Duddo Stone Circle

We visited this wonderful little site yesterday and as one of my facebook contacts said they couldn't find it when they visited so they gave up and went to the pub instead (A likely story) I thought I'd publish this to help others to find it.

I've been a few times over the last 10 years or so but this is the first time I've been when the new parking notice and info board have been put up - fairly recently I think cos the board talks about the excavations in 2009.

Anyhoo - Park at NT 932 425 on the grass verge next to the gate, go in through the gate and walk alongside the field, following the path north. The path signposts take you down and round the bottom of the field which quite frustrated me after years of taking a short-cut through the crops! But I suppose cos the farmer's gone to the trouble of signposting it and allowing access we should make the effort...

this map shows the route:



Duddo Stones at Sunset:

Fieldfare

Fieldfare
Originally uploaded by pebblesfromheaven

Ruthwell - a novelletto

I'm endlessly fascinated by gravestones. They are small novels in themselves and all the better for being true biographies; although exceedingly brief, they are written with love and as much accuracy as those who left behind could bare to reveal.

What a story this family had:

In Memory of Christopher McLean, Mariner, who died in Annan 25th Nov. 1831 Aged 29 years. Also James & James his children who died in infancy. Also his son,
William McLean, Mariner, who died at Sea on the 20th June 1842, aged 16 years.
His Body was committed to a Watery Grave Latitude 49N Longitude 21W

Though in the Seamy Body ly,

Mong many of our Fleet,

Ere long we will Set Sail again,

Our Admiral Christ to meet.

Also Janet Lang, Widow of the above Christopher McLean who died at Annan 30th
April 1887, aged 90 years .

(I think the co-ordinates lie somewhere in the mid-Atlantic)

Ruthwell gravestone
Originally uploaded by pebblesfromheaven

Closing the Cumberland Gap!

I am unfeasibly excited! The new motorway opens today!

I've been travelling this section for work and pleasure for many years now, and this will take at least 5 minutes every day off my journey to work, I've calculated that as 42 hours a year .... oh I am so chuffed!!

All that plus it will be massively safer than the old situation, the one I felt strongly enough to rant about almost three years ago.

I've seen it develop slowly over the last two years, and all credit to the scheme managers because I think I've only been held up twice and I think that was nothing to do with the roadworks.

I'm so excited I might even go to work early today!!!

A tickler, in particular.

Get someone Scottish to say the above phrase to you. In fact, if possible, get someone from Partick to say it: it would then be a Partick tickler in particular.

Then, give them some Curly Wurly Squirlies.

Trying the 365 - starting with Penrith Museum

Penrith Museum ... 1/365
Originally uploaded by pebblesfromheaven

We attended a flint knapping workshop on Sunday - it was fascinating but we'd no chance of making it look as easy as the tutor.

His bench and basket set-up looked (intentionally) as if from another time - so I had another little play with the sepia setting on my camera.

When I reviewed the photos after I got home, I decided this one looked like one that Flickerites might put in their diary or 365 set (ie one photo per day for a year). So, I started my own 365 set. I fully expect it to be like all my diaries throughout my life - I start well and quickly grow bored, but every now & then return for a prolonged burst ... time will tell.

Seasons, Skylines and Stone Circles

We spent an interesting day at Tullie House on Saturday, taking part in what was billed as a "day-school" but was essentially a series on lectures on a subject we love. The title "Much more than Stone Axes" was obviously dreamt up by someone who thought we wouldn't want to know about axes (we did, really) so we were sad to hear the stone axe man had cancelled.

Firstly, Aaron Watson gave an animated talk about stone circles - what they are (they're not all the same!) and why they might be where they are. The most interesting bit for me was where he showed a series of images taken as he climbed a Lakeland fell, and as he became more elevated the distant Mull of Galloway seemed to rise up out of the Solway. This we know now is as a result of the perspective changing to account for the curvature of the Earth; but what must prehistoric people made of it? Did they think that mountains had special powers because they called up entire other mountains out of the sea? And what about the fact that it can be sunny and warm down at low levels but as you climb upwards, the air gets colder and there even might be snow on the peaks? Did they think they were travelling through seasons, through time?

Next there was a lecture by Kate Sharp about prehistoric rock art, a subject we are very familiar with and even so because some of B's images were to be used in the presentation! There were a few sites I hadn't seen before though, and I'd like to check out, especially one reused as a gatepost which looked great. B had to stand up and take a bow for his photos ...

The lunch came next; carrot soup and plates of sarnies, too many sarnies and no cake! shocking. I had to go buy a brownie.

B placed some of his business cards on the top table and they all went almost immediately - each a little artwork all of its own. Some people must have been collecting the set...

