“Where are these collages going?”
Hucka D.:
Whereever you wish. London?
bb:
I’m in Mythopolois now for the last 2, Hucka. Pretty interesting stuff.
Hucka D.:
You need to move back to Blue Mountain. Or not.
bb:
Revisit Greenup.
Hucka D.:
Of course (!)
“Separate but Equal”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, collages 2d, Jeogeot, Wiltshire
“Hucka D., any more on Story Room tonight? The blog keeps chugg’n chugg’n along. Need to write a 2013 year summary.”
Hucka D.:
Why don’t you do it now. We’ll have a chat about 2013.
—–
It was an amazing year. A 2 week trip to England in the summer, contact with woodsy style aliens at the first of the year. New collage series, first in 5 years (42 collages I believe!). Huge year for carrcasses, one of the best ever, best since 2007. C-8, 9 , 10 all created. Great hikes during the year, ending with the unique Sharieland information of October. Alone at my work space for most of the year, with a new co-worker quickly relocating out of my building. Dependent on student workers alone now. New database. New friction with co-worker. Then at the *very* end of the year, somehow Mythopolis mythology reared its head again after an absence of, oh, 30 years or so? So much stuff going on it’s difficult to pick a starting point. But let’s start with the beginning of the year — simple enough.
Aliens.
Bill Mtn., Frank Park became the scene of what appeared to be an open contact with “something” out in the woods. A new type of toy happening was brewing, and following the Billfork Agreement, I knew I had to use material found in these woods for the more permanent parts of it. I was rushing headlong toward an exploitation of Rust Spot and its cache of (mainly rusty) objects. But bizarre things happened, then. Prime objects were inexplicably rearranged. *Someone* seems to know what I’d be taken pictures of. *Someone* was in the woods making noises *specifically designed* to draw my attention to it. The someone who rearranged the objects and the someone in the woods — thickly bushed woods I might add here, and nowhere a proper human being would be wandering around in (save me!) — making noises to attract my attention were *the same*. So right at the first of the year we have a confounding mystery, the contact at Bill Mtn. By the way, the Bill part of Bill Mtn. doesn’t really have any connection to Billfork except in name. What *was* I being warned off about? It was almost as if the contactees were telling me that this was their stuff (thinking along the lines of Cat from Red Dwarf and his stash of shiny objects that he didn’t like people messing with), even perhaps they had their *own* Billforks and such toy happenings to make, with the objects in question already earmarked for such plans. I think this is a correct theory at its base. This contact was caused by similarity — I was coming into alignment with someone who was doing the same thing on the “other side”. Ah heck, I still haven’t quite got it.
England, Part 1: Collages
So anyway, right after the Bill Mtn. contact I decided to join Edna and Cammie in their summer trip to England. I was going to fly! I was going overseas! I had *never* flown in a plane. I’d never made it further west than Memphis, further south than Jacksonville, further north than NYC. I was not an experienced traveler. I had a *condition* (sound sensitivity). Yet here I was, staying *alone* my first week in England while the wife and best friend traipse around glorious London. The plan was for them to join me during the second week in Wiltshire, where I was based the whole trip. I’ll get to details of the trip in a moment. But almost simultaneous with this decision (mid to late Jan.) I start collages, partially inspired by my use of GoogleEarth to do some preliminary exploring. GoogleEarth Streetview oddities were found around Avebury primarily (reminding me of more recent Shining finds of a similar ilk). Collage quickly followed collage in a working style I was familiar with now through the Art 10×10. But this was my first collage work in 4 years, after creating a new series each year for the 5 years prior to that (2004-2009). And they were different style collages at the same time, rougher in composition but more flowing in story, perhaps. Eventually not 2 but three *sub* series unwound in a 2 month period from Jan. to March. I was quit absorbed with their creation at the time: Gila, Latona, and then Lis, with a topping or culminating 4 part *quad*rtich called Falmouth. In a virtual sense, the 4 parts encircled the viewer, who figuratively stands in the center of Avebury, then. This was new. It was just as akin to the “Baker Bloch in England” art work/story from 2009 as the Art 10×10 collages. Second Life had a strong influence on it; the Power Tower Gowlery developed directly alongside the series.
Second Life.
In Dec., 2012 I had what was probably my last lengthy stay on the Jeogeot continent of mainland, where I create *New* Pietmond from the ashes of the old ones (2 in number). The move of New Pietmond in name and context to the unique Sikkima sinkhole at that time signaled my return to the Heterocera continent, perhaps for good — what I mean by that is that I might be virtually based on this continent for the rest of my Second Life enmeshment. The Sikkima stay only lasted about a month and a half itself, although I would have retained that land if possible. A failed start for VWX Town on the *northern* border of the Rubi Woods for several days in May was followed by (after my return to *rainy rainy* Blue Mtn. from England the first of July) another, much longer attempt at this new style of town in July-October on the opposite side of Heterocera. Then starting near the first of Nov., I moved VWX Town to its current location in Rubi, on the *south* side of the same forest I formed it next to in May. My tier had jumped up yet another level in the meantime, to 75 dollars a month. I knew I couldn’t continue with this expense — *can’t* continue — but at the same time I realize my Rubi town is the culmination of Second Life experiences so far, a type of summing up, even. Just recently, I’ve determined that the Rubi Woods are themselves *alive* — Edwardston has even seen an impossible human-type eye within the branches of one of its eucalyptus trees recently. Presently I’m trying to determine how to downsize my Rubi existence while retaining the essence (Essence) of VWX Town. Difficult decisions to make just ahead. But for now I have all the land I purchased in Nov. Old avatars have come back to life, climbing out of their unlogged tombs. A new one has been added (Edwardston Resident). Just exciting times in Rubi for me.
