North western panorama

(Click on image to enlarge)

Panorama from last Sunday across the whole of the Severn Vale from the western tip of the hill. In the far distance you can just about make out Hay Bluff, I think, as well as the hills nearer in the Vale. Fabulous light and clouds. C-H-M wishes his readers a very Happy and Prosperous New Year. Not sure how we're all going to achieve the prosperous part of that wish in the current climate but the usual combination of perspiration and inspiration will doubtless apply.

It looked ominous for a while ...

For a short time it looked as though it was going to rain upon the picnic in July: given how sunny the rest of the photos are this shot which was taken at the beginning of the afternoon looks rather ominous. But the Gods were kind to us and no 'Weather Miracles' were needed.

Speaking of which, Dr Ferris's new book Hate and War: the Column of Marcus Aurelius has hit the bookshops.

I'm just reading the chapter about the Miracle of the Thunderbolt and the Miracle of the Rains. The Rain God in Scene XVI bears a certain resemblance to a Crickley digger, but to find out which, you'll have to buy the book.

The View from Barrow Wake Hill

Dr Ferris has a lot to answer for as my postcard collection continues to grow.  This looks like a pre-war effort.  When Iain came to stay the other day he reminded me that he'd seen a reference somewhere to their having been a cafe on the hill in the dim and distant past.  I wonder whether this is true, not least because until the relatively recent past the land was all in private hands.  In any event it was not until the building of the Leisuredrome about 30 years ago that there was a supply of running water to the top of the hill.  Any previous hospitality arrangement must surely have been pretty rudimentary and probably mobile.

Looking West

My thanks to Natural England for the last in Peter Wakely's 1995 series: is this looking down the northern flank of the hill towards the west from quite a distance or have I misread the perspective? 

Looking north towards Chosen Hill

Another shot taken by Crickley Hill Man on Easter Sunday: standing on top of the Iron Age rampart looking north towards Chosen Hill.  Only on this trip, 33 years after I first looked at it, did I manage to grasp the name of the bump in the plain.