My day started at 3.15am preparing a flask and something to eat, setting out in the early hours on the hour and a half journey to Avebury....
I decided to stop atop Overton Hill just outside Avebury, it was 5.15 and the sun was coming up fast. It had been a clear night and there was a brisk easterly breeze blowing, so warm it was not!
it was light already so didnt hang about getting the camera out.... you would have thought it would be quiet up there but no... the morning chorus was in full song, the ravens, the larks, pheasants and grass warblers singing away...
I had about 15 minutes untill sunrise so i stood awhile and stilled my thoughts, felt the wind on my face, and just listened to the countryside...my eyes felt gritty from tiredness and driving in the dark... i started to feel dizzy, it felt like the ground moved under my feet, up and down like being on a trampoline... i put it down to lack of sleep!
So i decided to take a little walk over to the row of 3 burial mounds just over the road.. less than a hundred yards away, it felt like it only took me a second to walk it, but by time i had reached them my mind was clear and alert yet i felt very calm...
Before long a thin red sliver of sun had nipped the horizon silouhetting the trees in the distance, it looked goregous!
You just dont realise how fast the sun moves, in less than 2 minutes it was off the horizon and rapidly climbing in the sky......
The sun had lifted of the horizon, it had changed from deep red, though golden hues to brilliant white, and light was once again restored to the land.
I was cold now and needed a walk to warm up, so after a quick cup of 'flask tea' i set off, north-ish up the ridgeway towards a group of barrows on the northern end of Overton hill i've not visited before....
It was so peacefull up there.. at that time of day on a weekday there are no tourists... not even any locals !
Not a soul in sight, just me, the birds and the occaisional rabbit..
It didnt take long, maybe 30mins to reach them... they are all now covered with beech trees... tall green sentinels guarding the sacred ground.
i came off the main path to go down to the barrows and instinctivley dropped one knee to the ground....
there, 200/ 300 yards ahead and off to the left of the path where 4 young deer in the edge of a field of bright yellow rape seed... 2 were very young with only their heads visable, the other 2 slightly older, head and shoulders above the crop. I knelt down and kept my head down for a few moments...
Slowly i lifted my head up to check their possition.. yup, still there... a gust of wind told me i was up wind of them, they had probably picked up my scent already, head down again... stay out of sight... as silently as possible i changed lens's on the camera.
Slowly i looked up again... this time they were all staring intently in my direction...
Part 2.
I didn't have chance.... before i could even lift the camera to my eye they were off...! bounding through the long grass... Quickly and as silently as i could i followed their direction hoping they might settle again in the next field.
As i rounded the base of the burial mound the deer had gone, but now something else had my attention....
There, on the other side of the small shallow valley was the ancient stone avenue winding it way towards Avebury...
Suddenly i became aware of where i was... often i've walked the avenue looking up at the barrows on the hill wondering how to get up there, and now i was here, as if i'd been led there...
I sat for three quarters of an hour or so on the furthest barrow overlooking the valley, watching the long shadows of me and trees gradually getting shorter down the hillside, a perfect sillhouett of the tree topped barrows, except not on the horizon but shadow, projected onto the hillside... listening to the birds, hoping for the deer to show again, and watching two pheasants persue a hen into the middle of the field.. out in the open where she had no cover to escape to... i smiled to myself.. clever boys... one of them was getting laid today!
The morning was beautifull, golden sunlight streaming through the trees.. quiet and peacfull save for the birdsong.
As i sat leaning against one of the old beech trees i remembered an old schoolboy trick.... on a windy day find a big smooth barked tree, press one ear to the trunk and put your finger in the other... As the wind blew i could hear the tree inside creaking and groaning against the wind, once in a while a gust of wind would make the branches high up clatter together and i could feel the gently bending and bowing trunk move against my head...
Every so often the silence was broken by the ocassional car or van driving along the road that runs alongside the avenue. I wondered if the drivers were ever aware of the route they were taking or the ground they were passing over....
The precession way to one of the greatest temples on earth.....
Well, by now my backside was numb and i had 'pins&needles' in my feet... time to move... easier said than done when it feels like your joints have seized altogether..!
The sun was high in sky now and by the time i reached the car i was hot and flushed...
Out came the tea (again! i live on the stuff) two cups and a cigarett later it was 6.45am, and time to drive down to Avebury.
Part.3
Down in the village at Avebury people were starting stir... Husbands going to work..Mothers packing kids off to school on the bus... everyone seemed to to be going about their buisness in a quiet sorta way like one does when you get up early in the morning for work.. pottering around the kitchen fixing breakfast... doing everything quietly so as not to wake the others in the house...