Carrcasses.
As mentioned, this has also been a very good year for carrcass creation, perhaps the best since the heyday of this artform in 2006-2007. As with the Gilatona-Lis series (my composite name for the directly related Gila, Latona, and Lis series described above), the 2013 carrcasses were a little different from anything formed before in this vein. 3 primary ones were created, started before my trip to England and finished in Sep. after my return. The smallest of the 3, Carrcass-10 — also the last chronologically — has just recently been declassified by Hucka D. and me, with the work’s guts illuminated on this blog. Now I just have to figure out the story of Story Room (smiles). Partnered Carrcass-8 and 9 formed a twinned relationship, with 9 directly continuing 8. This is very similar to the continuous flow of Carrcass+0 into Carrcass-0 to start the whole audiovisual synching/carrcass process in 2007. But *here* we have the addition of Carrcass-10, which can be inserted either in the *middle* of the 2, or at their end. Add in an overture created in Jan. actually (directly about contact with aliens appropriately!) and the whole rises to Carrcass+2 proportions (2006), and I consider Carrcass+2 to be the best one I’ve been able to tape, and probably one of the best two overall along with the unfilmed Carrcass+1 (2007). So we’re talking about some important work for me here. And The Shining research I’ve been involved in recently directly stems from Carrcass-10, as I’ve been trying to explain on the blog the last several days. Work on The Shining will continue into the new year, apparently.
The Day After The Accosting.
Welp, Tim sure felt pretty sorry for me, because he acted as a super guide to the area on Thursday. First we went downtown and he showed me a nifty coffee shop with a great view of Devizes’ central marketplace, which was a bustling hub on this market day. Then after returning to his apt. with market food in tow, we then hopped in his car and he drove me over to Woodborough and the Silent Circle hq, *the* physical and tangible source for crop circle information operated by Charles Mallet, long time circle investigator dating back to the 1990s. Charles was there in person when we visited, and it was an exciting 30 minute or so talk with him. We gabbed about famous past glyphs including the 2001’s huge Milk Hill formation already mentioned a number of times in this here blog. Charles believes that maybe 80 percent of the circles reported these days are hoaxed, or made by very terrestrial and very human crop circle artists. But he also admits a paranormal aspect to the phenomenon still, and said, for example, he has a hard time seeing how the 2001 Milk Hill formation could have been hoaxed, given such facts as the many circles involved appear only as circles from the air and not the very unlevel ground of the remote spot — they’re actually ellipses. And Charles is friends with Barbara Lamb whose book I had just read before arriving in England. He said she *was* a lamb (of a person), and also Barbara told Charles at some point that he could be an alien himself, which I took to mean she thought he could be a hybrid. Charles also spoke of a clear disinformation program attempting to mask and obfuscate the authenticity of the crop circle phenomenon, and appeared guarded when I mentioned Michael Glickman and his book “Bones of the Gods”. Michael is in the camp that believe the great majority of crop circles appearing in England and elsewhere each spring *are* legitimate or have paranormal origins, in contrast to the 20/80 split of same by Mallet. But depsite their differences, Charles admits Glickman is a good writer. Meanwhile, Tim was taking it all in, and I knew that other crop circle enthusiasts would be visiting him later in the year. I knew he would be returning here with new guests soon. Tim stated to Charles that he has visited 1 or 2 crop circles in person each year since coming to Devizes from Cornwall. I found it sad that he also stated to me that he doesn’t like Devizes as much as Cornwall… “at all”, he then added as punctuation to the thought. He’s given up his plant transmutation business since coming to Devizes. I don’t see him staying a long time there, and he even mentioned moving to Indiana in our fair US of A. Indiana! I’m pretty positive that would be a step or two or three down from Devizes, even, so I’m kind of hoping he doesn’t go through with the idea.
So this morning we also visited the Alton Priors church, my second time going inside and my 3rd trip overall, I believe. This is the site of my Lis 07 collage featuring the very same Tim, at least sans head, and I noted that he didn’t seem as excited about the visit as I did. Maybe I should have told him about this collage in addition to the diptych I told him about the previous night, and involving the Devizes train tunnel (Lis 03 04), the scene of the accosting. But I think it was fate we both went together to this church. The joint experience was another future event seemingly prophesized in the Lis series, following up on the similarly predicted accosting (to me). Again, the Devizes leg of my trip, especially, seems to be a real life expansion of the more contract and abstracted “remote viewing” visit in the Lis series.
After the Alton Priors, we went to the nearby Barge for some food and drink. I got the vegetarian lasagna, which I shared with Tim. I believe we both also got a Croppie beer… ummm.
