Happy Days

How great it is to be able to write and tell good and happy news. For those whose families have been apart it seems that travel to and from certain countries, under careful conditions, may soon be possible.

I am attaching this video, as it shows some of the most staggeringly wonderful photographs I ever seen of the natural world.

As I write, the sun is shining and we have had some very welcome rain to nourish the land. We still have an unwelcome number of coronavirus cases, but things are definitely improving - though the question remains: have we learnt any lessons regarding our fellow men and our place in the natural world? Only time will tell. As Buddha tells us 'When you realise how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.'

To be honest there are few more exciting and exhilarating things than flying on a sunny day, and gazing at the heart-stopping beauty of England’s network of fields lying beneath. The occasional field of bright red poppies; amidst fields of  every shade of green, ranging from the palest green of young barley to the blue and later on the almost bottle green of wheat; still later the golden ripe barley and the occasional an almost bottle green of wheat; still later the golden ripe barley and the occasional brown freshly ploughed field. A kaleidoscope of coloured tapestry stretching as far as the eye can reach, a cornucopia of wonder as one flies over this magical landscape.

From the July 4th I am hopeful that I may be allowed to take to the air once more and bring you my images of the amazing formations lying gracefully and elegantly in the fields below.

We have had an abundance of circles and I am enormously grateful to Nick Bull of Stonehenge Dronescapes who has generously allowed me to put his images up on my website for everyone to enjoy.

The majority of crop circles have come to rest in Wiltshire but two have appeared in Dorset. The first on June 1st at Sixpenny Handley, consisting of a complex series of concentric circles divided into multiple radial 'checkerboard' portions. I think that this one might have just managed to creep in my last letter to you.

Bygone History
Sixpenny Handley lies north of a string of many of Dorset’s ancient Iron Age hill forts, in particular Badbury Rings. It was once the dwelling place of Durotriges, one of the Celtic tribes living in Britain prior to the Roman Invasion. Nearby are the remains of a temple located immediately west of the fort dating from the Roman era. It is one of the few to be covered in trees. It was a hill fort of considerable size as can be seen from the number of folds and terraces.


Badbury Rings, Dorset


Ackling Dyke, near Sixpenny Handley, Dorset. 21st June.
 Rachet form within a circle, with a seven pointed star at its centre. 
By kind permission of Droning On. copyright © 2020

Just to the south east of Sixpenny Handley and north east of Badbury Rings a beautiful formation at Ackling Dyke was photographed by Droning On. It appeared on 21st June in celebration of the Summer Solstice.  Sadly it was trashed overnight so we are thankful that it was recorded. It seemed fitting that a heptagram lay in the centre.  Steeped in symbolism, a heptagram is thought to represent the power of love and in Christian tradition as a symbol of protection; the seven points representing the perfection of God and the seven days of creation.

We are also told that ‘in Islam, the heptagram is used to represent the first seven verses of the Quran.

Sadly, for the first time in countless years, Stonehenge was closed, but the fact that people were not able to gather and worship the sun rising in the wonderful energy of the stones as the rising sun kissed the Heel Stone, could not detract from the magic of this occasion.  Throughout the world this ceremony is celebrated. It is thought the Egyptians aligned the pyramids at Giza with the rising sun.

We are told that ‘On June 24, in time with the Southern Hemisphere’s winter solstice, the Inca Empire celebrated Inti Raymi, a festival that honoured the Inca religion’s powerful sun god Inti and marked the Inca New Year. The festival is still celebrated throughout the Andes, and since 1944, a reconstruction of Inti Raymi has been staged in Cusco, Peru, less than two miles from its Inca Empire home.

During the Slavic holiday of Ivan Kupala, long timed to the summer solstice, people wear floral wreaths and dance around bonfires. Some plucky souls jump over the fires as a way of ensuring good luck and health.

Lying along the famous Ackling Dyke is the ancient Roman road as it runs like a ribbon from south west of Old Sarum, close to Badbury Rings then on to Salisbury and Dorchester. Other arteries run all the way to London.


Close by you may catch a glimpse of the spire of Salisbury Cathedral


We are told that Old Sarum is the site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury in England. Located on a hill about 2 miles (3 km) north of modern Salisbury, near the A345, the settlement appears in some of the earliest records in the country. It is an English Heritage property and is open to the public.

The great monoliths of Stonehenge and Avebury were erected nearby, and indications of prehistoric settlement have been discovered from as early as 3000 BC. An Iron Age hill fort was erected around 400 BC, controlling the intersection of two native trade paths and the Hampshire Avon. The site continued to be occupied during the Roman period, when the paths became roads. The Saxons took the British fort in the 6th century and later used it as a stronghold against marauding Vikings. The Normans constructed a motte and bailey castle, a stone curtain wall, and a great cathedral. A royal palace was built within the castle for King Henry I and was subsequently used by Plantagenet monarchs. This heyday of the settlement lasted for around 300 years until disputes between the Wiltshire sheriff and the Salisbury bishop finally led to the removal of the church into the nearby plain. As New Salisbury grew up around the construction site for the new cathedral in the early 13th century, the buildings of Old Sarum were dismantled for stone and the old town dwindled. Its long-neglected castle was abandoned by Edward II in 1322 and sold by Henry VIII in 1514.

Although the settlement was effectively uninhabited, its landowners continued to have parliamentary representation into the 19th century, making it the most notorious of the rotten boroughs that existed before the Reform Act of 1832.

Other formations to have graced our fields in chronological order are:


Hooper's Wood, Dilton Marsh, Wiltshire 3. 11th June 2020. © Stonehenge Dronescapes


Barbury Castle, Wroughton, Wiltshire. 14th June 2020.  © Stonehenge Dronescapes

 
above left: Hunts' Down, near Wilton, Wiltshire. 17 June 2020.
Copyright © 2020 Stonehenge Dronescapes Photography

above right: Berwick Bassett Clump, near Winterbourne Monkton, Wiltshire.
21st June 2020.  Eccentric circles with curved 'comet' shape.Wiltshire.
Copyright © 2020 Dronescapes

   


And finally a dramatic circle captured magnificently as always by Stonehenge Dronescapes. Smeathe's Plantation, near Ogbourne St George, Wiltshire.  25th June. Concentric circles of petal-like forms with bounding ogee shapes. © Stonehenge Dronescapes

Once again a circle has appeared just as this letter was going to be winging its way to you.  It has arrived close to where I live which is a huge joy and excitement. I hope to be able to get the farmer’s permission and visit it but sadly the weather forecast is not so good.


Allan King Way, near Cheesefoot Head, Hampshire. 29th June 2020. Wheat. c.130 feet (39.5m) diameter.
copyright © Stonehenge Dronescape

My tour on the 28th July is fully booked but I have a few places left for the 6th August tour with the optional extra of flying over the fields and sacred sites in the evening. I am sure we will have many more wonders to enjoy, enthral and delight us.

The next time I write to you, I hope I will have been up in the air.

A circle has arrived just in time to be included. It is in Hampshire, not far from where I live.

May you all tread carefully, safely and gently
With my love and best wishes,

Lucy.

I have researched the crop circle phenomenon for over 30 years and have enjoyed every moment, but the cost of research and flying has been, and is, enormous. I have benefitted from some donations and sales and several of you have been very generous, but I would love it if you could still donate to help me to keep going. I thank you in advance.

P.S. My 2020 crop circle calendar now costs £8.00.

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