I came across this video the other day and marvelled at the beauty of the Wiltshire countryside and the area round Avebury. Silbury Hill I had passed as a young widow with my daughter onto a new life in Wales. We never made it to Wales for I stopped at Calne, but 6 miles from Avebury, probably overwhelmed by Avebury and its stones. I bought a house, my daughter was educated in Calne and I walked the gently molded hills with my dog Kim, a large golden Labrador. Visiting the stones on long dog walks, a practice I kept well into our move to Bath.
I met my then husband Ron through archaeology and of course was introduced to many sites round the country. 27 years later I was to meet Paul, he loved Silbury Hill and at one stage wanted his ashes deposited on Silbury Hill, but of course his introduction to Yorkshire made him choose a different spot and he was happy here.
I had become so tied up with Avebury one way or another, that it is like a second home land to me. We had annual summer meetings at the Red Lion pub through the little clan of Heritage Actioneers we became. It was also where we met Anne Dillon the artist whose work you will see in the film.
To watch the video you will suddenly realise that in fact the land is like a palimpsest, the surface reflecting history over the ages, rubbed off again and again. So that when you wander in the sky over the fortified hill forts, though in reality maybe we should call them fortified settlements, you will see the scars of history etched into the very land.
There is a a belief that the land is female, this you will indeed find in the soft contours of Wiltshire but the Mother Goddess is to be found on the Island of Lewis above the famous Callanish stones in the vaguely shaped female body of hills called The Sleeping Beauty.
Remember to fill your screen with the video for full effect.
You have indeed an amazing country in its beauty. Here, too, there is history that is revealed in different places in the stones and layers under and above the ground, but it does not have this magic of the green and softness of the hills.
ReplyDeleteYou know why it is so green Yael. Rain, rain and more rain. Looking out of the window now it is miserable. We have a load of cardboard for recycling but it can't go out because the men don't like wet cardboard. The pump in the basement is turned on just in case but yes we live in a very beautiful varied countryside. Glad you enjoyed the video.
ReplyDeleteI thought that drone photography was astounding ever since I first saw a film at a museum in Italy. Even with the cheapest of drones, the camera resolution is huge. The little drone film I made was so large that my old computer could not play it. So much better than helicopter footage, and so much cheaper!
ReplyDeleteDid not realise it needed so much power from a computer. It is quite interesting to see who is flying the drone with its game monitor down below Tom.
DeleteJust grass and hills, boring.
ReplyDeleteHello, you should try walking one day it might give you a fresh outlook on life.
DeleteThat made me laugh. It would have been funnier if they were not anonymous. I sometimes would like to say things like that, but am too much of a coward to say it as Tom Stephenson.
DeleteOh my gosh. How wonderful! I stopped the video many times to read more about the fortifications, Silsbury Hill, and the White Horses. Just a fascinating "walk". Poor old anonymous. Cannot see past the grass and hills to the history lying beneath and within them.
ReplyDeleteI often think that if I lived in a place so steeped in history, I would be daydreaming all the time. Thank you for this. You and Sue have provided a great deal of fodder for my imagination this morning.
I think that there about nine white horses in Wiltshire Debby. The chalk is obviously the reason why they are etched on the hills. But all probably in the last 500 years. You are right of course food for the imagination all this history, a slight feeling of homesickness for me though ;)
DeleteThat film is so beautiful, thank you for posting. Maybe I will get there someday to walk those hills.
ReplyDeleteIt would be lovely if anonymous had a name maybe?
DeleteThe land is female - we have Nothumberlandia just on our doorstep here in the North East - a spectacular reclining female form sculpted from the remains of open cast mining.
ReplyDeleteModern of course Will. Landscape art is very fashionable and Northumberlandia is indeed a work of art. I wonder a thousand years hence how will it look in the landscape, how has it weathered.
DeleteBeautiful video and accompanying music which I very much enjoyed - especially as I paid my very first visit to Avebury and Silbury Hill just last year.
ReplyDeleteIt has brought back a lot of memories; mostly the weather of course. Cold, damp days and rain.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely stunning.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it Ruta.
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