When returning to Devizes, Tim and I parted ways again as I decided to head up to Morgan Hill for more crop circle country hiking. Parked at a small picnic area just beyond the North Wilts Golf Course, at the intersection of The Wansdyke and the C50 road. Walked old Roman roads most of the way, and also a section of the Wansdyke heading back to the car. Was reminded that this particular run of ancient ditch acts as a strong unifying element for the whole Devizes-Marlborough region, starting, east to west, near Savernake and ending about where I parked my car actually, on Morgan Hill. My walking route took me past the sites of what I now perceive as Spongebob Squarepants related crop circle formations of the past several years, including Morgan Hill’s 2007 star formation and the nearby 2009 square formation. These, along with the seemingly related 3d effect crop circle coming at the southern base of the hill in 2011, are seen in pictures 3-5 of The Hole: Other Considerations post from June.
Thursday night I decided to return to The Lamb pub first visited the night before, but was understandably quite leery of going *anywhere* near the St. John’s Church, not to mention the graveyard in back of it where the accosting occurred only the night before.
Then in the middle of the night, about 3 o’clock or a bit before dawn, Tim got me up and we headed to *Stonehenge* for the Summer Soltice festivities there. Amazing. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures, but some from another visitor can be found here. We departed about 6 o’clock, I believe, and beat a chunk of the crowd out. When we returned, Tim prepared for a weekend visit to Cornwall, his old home as mentioned before, and I decided to drive to Silbury Hill and ended up taking a 2-3 hour nap in the parking lot there. This was the last I saw of Tim, as he didn’t return to Devizes until Sunday, by which time I was in Pewsey picking up Beth and Kim. How glad was I to see them!
But back to Friday. So after my car nap I returned to Avebury, getting at least a small hike west of town in what’s called Avebury Truesloe, a separate village actually. Saw the Adam and Eve standing sarsen stones from across an oilseed rape field, which might have been the terminal rocks of a second Avebury Avenue (Beckhampton Avenue) to compliment the more famous one coming from the west (Kennet Avenue). But, once again, I felt kind of drained at Avebury, for no real reason.
Now the excitement starts again: On the way back to Devizes that night, decided to stop at The Barge. No real suprise there, since I ended up at this restaurant almost every day of my Wilsthire visit at some point. But this day I decided not to immediately go into the pub, but just park and hike up to Adam’s Grave, one of the nifty landmarks in the Altons area that I hadn’t had a chance to visit yet. Adam’s Grave has its own wikipedia site here , described as a neolithic long barrow, which means it is an ancient, earthen burial mound. It was quite a climb to get to the top, but, what a view! Several other people were there with me, including a photographer who was hiking close to me all the way up. Here’s the story, and it involves him. We were just doing some loose chatting since we were walking so close together (seemed rude just to ignore him in such close proximity) and he stated he was up here to look for crop circles. Well I told him that there was one in the field below (the famous East Field) that formed about 2 weeks prior. Until that moment I’d forgotten that it was there, or that I could possibly see it from this vantage point. I was just walking to get to Adam’s Grave itself, a prominent landmark. But then I looked to the other side of Honeystreet from the crop circle I knew about to find what appeared to be a *second* formation, a little more distant from me than the first. The odd thing about this is that I had *just* checked the Crop Circle Connector about 4:40 at the Devizes public library, before coming to Honeystreet and The Barge, and the formation hadn’t been reported. I asked another person present at Adam’s Grave when spotting this formation and asked if that looked like a crop circle to her. She responded that it had just been posted to the Crop Circle Connector *a little before 5*, so that means I just missed the report. She also said that it seemed more impressive that the other formations of the young season in that it had a complicated braiding effect in an outer ring. And I had to be one of the first dozen or so people to actually see the formation. Excitement plus!! Here was a fresh crop circle. I didn’t know yet that the farmer who owned the field had not allowed access, and even threatened to mow the circle if anyone entered. That’s a key component of this story to keep in mind as well.
So I was excited. I decided to cancel a potential trip to the top of nearby Milk Hill for a better vantage point. I wanted to get back to The Barge and see if anyone had any news *there*. Turned out they did not — the pub was not abuzz with excitement about a new formation or anything approaching that. Then I went out to my car to leave, perhaps to enter the fresh crop circle myself to see it with my own eyes, and it turns out an Audi station wagon had *blocked my Ford Fuckup in*. It took me over an hour to get it out, a story just by itself that I’ll have to wait till another day to tell. But the main point here is that I was blocked at The Barge long enough to make a visit to the crop circle unlikely. I’m bolding that, because, especially looking back on it, “forces” were keeping me from entering the formation. Maybe it was my higher self who knew better and was protecting me. Maybe it was something else. But dusk was quickly approaching as I left The Barge’s parking lot and driving past the location of the crop circle, only tens of yards from the road I had to take to get back to Devizes. *Yards* — and you could see some of it from the road as well. So tempting to enter, and I think I would have if it weren’t for the new time constraints. I *had* to get back to Devizes before dark, see, because I could barely drive on those *fucking roads* during the day. There was no choice for me but to skip the circle visit. And it was only when I returned to Devizes did I learn about the farmer’s ban and the threat of destruction. I was very lucky. What would I have found in the circle?
