even if it is a bit draughty

Yep, there's a storm warning for midweek for the UK and the threat is hanging over us of a return to a full on Covid lockdown as the infection rate climbs once more. It was bound to happen of course, you don't need to be a virologist to work it out, its more surprising that its taken so long. The government, who are not blameless in this, are blaming parts of the population for this 'explosion' in cases and whilst some groups have clearly not been taking restrictions seriously, most outbreaks have been traced to acts of stupidity by a small number of individuals.

But that's enough doom and gloom, lets move on to more pertinent and happy stuff. We've been having a bit of an Indian summer, at least here in the south west, which has encouraged me out for a couple of longer walks this week - not full on hikes as just walking manages to cause a good deal of pain to the bruised and battered shoulder, but 4 - 5 miles is doable. On Thursday I even managed to help Bev on project Market Garden, no not the invasion of Normandy but the resurrection of the rear plot at Bev Acres!

Yesterday, Bev suggested a drive out, it was a nice day and the idea of a walk somewhere different and maybe an ice cream was very appealing! So we took the automobile down through the eastern Mendips then over the Wiltshire Basin to the edge of Salisbury Plain and to Bratton Camp and Westbury White Horse on the scarp edge. I came down here earlier in the summer on the bike but didn't get to explore at all, this time I got a chance to enjoy the panoramas across most of north Wiltshire and to explore the 'hill fort'.

If hill fort sounds exciting, well they mostly are no more than a hill top with one or sometimes several, banks and ditches surrounding them as the defence. There is much debate as to whether there were additional palisades on top and whilst quite impressive to look at they are not really much more than a 'secure' stockpen built in a time when raids were a regular feature of life. They were never intended for long term stays and their use as defensive structures is thrown into some doubt, its well documented that the Romans made short work of overrunning the defenders of Maiden Castle at Dorchester, a site defended not just by its position but by some of the most impressive bank and ditch arrangements anywhere.

So anyway, we walked around the site then broke for a snap break in the lee of a group of barrows in the middle before returning to the car and the ice cream wagon. Suitably refreshed with '99''s (vanilla ice cream with a Flake choccy bar inserted, very British!) Bev suggested we move on somewhere else and located a burial mound about half the way back to Bristol. And so we set off through the lanes, back into Somerset, eventually parking a short walk away from the site, Stoney Littleton Burial Chamber.

It wasn't as breezy here, in fact it was quite warm on the fifteen minute walk up. From a distance it looks like a manure clamp at the side of a field but getting closer it becomes more obvious that perhaps its something more, that more being a chambered tomb that you can actually go inside of. It may not be as grand or well looked after as some other examples I've visited but that shouldn't take away my delight at coming here for the first time.

Like a girl with a new doll, I had to fully explore the place which in this instance meant scrambling inside almost the full length of the mound to view the seven 'chambers' where around two hundred years ago the remains of @ 2 dozen prehistoric locals were found, buried over some 200 years, a mausoleum for the local Bronze Age 'squire's'. Of course they weren't full skeletons, each of the seven chambers would have contained specific bones, skulls, long bones, ribs etc whilst the tarsal and phalanges would be mostly missing, lost in the excarnation process (the bodies were left in the open for nature to dispose of the flesh!) Oh what joy, well you already know that this woman is a bit strange right, but even Bev clambered inside for a look!

Today, well I had hoped to be well enough for a return to the bike but I'm still in a lot of pain so that's been pushed back to, well hopefully tomorrow. My loss is your gain, I've already posted Race Ready, the next Summer Girl chapter along with Snatched Moments, chapter 6 of Avoidance.

More news from me on Wednesday,
Tschussie
Madeline Anafrid