The talk after lunch was about fieldwalking in the Eden Valley. This was fabulously interesting to me and made me amazed to think this had been going on so near to us and we didn't know. They had found loads of flinty tools and arrowheads; just imagine being the person to find those - we might do some next year, it sounds amazing.

Finally, the last lecture was about the Brampton Lunula, an item we'd seen pictures of before in a previous talk about Prehistoric Bling! It was a gold fragment first thought to be a gold spoon but soon identified as a lunula, the true purpose of which is unknown but it's shaped like a necklace so is often portrayed as such.

So afterwards some delegates took advantage of the offer of free entry into the museum - something we are already entitles to as locals, so we headed home, our minds buzzing.

FRED 2008 - Cumbrian Art Invasion

Well it's a sad thing to say, but our experience of FRED2008 has not been a good one, but I'll try to review what little we've seen fairly.

The feather was, well, a floppy bit of plastic on a pond which was starting to say more about litter than a "giant feather fallen upon the water, seeming to have been plucked from the air and destined to float with the wind".



Then last weekend, we drove all the way to Dent because we were incredibly attracted to the idea of Line of Site by Jenni Danson, but when we got there the traffic was depressing, the artwork what looked like miles away, and they wanted £££ for parking the car (Dentdale isn't the sort of place that lends itself to fly-parking). So, I think we saw it, but it could have easily been a bit of gas pipeline.



On the way to Coniston we'd tried to tune in to "Under the Waters" at Thirlmere. On the A591, all we could get was Radio 2 so decided to revisit on the way back north. So yes we did this, driving around the western side of the lake for the first time, which was nice. We promptly forgot about the radio, and walked by the lake instead, capturing a few nice dragonfly shots while there.



And last night, we decided to drive to Stainmoor to see Domestication by Chloe Burns & Hannah Stewart (I could say something here about middle-class pretentions, but I'll resist because I know it's just me being unfair) ... This one more than most sounded right up our street - "A homely glow, from abandoned huts along the railway, are people living there again?" - this had our imagination warking overtime and it would be fabulous with the sunset behind it, perhaps with the Stainmore rock art in the foreground - B had great plans for this in his head. When we got there, just after 7pm and after dusk, not a sign of it, and the directions / loaction description was crap. The A66 is fairly unforgiving to U-turns, so we headed home disappointed having wasted 2 hours and more diesel.

"Get Out There?" I think we did.

This year is the last for FRED - no funding or perhaps the director Steve Messam wants to spend more time with his family or doing something creative (his Drop is fab)

It's a shame that our experience of FRED has been low, I still believe in it and things like it, and regret that it won't perhaps be around in the future. I love outdoor art and to have it in my home county is great. But PLEASE make it easier to find and PLEASE don't make the homepage look so impressive and fabby - the photos made our expectations too high.

Autumn = Blog Update

Bless me father, it's been a while ...

Well the summer is over, and what have you done? Nowt much. Rain has been terrible, obviously, plus my feet are giving me jip hence preventing me from walking far if I wanna be able to walk at all the next day.

So a lot of my flickr shots have been taken from car parks and lay-bys and in gardens and not far from the car. I'm been semi-creative but somehow not been inspired - although visiting the Bead Fair at Rheged on Sunday was fabulous. I could have spent hundreds of quid ...

I've been reading other people's blogs - like me they sometimes have crises of confidence where they think no-one's reading it and are they wasting their time - well in my opinion they are sometimes the equivalent of the penpal letter to a stranger, only not always necessarily getting a reply. The doesn't make them any less interesting, and a sometimes so well-written they could happily be at home in a perfectly good book. Perhaps that's why I don't read books much (well OK that's not the only reason)

So what else has been going on -well some good friends of mine came oop norf from dahn sarf, the plan being to walk the Hadrian's Wall Path. Well that was the idea when the planning started, it soon became a portion of the interesting bit in the middle, but once they got here, Rain + Heavy Bags = Plan C. They are now experts in museums and the AD122 bus timetable. I think there must be some walkers out there that complete the wall in one go, but they must be pretty determined and also completely anal, let's face it. My friends took the better option of enjoying everything to hand when the opportunity arose, and found such a wonderful caravan they decided to stay there for the last 3 nights!

I visited them for a day and took them up to Kielder to see red squirrels, and lots of moss. They couldn't get enough of the moss, oh and the trees. That's two things we have plenty of up here ... and marshy bogs. They now know how the recognise the types of grass which like to grow in bogs (learned the hard way no doubt)

While at Kielder,we went to the Bird of Prey Centre at Leaplish. Now I've been to quite a few of these places now, and this was one of the best; they even had a vulture as part of the display team, and we were encouraged to pet a little Scops Owl called Tilly who just sat there like an adoring toy. She and her feathery mates were fantastic - well the pelicans were impressive but rather scary if I'm honest, and bloody huge!