Oh, by the way, here’s the formation I *didn’t* visit. Red Collie would soon write glowingly about it, and from his text I determined that I was staring at a legitimate (non-hoaxed) crop circle from Adam’s Grave and also the C8 that day. And another unusual thing: it turned out to be one of those rare two-parter, consisting of a phase one (the phase I witnessed) which then developed into a phase 2 the next day. Red Collie states phase 2 appeared to be a hoaxed addendum to a legitmate circle, but I’m uncertain after reading other reports. Also for the record, I mention this same crop circle in the Diamond Too 02 post from early July.
(to be continued)
Filed under Crop Circles, Wiltshire
(continued from Wiltshire Trip, Days 01-02)
Looking over my notes I took during the trip, I see that on the morning of Tue, June 19, I experienced another round of frustration regarding the Devizes parking and traffic situation, so that night decided just to park my Ford Focus at The Barge and walk the *7 miles* back to Devizes through a little used back way, as it turned out. I’ve written about this path several times in the FHE blog, with the first being in the “Dimensional Kink?” post created just before the England trip, and the second being “Going Back in Time” from just after the same. In the latter, it looks like I’ve covered most of the essentials of this hike already, as well as some additional, more theoretical or abstract information coming from resident blog spirit Hucka Doobie (Hucka D.). Hmmm… Waters again… and another Kink as well. Hucka D. claims in that post the 2 hikes to and from Devizes on Tue and Wed respectively, act as one in hyptertime, with one half, as it were, not really existing without the other half. The *kink* experienced in the first (The Barge to Devizes) was straightened out, as Hucka D. put it, in the one from the following morning when I returned to Devizes and retrieved my car. This was accomplished by following the water/canal (Kennet and Avon Canal) all the way. It was indeed a highlight from a trip packed with highlights in both a positive and negative way, but with the positive stuff winning out in the end. Anyway, when I got back to The Barge, I rewarded myself for accomplishing such a feat with a vegetarian lasagna lunch. Many canal boats were moored along the Kennet and Avon, especially around Honeystreet and The Barge. Many were there because of Solstice celebrations in the area, in particular at Stonehenge and also Avebury. Get back to that in the next, planned post on my trip, which will cover Days 05-06. I went to Stonehenge; wandered among the rocks!
After leaving The Barge, the next hike was also quite amazing, taking me through the western edge of West Woods to the Wansdyke, an early Medieval defensive linear earthwork according to the wikipedia article on the subject. Then I followed the Wansdyke west to the site of an abandoned Medieval village called Shaw. I note in my handwritten journal that the paths in the area were confusing, the Wansdyke itself not being part of a marked hiking trail in this area (although a trail still existed along most of it here). Several small woods lie to the south and west of West Woods, including Shaw Wood (closest to the site of the namesake abandoned village) and also Boreham Wood and Gopher Wood. More recently, I’ve noted in this blog that the closest crop circle to the Wansdyke to ever form was this one from a field very near Shaw, and dating from 2001 once more (like the gigantic Milk Hill glyph from the same year). In the same post, Hucka D. and I talk about a possible, direct association between this Shaw and Seale, Texas discussed several times in this blog, since, among other things, Seale itself use to be called Shaw. Is there something *sealed up* at Shaw, waiting to be unlocked? Does it have something to do with the nearby 2001 crop circle mentioned above?
After returning to the car, I decided to head up the road to Avebury, parking at the Silbury Hill lot and walking an additional 1/2 mile or so to avoid the 7 dollar entry fee. The trail from Silbury Hill to Avebury turned out to be much weedier and disused than I anticipated. “No one much walks from Avebury to Silbury Hill, even?” I found myself asking. No, it turns out they don’t, and the famous West Kennet Long Barrow down the same path is much more accessed via the main A4 highway that also runs past Silbury Hill. I quickly realized that after rains your shoes and pants would quickly be soaked because of all the wet weeds along the way — made an important mental note of that, because I would be using this trail a number of times in the coming days. This would be my second visit to Avebury, but the first where I parked at Silbury Hill for free access. This time, unlike the first visit from the day before, I decided to head to the Red Lion, and ordered a pint of what’s called an Avebury Well Water, which was superb. I was very excited to be at the Red Lion, because it is a centerpiece for not one but two composite collage creations from the Gilatona-Lis series completed earlier in the year, or the Latona 03/04 dyptich, and then the Falmouth *quad*tich (4 part collage set, where, again, each collage acts a unique work in its own right as well). Was getting tired from all the hiking of the day, however, and decided to bypass revisiting the rocks. Went back to Devizes after this and visited a new pub called The Lamb, not far from where I was staying with Tim. Took a book again — read on 3 books while I was in England, or “Winesburg, Ohio”, Jane Roberts’ “The Unknown Reality, Part 2”, and, one I barely touched, Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying”.
