bethnoir | Spring into summer

Feels like summer today. It's warm, there's a mild breeze, flowers are blooming and washing is getting dry on the line. It's downright pleasant. I had a particularly good weekend too. On Saturday I met up with a friend I'd met through the Guardian's Readers Recommend blog at Stonehenge. We each took children and picnics, the weather was fine and the barrows made up for the busy and un-spiritualness of the henge itself.

This is the view from the barrows

Sad, isn't it?

There was a lot of roadkill on the sixty mile journey. Sadly several badgers, foxes and pheasants had met their ends on the roads of South Gloucestershire, Bath and North East Somerset, Somerset and Wiltshire, but on the plus side I didn't get lost.

On Sunday we visited Westonbirt Arboretum, it's magnolia season, beautiful flowering trees that smell incredibly sweet. They're my favourite thing, even better than the bluebells or camellias and rhododendrons which are out too. Look

Pretty and there was a butterfly

Plans are afoot for the Easter holiday, the first week around here, the second in Cornwall. I do hope the weather stays good, I could get used to going out without a coat and umbrella.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

don't talk to me about the blinking cooing birds. The wood pigeon that sits outside my bedroom window and coos from pre dawn onwards, never varying it's song, is back. I was moved to very un-pacifistic thought by it last year and it seems that it has been sent to tempt me. I almost hoped that the cat which sits on the roof might catch it, even though I am generally against such things,

Never been to Stonehenge? Hope you have been to some ancient monuments in your area, there are a few circles near you which look quite nice. The bus loads of tourists seemed to be enjoying it anyway, at least it wasn't raining.

I thinks I might prefer to be woken by the coo of wood pigeon than the squawk of gull but still, I hopes the feathery creature may soon limit his noisemaking to more reasonable hours.

No, but I fear the bulk of southern England remains something of an undiscovered country for me. I have been to ancient places hereabouts though, in fairness, I am probably more of a medievalist than I be a visitor of ancient monuments. I fear I lack your spiritual awareness being all caught up in my modern world! Still, glad to hear the busloads of tourists were having fun and weren't complaining too much of the lack of rides or gift shop. :P

Edit: Oh, a check of English Heritage website boasts it does indeed have a "superb shop for unusual gifts souvenirs of your visit to Stonehenge." I stand corrected.

Edited 2012-03-30 01:27 (UTC)

I did walk by the shop, but we weren't tempted in. Judging by the pleasant Japanese tourist I saw writing a postcard and getting his friend to photograph him posting it, I expect they sold postcards which are neither unusual or superb, but there were ice creams for sale a bit further on, which would have been nice if there hadn't been a queue.

Hee, I somehow suspect the postcards on offer may look not mightily to dissimilar to that first photograph you have on your post! Still, the concept of a photograph of someone posting a photograph sounds interestingly postmodern as an artwork. Nice to see people living up to their national stereotypes as well! Meanwhile some may go to Stonehenge for the spiritual experience, others go for the ice cream. Do they arrange the flakes in a circle and lie them on top of another? :P

I like the idea of monument specific ice creams, I think you should copyright the concept and sell it to ice cream makers. There could be the Avebury circle with minstrels arranged appropriately, Glastonbury Tor with a specially shaped dome and some curlywurly for the church on top and perhaps a specially made mould for Abbey's like Whitby which would require a spoon to get through the architecture :-)

Internet Research Wolf couldn't seem to find any monument shaped ice creams so perhaps there is indeed a gap in the market. He did however come across other artistic uses for dessert and apparently even the American Ice Cream Sculpting Championships!

research wolf is most appreciated, but it seems an investment in historical ice cream sculptures might not be such a good one after all, it's been done to an extent. Oh well, I shall wait until your next inspiration strikes!

Fear not, I already have plans afoot to stockpile petrol and sell off cut-price Cornish pasties on the black market!

excellent, fortunes are made that way

By devious underhand practices with no thought for the welfare of ones fellow man you mean? :)

Spring into summer

no subject

no subject

Gulls are very loud, but I prefer them to pigeons.

Would you still prefer gulls if they surrounded you at every step, glaring with their dead eyes?

yes, I like gulls, but if they try to take over the world, I'm siding with the cats

I fear little Mr. Fluffy would have a hard time faced with the might of a gull army.

darn they've done the pyramids, the idea is not so new

This Time Next Year We'll Be Millionaires!

Re: This Time Next Year We'll Be Millionaires!

Re: This Time Next Year We'll Be Millionaires!