For pics of the Kielder trip see here.

L8trs!

Bird action ...

At Kielder Bird of Prey Centre ...

England's Rock Art - the aftermath

We're slightly hacked off today because some of B's images, with permission granted for use in the booklet and website, have been used by various places to report the story without proper credit given.

For instance:
BBC blog
Guardian slideshow
Guardian blog

Grrrr!!!

One of the best photos, this one of Kettley Crag, is being used in quite a few places. It's a fantastic shot, and reminds me of the exact day it was taken. I still laugh when I think of the farmer's cursing.

Here's a close-up of the poppy field (well OK the closest I could get to with my zoom, thanks again to the farmer)



Here's a photo of the berries on the tree I was hiding behind while listening to the cursing:



And here is a candid photo of B at the site!



What more can I say? Just for now, nothing. But we will be having words with others.

England's Rock Art - the website launch

Image154
Originally uploaded by pebblesfromheaven

We were invited to attend the launch of a website today - England's Rock Art

B took the photos used for the scrolling images on the front page, and they were also used for the front cover of the extremely flashy-looking brochure!

It was a great day where the volunteer team demonstrated the survey techniques, displaying models which could be viewed best wearing 3-D specs!!!!

Ahhh!!!! Real Klimts, in the flesh, at Tate Liverpool.

Evening.

Apologies for my long absence - it's a guilt thing. Too many other things to do, you know how it is. I've been spending far too much time on my flickr account hence the recent linkages, which are very handy indeed.

Update on the blackbirds: we came home one day to find the nest empty, after the babies were almost falling out of it due to their immense size. Our cats didn't seem too bothered; the birds got used to Benny asleep in the middle of the grass and just hopped around her! We saw one of the fledglings later that day but they disappeared after that; we just saw the parents again yesterday and they look as if they are now on their own... guess we'll never know what happened.

As the title of this post suggests, it was something amazing which inspired today's post. This week we've been off work and although a large part of the time was spent doing boring catchy-up type things, we decided to visit Liverpool because I'd heard about the Klimt exhibition.

I went to Liverpool with work a few times but didn't get to hang around much; besides it's changing like a very changeable thing at the moment due to it being European City of Culture 2008. There's a huge Arena now, which is where we parked, just beside the Albert Dock.

The Tate Gallery in Liverpool has Rodin's The Kiss in the foyer, presumably on permanent display. After a short wait (only about 30 mins) just to tease us of course, we entered the Klimt exhibition...... and were first greeted by a great wall covered with a swirly tree-of-life mock up. The ground floor of the gallery is given over to a display of the Beethoven frieze, so straight away the visitor gets to see the delicate gold-leafed meaty art in the flesh. I stood for a while to study the detail of the patterns; in parts rather sketchy but perhaps this was never meant to be scrutenised from 2 feet away...

A hop up in the service lift takes you up to the top floor of the Tate, where the full Klimt experience is felt. The exhibition is not 100% Klimt; now that could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your point of view but because the other bits were Mackintoshes and general art-crafts-deco period, I though it was very well-balanced and broke the gallery up into sections which told the story of what was influencing Klimt's life. I particularly enjoyed seeing photos of the man himself, complete with artist's smock, then a real one alongside (strangely and sadly free from paint).

There are some XXX-rated images in a little side-room which remind you that he was a fully redblooded male who appreciated a special sort of beauty, most of it redheaded!

So there were the landscapes... the nudes ... the women ... all masterpieces.

But my favourite was saved until last ... I can't really describe how I felt when I saw this but it actually made me quite emotional - it was the beauty and the drama, the colours, the shine, the glow, the facial strain, the size, the familiarity and intimacy of an image which I've studied for years in detail, cutting bits off into smaller frames, focusing onto parts of it like knowing the back of my own hand. And here it was, slightly taller than me, face to face, in full colour, in the flesh, with gorgeous goldleaf frame, the real thing. WOW. It's bringing another little tear to my eye right now.

I bring you: Judith II (Salome)...



NB: Salome: Often depicted her as an icon of dangerous female seductiveness, doing the Dance of the Seven Veils and requesting the death of John the Baptist. Oscar Wilde wrote a play where she makes necrophilic love to the severed head of John the Baptist. Wow!

Kilmartin Glen - the Reprise Trip

So we had another trip up to Argyll a couple of weeks ago (17th-19th March) because it coincided with B's birthday.