After finishing my beer at The Lamb, I decided to revisit nearby St. John’s Church and the graveyard before head’n home. On the *public* pathway behind the church, got *accosted*, and right at the spot where Brian R. Marshall shot his 2 photos that are the basis for yet another Gilatona-Lis dyptich: Lis 03/04. And that’s why I was there in the first place — to check out in more detail the setting for these photos and attached collages, centered around an old railroad bed leading to a sealed up tunnel running underneath the Devizes castle site. I crossed the bridge over the old rr track, went down the public greenway a bit, petted a cat, headed back, and then was *blocked* from going back across the bridge by this short but extremely stout *tank* of a man, who I said hello to but apparently didn’t take kindly to friendly greetings like that, at least in this neck of the woods. “What did you say to me?” he asked, while blocking my way. “Hello,” I said. “I said hello to you.” He just stood there. I think he repeated “What did you say?” a couple of times. Then I ask him if he was alright, because I started to think that he was having some kind of seizure or something. Then, *thankfully* he brushed past me, saying something like, “get out of my way you silly man.” I know it doesn’t sound as scary the way I’m writing it, but I come from a small mountain town where *nothing* like this has ever happened to me, not that I can think of. Not to the same degree. But the scariest part was when I returned to the H&H bar below my room, and the landlord telling me that they deal drugs in that cemetery, and I was lucky there was only one of the lot back there at the time, else they would have mugged me or worse. “Great!” I was thinking. “And how do I get out of the rest of my rent to Tim?” I didn’t say that, but I was ready to leave Devizes that night; I’m sure you can understand. Then I saw Tim that night and told him what happened, and he was aghast and said he thought Devizes was a very safe place to roam about, even at night. He claimed to know absolutely nothing about thugs and drug dealing around St. John’s. I even told Tim about the collage I made with the tunnel entrance to explain why I was in that particular location. I knew it had to mean more, since I’d already identified a green man effect at the tunnel with a black hole, and probably the most famous example of one (Cygnus X-1). In my journal I go into this a bit more, theorizing that the accosting event and the creation of the collage back in Feb. were (or are) actually part of one hypertime event, past anticipating a future event but also future event affecting the past, I believe. There are a number of investigative angles one could pursue here. For example, the train tunnel has been blocked just like I was blocked by the accoster, and from the very bridge where you have the best angle to view the blocked tunnel. Strange, eh?
But that was my most dangerous moment in England I believe. And I was certainly glad to get out of Devizes for that and other reasons on Sunday morning.
Coming up next: a visit to *the* main crop circle information center, a visit to Stonehenge during the Soltice, *seeing* additional crop circles with the naked eye, and more!
(continued in Wiltshite Trip, Days 05-06!)
Check out the latest crop circle, which seems to be one of the better ones so far this late, late starting season. It mirrors the shape of one of those “3 sisters” beech groves I wrote about in my blog earlier this year, specifically Patty (!).
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2013/hackpenhill/hackpenhill2013a.html
Compare with here:
https://bakerbloch.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/3413/
https://bakerbloch.wordpress.com/2013/01/19/making-a-point/
I’m sure that crop circles have never been beside any of these 3 groves before, armed with knowledge of the archives of this site which contains all known locations of crop circles past and present now.
Red Collie seems to like this one, and I have a feeling he’s going to add some text to his 7/15/13 published picture asap:
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2013/hackpenhill/comments.html
He states it is a reincarnation of a crop circle quickly mowed through by a farmer just over a week before, which also seems unusual.
This beech circle is one of the two twins (or sisters) of “Marge” where a cyclist apparently died, an accident we found out about while visiting it in person during our England trip last month. Another perhaps strange thing: couldn’t find out any details about this accident afterwards despite trying quite a number of google search combinations. Maybe it’s time to try again, and harder.
More as it comes in!
Filed under Crop Circles, Wiltshire
Plane trip into England: not terribly bad but my neck hurt quite a lot. Probably stress a big factor. Reached London about 5pm their time, hopped in car, drove on wrong side of road to Devizes. Not too bad a trip — nervewracking to a degree, of course. But I made it. Stopped in Marlborough for a bit, stopped at The Barge and met Ted as soon as I parked the car, an ex-British Marine who owns a canal boat (aka narrowboat) moored next to the Honeystreet bridge. He gave me a tour of his boat — very nice — met his wife, and then he even bought me a Croppie beer at The Barge. Talked of politics and such. Then crop circles came up, and I put forth my theory about them being part hoaxed, part paranormal in origin, and said most researchers agreed with me, disagreeing more about the percentages of each part. Not sure what Ted made of that statement, but at any rate he begged off a hike to the white horse with me, which was okay by me — not that I didn’t like him, but I was ready for some alone hiking time, some serious alone hiking time. And I got it this week believe me! So my first real hike came when I, impromptu, decided to park the car at the Stanton St. Bernard exit off the main road between Devizes and Honeystreet, and headed almost straight up Milk Hill to the north, the highest peak in all of Wiltshire at just under 1000 feet, I believe. Milk Hill article at wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_Hill. Exiting a rough hiking trail up, rather skirted the famed Alton Barnes white horse on its side to reach the top, then walked down on very narrow (“C”) road back down to the main highway. Wow, is it beautiful up there — a quick hike, since I needed to get to Devizes certainly before nightfall. So reached Devizes, and Tim was there already. Talked of general stuff and then crop circles; told him about the Barbara Lamb book I wanted to give him (unfortunately never did!). Scouted out downtown afterwards, and had beer in his landlord’s pub (Hare and Hound). 6x draft was my choice, a local brew made by Wadworth Brewery in Devizes itself. Very local, then.
