure. Some sited in woodland, others in the open heath, but most on the interface of those two environments. I'm not sure how many are natural, many are most certainly the result of aggregate extraction during previous periods, all though create vital watering holes for a myriad of forest creatures. Signs of their activity are visible all around the pool edge.

Mogshade

Lightning Tree

Hidden in plain sight, isolated on an open heathland slope, a hollowed lightning tree; an mature Oak with a blackened core, but a thriving shell.  It's position, alone in the open, would make it an ideal conductor, a magnet for lightning. I have walked the place many times, yet this tree has never revealed itself before. The forest never ceases to surprise.

Gnarly wood

Clean Cut

In recent weeks they've been cutting more sections of Markway Enclosure, a rather recent enclosure in forest terms only created in 1959, clear cutting coniferous stands and thinning deciduous ones.  The clearance has dramatically altered the landscape. A landscape, so familiar to me since I was a child has become alien. You get used to a landscape, locate yourself and navigate through its familiar landmarks and when they change, it can be quite disorientating.  

Will you Marry me?

I wonder what 'Nads' answer was?

Uber Water

Below Puttles Bridge Uber Water appears a gentle woodland stream, although the exposed roots and scoured ground of its banks are testament to the force of water which flows at times of heavy rain. Uber Water has an extensive drainage basin, which can cause water levels to rise at an alarming speed. A couple of miles further downstream, Uber Water joins Highland Water and shortly after becomes the Lymington River, the greatest of the forest rivers.

Inside out

The view from up through a completely hollowed out Beech tree. Still standing, still producing leaves and to all intents and purposes still growing; a testament to the strength and endurance of trees.

Sir Dudley's ride

Sitting Oak

On the fringe of Berry Wood is this stubby Oak, its small stature belies its age, which by its girth would be a few hundred years.  One of the most accessible trees I've come across, its knobbly trunk allows easy ascent, with several comfortable spots to sit on its two main boughs. I'll return in warmer times to sit awhile and absorb the sights, sounds and ambiance of this lovely Oak and its surroundings.  It's always nice to find a new ancient tree.

Cockpit Head

After so long under winters grey blanket, when the Sun shines it's a real tonic. The air is clean and fresh, and from the crown of Cockpit Head and you're afforded good views in both directions along the coast. Looking East your eyes dances across Warbarrow Bay, with its recognizable Tout, past Broad Bench and Kimmeridge to the distant quarried nose of St Aldhelm's Head.  A perfect early spring day.

Falco

 A Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) hovers on high, eyeing its prey as it scurries far down below amongst the rough grasses and scree of Cockpit Head.

Moss

Brinken Wood is quite a damp wood, with some areas impassible through wet periods and the remainder spongy under foot.  As a consequence mosses and lichens thrive; look closely and there are so many different types.  All intricate and detailed, forming dense miniature forests of their own which carpet the trunks of the mature forest trees.  

Craters?

This is one of 4 fairly regular sized circular features in a linear spread between 20 and 30 meters apart, which extends through part of Brinken Wood and out across Warwickslade.  I can't be certain, but they remind me of and present similar features to craters caused by bombs, as I've seen on World War Two military ranges. It was common for bombers and fighters to dump any undelivered ordinance before their return journey, the size of these craters suggests the latter.  Less than half a mile East at Allum Green in 1940, 4 soldiers of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps were killed in a bombing raid and 14 men injured. It's possible this site could be connected.

Ramparts

One of the terminal ends of rampart belonging to Castle Piece, a Iron Age hillfort in Roe Enclosure (1811).  A uivallate (one ditch, one rampart), sloping enclosure, the site would have afforded little defence and rather than a fort we should view Castle Piece as lightly defended developed settlement, supporting an extended family or two along with their animals.  A nice site with a pleasant ambiance. 

Spawn!

The pond in Green Ford Bottom is deep in frog spawn, 10cm deep in places; the seasonal pools too which form around the bottom, between two fingers of Linford Brook are filled the tapioca of amphibian life. I know a lot never reaches fruition, but still, if half what's spawned here, or less even make it, the forest in these parts will be alive with frogs.

Slippage

Years of revetment work and extensive drainage systems can't, and more importantly, won't, hold back nature when she wants to move.  The clay, sand and gravel banded cliffs of Barton, rich in fossils from a period 40 million years ago when the area was a massive warm lagoon, are on the move, home towards the sea.  Water puddles on the clay layers forming a viscus surface allowing tons of soil to shift; whole sections have slipped. Paths are smothered, or ripped a part, drainage pipes fractured and steel shuttering separated and bent with ease.  Quite the spectacle to behold; leaving you in awe of nature.  Though, we should learn to cut our loses in these circumstances, we're not going to win, merely delay the inevitable. 

Snowdrops

You know when spring is on its way, when the woodland banks are carpeted in the white and green of the Snowdrop. 

Ferny Barrows

The forest is shrouded in fine missal, dampness is everywhere, clinging to everything and the ground yields easily under every foot; all sound is muffled, subdued, and still, only the occasional bark of a distant hound, carried from on far. The open heath and bog adjacent to Ferny Knap (1843) feel desolate, exposed, but free. Ferny Barrows, Bronze Age burial mounds, lay on an island of dry land surrounded by streams and wetland, although not on high ground, their siting in a natural bowl makes them a prominent feature in the local landscape. This prominence is enhanced by one of the barrows being considerable in size, 18m diameter and almost 1.5m high.  Although the mound has been robbed, a tell tale linear trench marking the intrusion of an 1800's antiquarian, it remains substantial as does the encompassing ditch, now filled with water to over boot depth in sections.  It's a place with a calm presence, on a drier day I'd stop a while.

Faith

It dawned on me today that I've always, unwittingly, made an assumption when recording woodland graffiti, that is, that graffiti was made by men. Why is that? Why have I associated this activity with males and was I right. I've asked some women their view and they too said they too thought it was more a male thing. I think it's an activity that mainly males engage in, young males at that, although not exclusively, as this piece shouts girl!

Admiralty mark

A common mark on many a forest tree, the Admiralty arrow marks a tree identified for ship building.  The potential of this straight Beech was recognized and the customary arrow cut into its young bark. Although, time and technology overtook the need for ship building timber and this tree, along with so many others, was spared the mill.