4th August 2023 - Brittonic Kingdoms

It is misty today, the sun obliterated by drizzling rain, wet shiny road surfaces and an ambulance, sirens ablazing rushes through.  How many time have I heard that noise early in the morning.  It must be to do with half awake motorists I suppose.

The above photo is of Normanby in December. the walk I would go most mornings with Lucy.  The light captures the stiff seed heads  of the dock plant and I can remember the barn owls who lived at the farm in the old ruined barns we passed, swooping round this field, hunting for prey. i wonder how they are getting on?  There was also a heron often to be found, like a tall old man forever standing in one spot.  I love the way the rain clings to the stem, bubbles of light like diamonds.

The bank that stopped the river from over flooding into the fields

From the 8th century the Vale of Pickering is associated with the people of Deira, and may have formed its heartland, as the Vale has the highest density of early churches in the UK. There are a remarkable number of 7th and 8th century religious communities found on the borders and approaches of the Vale of Pickering (at Lastingham, Gilling, Stonegrave, and Coxwold). Within the Vale the survival of architectural or sculptural elements such as Anglo-Saxon carved stone and/or the reuse of Roman material (sarcophagi etc) and archaeology attest to the significance of sites such as Kirby Misperton, Sherburn, Hovingham and Kirkdale. These may all be associated with prayer houses or burial by Deira’s ruling elite. If the Vale of Pickering is the heartland of Deira it may account for anomalies in the faunal record at West Heslerton, where the lack of market age cattle in a huge animal bone assemblage may result from their being used in the payment of tithes or taxes. 

 I had forgotten that Bernicia and Deira the old 'dark age' kingdoms of the North were part of the landscape.  In fact the old North pushes up much further into Northumbria, the Romans keeping the warring Picts behind the walls of Hadrian's Wall and 20 years later behind the Antonine Wall in central Scotland though this wall did not last as long.

There was so many small kingdoms through this Celtic age, as the Romans left Britain rather abruptly in the 5th century and the warring for territory took precedence for incoming Saxons and Angles. 

Here I might be living in the small kingdom of Elmet, in the Calder Vale where Ted Hughes once lived and who also fell in love with the old history of the area.

But today is Friday, we are having fish and chips for tea tonight.  Matilda is here working, 9.30 till 6.0 on the computer and Lillie still to get up maybe going to work at the cafe in Hebden Bridge.  She is also thinking of taking on another job as well in the restaurant we had lunch in the other week.  This time making pizzas on a wood fire.

Fog and Notes