Next day got up *very* early and headed toward Oliver’s Hill and the Devizes White Horse, another in a series of about 9 within Wiltshire County and perhaps the one of most recent design, only dating from the late 1990s. More on Wiltshire white horses here: http://www.wiltshirewhitehorses.org.uk/. I was up and out by about 4:30am I believe — it started to get light during my stay around *3:30*. Amazing. Will miss that. The trail up to the white horse got worse and worse until it just became a line through the weeds and up a hill. Luckily I brought my deluge kit in my daypack (the *amazing* Gregory pack — don’t leave home without it!), ’cause it was raining by the time I reached the horse figure. It’s really amazing at the top of this hill, with a highlight for sure being a small woods called Roundway Hill Covert. Tim later also mentioned the beauty of these woods. Site here: http://www.wiltshire-web.co.uk/oldwildlife/reserves/roundway/roundway.htm. Notable for me was the natural boxwood type plants (they may have been boxwoods themselves) that sprinkled the forest; very un-American seeming. Neck was starting to hurt before reaching Oliver’s Castle, and probably didn’t get to explore to the degree I had hoped for. Worried about neck for rest of trip, but turned out it was fairly okay. Main problem was *parking and driving*. More on that in a moment-o.
Next hike involved Cherhill white horse, after resting at Devizes Costa for a bit. Let me speak of Devizes: I had the idea before staying there that we, B and I, could live in Devizes after retiring, at least for months at a time. Don’t think this is the case now, but let me explain in parts. First, the library was very disappointing. I was expecting an old building full of ancient tomes and manuscripts, and the reality was that it made Blue Mountain’s public library look very good. Computer time for the public was limited, and though no fault of the library, the *keyboard* was a little different in Britain. All this made internet surfing considerably more problematic than I anticipated. A second problem was Costa — I expected an equal to America’s Starbucks, and, sorry Britain, got a flimsy substitute. Lattes weren’t nearly as strong even with extra shots, and they actually sweeten them a bit for some reason. Costa itself was pretty neat as far as stores go, and I had a great location in which to sit and people watch, it being located at a busy walking corner of downtown. Devizes’ downtown, overall, was quite interesting, with three old churches and covering a large area — several alleyways. Got a mocha latte at Costa on day 02, and vowed off sugar thereafter, sensing a cold coming on. Eventually the sugar and stress caught up with me in week 2, when I actually contracted a cold. But during the Devizes part I was okay on that. Had trouble with Tim’s shower in the morning — Britain’s showers are quite different than ours, requiring pulling a chord hung from the ceiling to turn on the hot water, and then adjusting the water temperature on a dial in the tub. And the curtain didn’t pull all the way around. Nowhere to really hang your towel when done. Strange. Back to the big problems: *parking*. I never solved the riddle of parking in Devizes, and ended up, for the last several days there, of parking at a Sports Complex almost a mile from Tim’s apt. One day I even parked at The Barge and walked all the way back to Devizes, a distance of maybe 6 miles, and then trekked back a different route of about 7 miles to The Barge the next morning. But those were some of my favorite hikes, if not my favorites of the trip, at least while I was alone.
The hike up to the Cherhill white horse was amazing as well, especially the earthworks and hill to its south. Later that week I was able to pull off a hike that partially linked this Cherhill horse hike with the Devizes horse hike, taking place around Morgan Hill. More on that in a later post. Should also mention that the oilseed rape field (yellow flowers!) below Cherhill’s horse figure contained a small crop circle, one of the earliest of the very late starting season, and probably man-made. I had actually forgotten it was there when hiking up to the horse figure. The farmer who owns the field didn’t allow access. But — my first spied crop circle! Pretty exciting, and then more would be on their way, or at least 2 more. To the south of Cherhill, one had a fantastic view into what I’ve been calling The Hole on this blog. A picture of it from the soon-to-be-expired Liquor camera can be found in this earlier post.
So now we start with one of the major incidents of our journey: on the way back to The Barge from Cherhill had a *flat tire*! Luckily — *luckily* — I was very near a designated parking lot along the quite narrow road to Honeystreet, or else I would have had to stay in the road to fix the tire, if I could even fix it. Turned out I had a lot of working room in the parking lot, and a man helped me located the thingamajig that enables one to remove the 5th, *safety* nut, which we don’t have in America I don’t believe. It was in the glove compartment, which I probably would have eventually found but the person saved me some time for sure. I had help from quite a number of Brits in this manner — as B. said, they seem to be more helpful over there than us Americans over here. Tried to call B and, to add to my problem, the phone needed recharging, and actually died while I *just* had enough information to locate the place in Marlborough where I needed to take the car and order a new tire. What timing — and that was another leitmotif of the trip. Time seemed different over there, and greater stress and problems strangely juxtaposed with greater joy and synchronicity. So went to Marlborough and ordered the tire, and then I just decided to head to The Barge, small spare tire be damned. Again, a nervewracking time, but once again I’m here to tell the tale and made it back. Even this night I was tempted to park my car there and walk back to Devizes. The next day I decided to do just this. But for this day, I drove back on with the small tire to Devizes. Stopped at Hound and Hare again, attempting to read books each night there.
