As I sit down to write to you, I just wanted to tell you that I DID remember to say ‘rabbits’ this morning as it is the 1st of September, the beginning meteorologically the first day of autumn. As a child I was taught that on the first of every month, before you spoke to anyone, it was lucky to say either ‘rabbits’ or ‘hares’ depending on whether there was an ‘r’ in the month or not. I forget now which was which, so I said both this morning just to be on the safe side.
The crop circle season appears to have come to an end and a rather abrupt end it seems, with a final fling, a complex and elaborate event containing as yet undeciphered hieroglyphics at Rochford, Essex. Sadly, I could not fly over it as the cost was beyond my purse. The last one I flew over was the Wooton Waven circle which appeared on the 7th of August.
My Canon camera lens with autofocus and stabiliser had thankfully just come back from being repaired, but sadly it still would not focus properly so had to be returned yet again - it still is not right. I drove up to Wellesbourne in Warwickshire where HeliAir have their head office. It was a glorious morning, one of the few sunny days we have had this summer. As we will fly low, if conditions permit, the airfield have to notify and get permission from the police before taking off. I flew with a pilot with whom I had flown several years ago, so it was good to renew our acquaintance. Unlike the pilots at Thruxton, where I sit beside them in front with my door off, he liked me to sit behind him so that he could be on the same side and be able to put me in the right spot; but that presented a bit of a problem to start with as all I could see was his back!!! However, we sorted that out and all was well, and as there was no-one in the circle, or any animals anywhere, we were able to hover very low; which is always a huge help and a great excitement.
Wooton Waven has a very ancient church dating back to the 7th century and well worth a visit. The original building was probably of wood and thatch, but a stone building was soon built to replace it and survived the probable depredations of the Vikings. We don’t know the date of the Saxon tower base that forms part of the current church.
Wooton Waven is also very close to a very small tranquil village called Alveston, tucked away in the country where I lived for several years as a teenager with my parents and sister. It is close to Stratford on Avon and we were right on the doorstep of the wonderful Shakespeare plays. I remember punting on the River Avon and also visiting Charlecote, a splendid and rather grand 16th century country house, surrounded by its own deer park, on the banks of the River Avon near Wellesbourne, Warwickshire.
So what sort of crop circle season has it been? We have certainly had fewer circles than for some years, and indeed I have been reliably informed that the last time we had so few was back in 1973. It is hard to conjecture why; is this a waning phenomenon - who knows? However, we have had some special ones amongst the few and I will write more about them in my annual article in the spring.
Since I last wrote to you we have had the yearly scientific research day. The results have not come back yet so those again will go into my annual article. It takes a long time to compare and analyse them properly and accurately.
I have also been working hard on the new 2018 crop circle calendar which hopefully will be ready by the end of September/beginning of October. I do hope you will like it.