We booked at the Dunchraigaig House B&B again, it was fab last time we went so of course had to go back there. B was already looking forward to the breakfasts a week before we left home.

I can't blog in extreme detail about the wheres and whyfores because sadly I've not anymore got the luxury of being able to sit at my desk all day!!

We set off in good time and the weather was predicted to be chuffing marvellous, and it didn't disappoint. Better than last September when it rained for most of our visit. We took the M74 (ages since I last went up that road) but at Glasgow the roadworks led us onto the old A74 so we had a bit of a merry jolly through the rougher parts of town, past the Celtic football social club etc, but took note of the massive rash of new flats being built in that area. Anyway the traffic wasn't bad at all so we made it through to the M8 without pain.

Taking the scenic route via Dumbarton M&S, Helensburgh & Faslane peacecamp (resisted the flickr moment), there were some lovely views especially when we got up to the Rest & Be Thankful. Stopped there to take some photos (doesn't everyone?), carried on through Inverary and past the site of the Connect Festival (looks completely different in daylight - last time we were there we opted to dice with the traffic along the main road rather than take the swampy route back to the car)

We stopped by at Achnabreck rock art to discover that the carpark was closed for repair - however we found a good place to park further up the track at the top of the hill, which we wouldn't have know about otherwise! We followed a path from here right to the new panels, which were still covered in tarp. The good-old "hollywood" panels were further round the hill and I had a wander around while B took his photos.

then back to the B&B, and off out for a meal at the Carinbaan Hotel. Now let's get this straight right from the start - we were absolute PIGS on this trip and ate ourselves silly. We had three courses when we didn't really need it, because the menu was wonderful and the food completely gorgeous. We returned the next night, because there were things on the list we still wanted to try!!

Pigs and a Plane

During my lunch break yesterday I drove a couple of miles north to a place I've found next to a field with pigs in it - they are quite entertaining. There's about 4-5 in there but they are usually spread out and rooting and digging about with their snouts.



I had my camera with me and when a plane went overhead I snapped that too. This was quite close to the brand new Stephen's Croft Power Station which was due to be opened that day by the First Minister for Scotland Alex Salmond..... I thought I would see some interesting activity there but alas all I got was this lousy plane.

Anyone know what sort it is?

I love Northumberland

I have a very special relationship with Northumberland. It was my home for two years and during that time I made a deliberate attempt to make the most of my time there, and it made a great impact.

My desire was to move away from Cumbria to get an outsider's perspective; to try to appreciate what others see in it - but instead I ended up loving somewhere else - although in a different way. After all, I have never managed to forget that Cumbria is who I am.

Cumbria, and Carlisle, to me is like loving family because you have to - there are bits I am bored with, places that make me feel safe, and areas I know intimately like the back of my hand. I take it for granted and I treat it flippantly ignoring all those people that might be envious. Cumbria provides memories of childhood and of course contains places that will always be "home".

But when I lived in Northumberland it was like being on a gorgeous relaxing holiday that lasted years. The wildlife and climate feel different - not too much but just enough. The light comes from a different direction, somehow. I think it has to do with being on the opposite side of the same geographic coin - the sea is on the other side, and so is the land. It's as if my magnetic poles get swapped round.

I spent a lot more time deliberately exploring Northumberland itself, as opposed to it being a place travelled through to get somewhere else. Even now, Northumberland is close enough to be visited often and quickly, and is always beautiful whatever the weather.

Gretna Green - Swarming Starlings!

On my way home from work I come down the southern-most stretch of the A74 past Gretna. From there you can get wonderful views across the Solway to the Lake District Fells, at this time of year it's just sunset when I'm on that stretch and there have been some incredible pinky skies during this recent clear weather, tonight included.

While obviously keeping my attention completely on the road, and the skies, I am also watching out for those black swarms sometimes lurking above trees and fields in that area ... swarthy alien-like shapes created against the darkening skies... they are of course huge flocks of starlings!

Tonight I saw an amazing display. I came off the motorway at the tourist trap junction and headed slightly back north, just near the new Smiths hotel. There were already about 3 cars and two minibuses parked on the side of the road, their passengers all out standing by the fence watching the unbelievable swooping and dancing. I stood there watching until they all decided en masse to land somewhere towards the back of the field and the one next to it.

Why? How? Well one's thing for sure - it turns out that starlings are good at something, and are not just those noisy leather-jacket mobs that inhabit city centre trees just waiting for unsuspecting passers-by...

I'm gonna try to remember my camera tomorrow.


Here's a video taken last month

Check this web-page out: this was today!