Filed under Crop Circles, Wiltshire
Mind perhaps starting to cool down after the heated experience of visiting Wiltshire County England the last 2 weeks of June. Will fit immediate future posts about Wiltshire into broader discussions (like this post!). I believe I’ll have no quarrels about returning to the O_k Barn just outside Marlborough for the next visit. Relatively cheap; very convenient to all locations (Marlborough, Fyfield Down, Avebury, The Barge, West Woods, Savernake, etc.). Will have more to say about the comparison between the O_k Barn and Baker Bloch’s own visit to Wilsthire in 2010, staying at another farm house (Temple Farm). The King and Queen of Temple Farm have some interesting ties to the people who rent the O_k Barn, seemingly.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66525
http://www.marlboroughcollege.org/about-us/college-history/the-mound/
William Morris (educated at Marlborough College):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_from_Nowhere
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wood_Beyond_the_World
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Well_at_the_World%27s_End
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Marlborough description from a children’s book author’s blog:
Wansdyke and Shaw village from same:
Walking uphill through thistles through along the Wansdyke day 5
William Golding (who lived in Marlborough and Wilsthire):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Golding
William Golding’s friend James Lovelock, best known for his Gaia hypothesis:
Filed under Wiltshire
“There is some secret *sealed* up in the Medieval village of Shaw, Hucka D., deserted since the 15th Century apparently.”
Hucka D.:
The village of Seale, Texas, with its past as Shaw, seals this deal, yeah.
bb:
The Wansdyke is such an important, unifying element to the central Wiltshire landscape. This would be the East Wansdyke according to the wikipedia article on the subject.*
Hucka D.:
You traced a lot of it in your Wiltshire hikes. Good for you!
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bb:
Let’s see, Hucka D., I hiked part of the East Wansdyke, the most preserved section of the 3 identified parts of the Roman ditch, at Morgan Hill, the western terminus of the eastern part. Then I hiked part of the dike around West Woods, following it to the site of the old Medieval village of Shaw, which I plan to return to when heading back to Wiltshire. Will this be 5 years; 10 years? Will have to see how crop circles develop in the meantime, and people’s opinion of them and the development of the psychic state of the world at large. Going to be an interesting 5-10 years for sure! I think Hucka D. has left the scene. So something is sealed at Shaw. I always felt very pleased when hiking this ancient ditch. It runs across the lower edge of The Hole in the heart of crop circle country.**
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* see also the home page for “Wansdyke Project 21”:
http://www.wansdyke21.org.uk/wansdykehomepage.htm
** Additional notes: the huge 2001 Milk Hill mega-glyph is one of the closer crop circle formations ever to appear near the Wandsdyke.
Also from 2001, and 2 weeks before the huge Milk Hill glyph appeared, comes this interesting formation that may be the closest ever to the Wansdyke. This would be in a field just west of the former Shaw village site.
Another crop circle from the year before (July 16, 2000), w/ seemingly similar design elements and from the same field as the one pictured above, is here:
http://www.mathildenhoehe.org/index_flash.php
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nepotistcollective/sets/72157616422406563/with/5818710844/
Filed under Crop Circles, Wiltshire
…To Pick Up Additional Threads…
First:
Notes:
Yes, I did get to pass through this Dimensional Kink while in England. Very successful trip! Unfortunately I didn’t take my camera, because some interesting things were on and in the ground at that point (stone structures, perhaps a bridge at one spot), with more to explore. It’s a void between the communities of All Cannings (east) and Coate (west), passed through after I parked my car at The Barge, deciding to hike all the way to Devizes on Tue night, a distance of about 7 miles. For the evening walk, arriving in Devizes only a bit before dark (close!), I decided that I simply had to try passing through this time/space Kink written about just prior to the flight in, even though I knew it was risky. This might have been, in fact, my greatest risk taking during the trip. Or was it the least risk taking activity — dunno. This is not The Hole I’ve written so much about lately mysteriously forming in the center of heated crop circle activity swirling all around, but a kind of second, considerably less defined hole appearing not far south. I say that risk taking may *not* have been involved because obviously the alien type crop circle makers have also been ignoring this place as well; less chance of being beamed up like Scotty, you see. What did I see inside? Again I don’t have the photos, but my guess is the remains of ancient stuff poking through. When I go back to Wiltshire (5 yrs? 10 yrs?) I’ll make a considerable attempt to return to this place. In being a void between population places, it is somewhat akin to the Synching Creek Designated Mystery Area, I guess. Interesting that Pooh appeared in the All Cannings church after showing up in Whitehead Crossing with his wagon full of honey the week before. 4 Sticks missed him, though, but received the gift of honey.
Just to complete: The next morning (Wed) had to head back to The Barge, of course, to retrieve my car. Went back soley on the Kennet and Avon Canal this time — amazing trip; took about 4 hours at a relatively slow pace, and the weather was pitch perfect. Arrived at The Barge early afternoon and rewarded myself with a vegetarian lasagna lunch, which I purchased a number of times over the 2 week trip. Unfortunately, blisters began to appear on my little toes after the hike, probably because my shoes, although comfortable, were relatively new. These would be my most waterproof shoes, however, and the ones I wore most in England.
