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England December 1999

It was predictably cold, dark, and wet, with only a few hours of daylight each day. I went there for a friend's wedding. In the meantime, I did some exploring. It was raining or sleeting every day except my last, so these pictures are dark, but such as they are:

Avebury

Avebury has great personal significance for me, and I managed to visit it on my last day, just before winter solstice. It's a standing stone circle far larger than Stonehenge--so large a small village lies inside. Dated from 2800-2300 BC, Avebury's standing stones were also erected earlier than Stonehenge. The henge is actually the deep ditch and earth bank; standing stones such as these are often called sarsens. A mile or so away is Silbury Hill, a manmade chalk mound 300 feet high, the tallest Neolithic structure in Europe; no burial was found within, and extensive traces of charcoal suggest it may have been the base for a gigantic bonfire meant to light up the longest night of the year for the rituals at Avebury. All the standing stones of Avebury had been broken up or buried during the last thousand years by superstitious villagers, but recent antiquarians have restored as many stones as possible and set up small obelisks to mark the locations of other known stones. It almost never snows here, and it was the coldest day many people in the area could remember, yet there were a few modern-day pagans offering mistletoe and walking the mile-wide circle along with me. The picture above is a full moon as night fell.


"Cove" stones: originally the solstice sun shone through these.
The most complete quarter

Smaller circle inside main circle
Someone fashioned a Snowhenge.

villagers love their henge!

So do I.
The Red Lion Inn, heart of the village.

Stonehenge

Obligatory pictures. It was bitterly cold and sleeting, but beautiful in a sad sort of way. The magic is very worn and trodden, unlike Avebury, where the air still sings. Here, mobs of tourists cluster taking pictures, cigarette butts and cheap souvenirs from the gift shop lie discarded in the grass, a parking lot has been built over part of the old ceremonial pathway leading to the site, a highway cuts right through the outer earth circle, and fences keep visitors well away from the standing stones now to curtail graffitti. It's the old quandry: how can we enjoy these places without destroying them? I'm glad Avebury is less well-known.

Canterbury


the High Street, 4PM
Cathedral from the WWII memorial garden

roofline of Cathedral
ruins behind Cathedral

looking across transept
north chapel: windows replaced those shattered during Blitz
north chapel of peace: Jesus embracing all races

Miscellaneous

Waterloo station, Salisbury Cathedral nave.

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