Stoats and hot air balloons in deepest Northumberland

We took a flying visit to North'land yesterday to photograph some rock art at Buttony.

I forgot to take any alternative entertainment with me and the pine modern plantation was fairly sterile of anything worth macro-ing... It was sunny outside but freezing under the trees, so I huddled down into myself and tried to have a snooze - a mini hibernation, you could say. When all of a sudden, B stage-whispered "LOOK!" so I opened my eyes, took a moment to focus... and a furry creature was staring back at us! Another was running away - they had been having a little fight only feet away from us prior to them parting company, only to find human beans on their favourite high-bit-of-rock. A flash of white-tipped tail and he was away! We've googled them and we think they were stoats. No photies sadly :(

On the way back, took some pics of the WWII pillbox nearby and spotted a blob against the opposite hills ... turned out to be a hot air balloon taking off! Now considering this was about 4pm on a winter afternoon it was a bit late to be going anywhere in a mode of transport totally reliant upon none-existent winds. It came our way going right overhead as we walked back to the car. As we drove towards the A1 we passed it landed perilously close to some trees about half a mile NW of Chatton.

The tides were turning against us for a visit to Holy Island (next time, next time...) so we stopped off at the Alnwick bookshop only to find it closing in 10 minutes... so we headed home and enjoyed the sunset from the comforts of the A69 at national speed limit.

For a gallery of my photos from this trip click here

Fylingdales and Goathland - Rock Art Walk

Today we drove down to the Robin Hood's Bay area, to meet up with the NEWalks group who'd organised a trip there today.

We were there primarily to see the rock art panels, many of which have recently been rediscovered after a fire cleared most of the heather in 2003. Our guide was Graeme Chappell, who's spent many years wandering the moors in Yorkshire looking down at his feet!

After setting off intending to visit the beach at RHB and failing miserably, we arrived just in time to set off across the grassy moor. It's grassy now, but used to be a few feet thick in heather and peat, all of this was burnt off in the fire. The grass was sown in order to prevent what little soil was left being blown away as dust - but in many places the heather is already recovering.

After the fire, there were many cairns and features visible which are already started to be hidden again. Read some more about the fire here.

We walked at a leisurely pace, enough time for everyone to see some decent panels - and quite a few of the smaller rocks inbetween had carvings, often individual cups (someone decided that people who didn't bother with these were to be known as Cup Snobs!)

We did Stoupe Brow first, and headed south towards Fylingdales proper. There were plenty of stones to see, although some of them were sadly quite faded now.

After much wandering and wondering we ended up visiting Judith, so named after a misheard conversation about camera techniques! She's a cracker.



We enjoyed some more moor-scrambling and headed off over to a standing stone, and the place where a lot of our party headed home. We had one more pilgrimage to a small stone resembling either a chewed toffee or oyster shell, strangely unlike anything else in the area and very interesting...



Then a walk up towards the communications mast and the carpark, passing areas which had not been touched by the fire, illustrating what the depth of the heather had been before (approx 5 feet in some places).

We drove next to see some sites at Allan Tofts, but although some cairns were visible, the bracken was very high in some places so we didn't see as much as we'd hoped. Another excuse to return!

Gave up on the idea of chips (next time!) and headed home into the sunset.

Kilmartin Glen III - Dunadd

...the morning after the night before.

Did I mention how wonderful the Dunchraigaig House B&B was? This morning it was Mull cheddar and chive muffins to take for our lunch. Lush.

After packing and settling up, we set off slightly south and stopped at Dunadd fort. It's one of the sites on the Half Life tour so there was the obligatory poster at the gate, and we parked and set off on the short walk up the hill.

It was a clearer morning so the views were fab! We could see over to Ardfern again, and probably the hill that Ormaig hugs, if we knew which one it was. The nature reserves sit nearby, covered in heather patches and bog grasses.

Last night's moisture ensured that there was water inside the footprint. There isn't any cup-an-ring stuff here but there is a vague carving of a boar, very faint now but a cottage at the bottom of the fort has helpfully provided a modern copy of what it may have looked like.





We explored around the top of the hill - it's quite sheltered at the top and it's clear why someone would choose to use this place not only as a viewpoint but also as a possible home. There is an old well and some of the walls remain.

There was a Half Life installation here but again we couldn't be sure if it was in its final format as it didn't officially "open" until the next day. What we saw was sheets of rusted metal sheeting shaped to slot into the gaps withing the natural craggy entranceway at the top of the fort. Perhaps there would be music eminating or lights projected in future - couldn't say - but the rust-red colour of the sheets fitted quite nicely with the autumnal bracken and purple heather.



Then it was time to head off to Inveraray and Connect ...