Second:
First, Hucka Doobie wants to ask some questions. Hucka, take it away…
Hucka D.:
Welcome to the Baker Bloch Blog, baker b.! I have some additional questions about the Dimensional Kink? post. Don’t you think this is SID’s 1st Oz. The hike, I mean?
bb:
I’m not sure.
Hucka D.:
The dimensional kink, or, sorry Dimensional Kink is like the kink in the line of Bodysong within SID. Sorry, again: Music from the Body. Can you pull up a diagram and I’ll demonstrate.
bb:
I think so. Hold on a minute, though…
http://rainbowology.net/sid/bookernew12.html
There it is Hucka D.
Hucka D.:
Yes, I’m convinced the hike is like the journey through SID’s 1st Oz front to back, in turns of this one album (Music From The Body). You’re lucky you made it through the kink, just like you’re lucky you made it through SID’s 1st Oz’s kink. I was there to help. Pooh.
bb:
Well, there was a lot of pooh in the kink for sure, Hucka (!)
Hucka D.:
The cows had never seen anyone hike through their field, in truth. Knee deep was the grass, ankle deep was the pooh. Next time you will take a bear in there.
bb:
Now the… sorry.
Hucka D.:
Now the body of water you hiked down from Devizes to Honeystreet the next day would be the necessary body of water in the equation. Without this single channel or *canal* of water, you would not have been able to effect the first hike, see?
bb:
Yeah, I kinda see that, Hucka D. Because I would not have been able to pass through the Dimensional Kink. The canal smoothed out the kink, somehow.
Hucka D.:
Yes it did. And that’s why I showed up today. To tell you that.
bb:
What would have happened if I hadn’t hiked down the canal from Devizes to Honeystreet the next day?
Hucka D.;
The 2 hikes acted as one in hypertime. One does not exist, then, without the other. You would not effected the first without understanding the second would follow the next day. (pause)
bb:
This collage (Lis 06) might be symbolic of the 2 hikes, then, Hucka. The turning of the moon shaped thingie occurs perpendicular to the direction of the hikes (north to south instead of east-west), but the rock with the triangle shaped crop circle image represents The Barge, the beginning and end point of the hikes respectively. And the tombstone, then, represents the kink, the dimensional kink.
Hucka D.:
But it… yes, you go…
bb:
But it could also represent *Devizes* in the center between the *two* Barges, one beginning and one ending. The tombstone, after all, comes from Devizes (St. James’ church) from the collage just before this one (Lis 05). The gargoyle being hugged, which is the same as Bart Simpson, would be my accoster, then.
Hucka D.:
Yes. Yes.
bb:
The Dimensional Kink is about as far away as you can get from a population center in these neck of the woods. The accosting came about as *close* as you can to a population center, occurring near the middle of Devizes.
Hucka D.:
All this (collages, from early this year) was preparation for that (Devizes experiences, including the accosting).
bb:
Perhaps strange that that particular rock with a crop circle image wasn’t in The Barge any longer, although I have proof of its existence there through a pic from this post. Lemme dig that up quickly…
Hucka D.:
Go ahead. But… yes.
https://bakerbloch.wordpress.com/2013/03/14/honey/
bb:
The picture comes from this flickr page…
… taken on June 6, 2007, or over 6 years ago now. They probably have the rock somewhere in the back still, then, in a storage room or sumtin.
Hucka D.:
It is a Rockley rock. It is archetypal. (pause) All these things were set up so that the accosting would be minimized. He would simply say “silly man” and brush you aside. He was a tank, a brute. But at that point in time he softened. He became not Bart alone but Bart with a caring and more advanced feminine side — sister Lisa. And you received a vegetarian lasagna to remind you of this.
bb:
The rock is signed PRS, and dated 2005.
Hucka D.:
Filed under SID's 1st Oz, United Kingdom, Wiltshire
http://www.greatdreams.com/Events/9_11_01/Amertrg2.htm
I saw the photograph of this formation on September 15, 2001. I wrote some numbers in my files concerning it, but did not post it.
5313 Formation All Cannings Down, Wiltshire 28 Aug
http://www.cropcircleresearch.com/cgi-bin/CCdb2?d=uk01dv5313 Formation Tanhill Penning, nr Allington Down, Wiltshire 28th August
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2001/TanhillPenning/TanhillPenning2001a.htmlThis is a paste from my notes:
This has 5 circles in a thought bubble pattern. Below that is three circles, a larger one slightly above two smaller. Below and to the right side is a single circle. Below and to the right of that is three small circles in a line. This may suggest 5, 3, 1, 3 or the reverse, 3, 1, 3, 5.
5313 + 3135 = 8448
8448 / 1.6 = 5280 (a mile in feet)
8448 / 11 = 768
24 x 32 = 768
768 x 3 = 2304 (Gematrian)Tanhill, I believe, was the location of the Mega-Glyph.
I placed a post on Paul Vigay’s site this morning, October 5, 2001
(end of addition)
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As determinable by the below photos, the 2001 Milk Hill crop circle (1st photo) lies closer to the Hole Circle as a whole than the 2005 Milk Hill circle from the same field (2nd photo):
Filed under Crop Circles, Wiltshire
Sunklands 