How i would love to live there...
I decided to stop atop Overton Hill just outside Avebury, it was 5.15 and the sun was coming up fast. It had been a clear night and there was a brisk easterly breeze blowing, so warm it was not!
it was light already so didnt hang about getting the camera out.... you would have thought it would be quiet up there but no... the morning chorus was in full song, the ravens, the larks, pheasants and grass warblers singing away...
I had about 15 minutes untill sunrise so i stood awhile and stilled my thoughts, felt the wind on my face, and just listened to the countryside...my eyes felt gritty from tiredness and driving in the dark... i started to feel dizzy, it felt like the ground moved under my feet, up and down like being on a trampoline... i put it down to lack of sleep!
So i decided to take a little walk over to the row of 3 burial mounds just over the road.. less than a hundred yards away, it felt like it only took me a second to walk it, but by time i had reached them my mind was clear and alert yet i felt very calm...
Before long a thin red sliver of sun had nipped the horizon silouhetting the trees in the distance, it looked goregous!
You just dont realise how fast the sun moves, in less than 2 minutes it was off the horizon and rapidly climbing in the sky......
The sun had lifted of the horizon, it had changed from deep red, though golden hues to brilliant white, and light was once again restored to the land.
I was cold now and needed a walk to warm up, so after a quick cup of 'flask tea' i set off, north-ish up the ridgeway towards a group of barrows on the northern end of Overton hill i've not visited before....
It was so peacefull up there.. at that time of day on a weekday there are no tourists... not even any locals !
Not a soul in sight, just me, the birds and the occaisional rabbit..
It didnt take long, maybe 30mins to reach them... they are all now covered with beech trees... tall green sentinels guarding the sacred ground.
i came off the main path to go down to the barrows and instinctivley dropped one knee to the ground....
there, 200/ 300 yards ahead and off to the left of the path where 4 young deer in the edge of a field of bright yellow rape seed... 2 were very young with only their heads visable, the other 2 slightly older, head and shoulders above the crop. I knelt down and kept my head down for a few moments...
Slowly i lifted my head up to check their possition.. yup, still there... a gust of wind told me i was up wind of them, they had probably picked up my scent already, head down again... stay out of sight... as silently as possible i changed lens's on the camera.
Slowly i looked up again... this time they were all staring intently in my direction...
Part 2.
I didn't have chance.... before i could even lift the camera to my eye they were off...! bounding through the long grass... Quickly and as silently as i could i followed their direction hoping they might settle again in the next field.
As i rounded the base of the burial mound the deer had gone, but now something else had my attention....
There, on the other side of the small shallow valley was the ancient stone avenue winding it way towards Avebury...
Suddenly i became aware of where i was... often i've walked the avenue looking up at the barrows on the hill wondering how to get up there, and now i was here, as if i'd been led there...
I sat for three quarters of an hour or so on the furthest barrow overlooking the valley, watching the long shadows of me and trees gradually getting shorter down the hillside, a perfect sillhouett of the tree topped barrows, except not on the horizon but shadow, projected onto the hillside... listening to the birds, hoping for the deer to show again, and watching two pheasants persue a hen into the middle of the field.. out in the open where she had no cover to escape to... i smiled to myself.. clever boys... one of them was getting laid today!
The morning was beautifull, golden sunlight streaming through the trees.. quiet and peacfull save for the birdsong.
As i sat leaning against one of the old beech trees i remembered an old schoolboy trick.... on a windy day find a big smooth barked tree, press one ear to the trunk and put your finger in the other... As the wind blew i could hear the tree inside creaking and groaning against the wind, once in a while a gust of wind would make the branches high up clatter together and i could feel the gently bending and bowing trunk move against my head...
Every so often the silence was broken by the ocassional car or van driving along the road that runs alongside the avenue. I wondered if the drivers were ever aware of the route they were taking or the ground they were passing over....
The precession way to one of the greatest temples on earth.....
Well, by now my backside was numb and i had 'pins&needles' in my feet... time to move... easier said than done when it feels like your joints have seized altogether..!
The sun was high in sky now and by the time i reached the car i was hot and flushed...
Out came the tea (again! i live on the stuff) two cups and a cigarett later it was 6.45am, and time to drive down to Avebury.
Part.3
Down in the village at Avebury people were starting stir... Husbands going to work..Mothers packing kids off to school on the bus... everyone seemed to to be going about their buisness in a quiet sorta way like one does when you get up early in the morning for work.. pottering around the kitchen fixing breakfast... doing everything quietly so as not to wake the others in the house...
How i would love to live there...
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