Mervyn's been seen in public!

We haven't seen Mervyn at the Palace for a long time now, but he does have this habit of disappearing from time to time, so nobody was that worried.

But now he's been seen, alive and well, at the Cheltenham Folk Festival!  He was causing his usual havoc on the dance floor at a ceilidh, but considering the amount he must have had to drink he was doing surprisingly well.  For example, he didn't fall over his own tail once, but everyone else did.  

He was also not one to be constrained by the bossy instructions being issued by the caller - why allow yourself to be dominated in life?  No, he invented at least three new dances, a remarkable feat since some boringly ordinary ones were taking place around him at the time, and would gladly substitute a waltz when a hop step was called for.  When I say hop step, this has nothing to do with beer production or I'm sure he would have complied.

His was not an entirely happy experience, however, in that the price of the booze was limiting his intake.

'I jussht ashked for one little bottle of lager.  ONE little bottle of lager.  Jussht the one.  An it cossht five thoushand poundsh.  I ashk you - jussht for one litttle bottle of lager.  Go to shleep, my babby ... closhe your bloodshot eyessh ...'

What was more worrying was that, price notwithstanding, he had managed to consume so much alcohol that his breath was dissolving paint on surfaces 6' away from him.

He hasn't been seen in the Midlands today, yet, but I'm wondering if he's managed to find a bunch of friends with similar habits and dress to his.

Here's hoping that Blogger's feeling better now.

A rather strange dialogue box appeared as I started to type, so here's keeping my fingers crossed.  I've just invented a new way of doing my archaeology notes.  I am hopelessly disorganised at keeping notes;  always have been.  This extends to finding my way round anything which is in book form, as opposed to things which you can arrange on the floor and therefore see at a glance.  I can get through purely academic work, but it puts years on my life and I'm constantly haunted by the fact that my mind doesn't really work like that.  It took me a full working day to sort out all the referencing and stuff on my last dissertation;  I've seen people do this sort of thing without having the slightest trouble, and I regard them with awe and admiration.

But I've started writing my notes on 'doctored' paper;  I'll remember the associated images, and probably half the information as well, which will make it much easier to retrieve later on.  It also saves the trouble of having to do all that doodling in the margin.  I've done several more of these, and none of them are like any of the others, which should minimise confusion.

On a totally different note, I was driving to the gym today when I noticed a courtesy car with 'Dent Cars' written on the side.  By which I mean, painted like a proper sign, not just a semi-literate scribbling in the muck on the car.  I thought it was a very appropriate instruction for a company like this to give - drumming up business an' all that.

I was so fascinated by it I nearly forgot to keep my eyes on the road - this could have meant that I'd inadvertently comply with its demands, but luckily a roundabout got in the way.
 

Is anyone else having problems with Blogger?

The layout of the type in the post below is awful;  new lines starting where they shouldn't, and all sorts;  I've edited it umpteen times and it still won't do things properly - when I use the space bar, it starts a new line for example.

Does anyone have an explanation for, or, more importantly, a solution to this problem?

Not big stones as such, but Silbury Hill.

Here is a picture of Silbury Hill, which is the largest man made mound in Europe 
(it is around 130' high).  It may get smaller;  if you look carefully, you will 
see that it is being nibbled by sheep.  These are very persistent critters, so I hope the monument's OK!

 
However, Silbury Hill has competition ... here are some molehills close to the site, which the moles are working on very hard.  It's going to take them a while, but moles are very persistent,
too.

Big Stones Part 2

Avebury!  And we took some dowsing rods!  Here is Mark.  He is a proper Celt, which you can see from his monstrous plaits, and he is dowsing for cow pats.  Though he seems more likely to find one by conventional means, judging by the lack of action on the part of the rods ...



The rods were much more interested in ley lines than cow pats, as you can see here.  Jo has just located one such, to her delight and horror.  They aren't very scientific, you see.



Here is a bit of the Avenue leading down to the circles, which is where we started off our hunt for leys.  In the distance, the rods picked up lines at either side of the Avenue, and also very clearly down the middle.  Interestingly enough, in the foreground bit, where the line of stones curve round, the rods were picking up the current in a straight line from the ones at the back, i.e. not within the area delineated by the stones nowadays.  



The 'entrance stones' to the circle;  once you get inside this network of circles, the dowsing rods were going absolutely MAD ...



And finally, some stones from the outer circle;  for anyone not familiar with this monument, I've included this pic to give you an idea of the sheer scale of the place!  (That is a normal size human being standing next to the stones).

Coming soon ... Silbury Hill

Big Stones Part 1

This is just the first bit because I've seen lots of big stones over the last few days ... but the first site is Rollright.  Here is a bit of the stone circle.  It's one of those where you're not supposed to be able to count the stones ... this photo won't be any help with this cos for I didn't attempt to photograph the whole site.  Though it will help you count to seven.



This is the King Stone, who is just over the county boundary and is therefore a resident of Warwickshire.  Apparently he goes down to Little Rollright spinney to drink - this has obviously been a cause for concern in the past, because they've fenced him in.  According to the 18th century antiquarian, William Stukeley, it was a spot where young people met at a special time and made merry with cakes and ale. Maybe they got fed up with him trying to join in.



Finally, here are the Whispering Knights - well, they haven't got much to do, being blocked into a small space like that.

Anyway, coming soon ... Avebury ...