SE Ohio, I am in you
Jul. 8th, 2012 10:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cornerofmadnessI almost said the ass-end of OHio but that would then make me a butt plug...
The drive here wasn't bad. The storm that my tour guide heard about while I was in Wales was evident. Trees are down everywhere here. It's muggy and gross but that's the worst of it.
I did make a terrible mistake. This is where having an iphone would have been handy. There were a couple books I could have bought but I wanted to get the Madog center to buy them like they said they would (on my neolithic sites of course). Since they were new we figured Amazon would have them. They do for 80$ and up. Many are over 200$. LIke I'd pay that for a 15$ book. Sigh.
Wales Day Three
I woke in around 4 Am and couldn't sleep between rooks, jackdaws, sea gulls and collared doves, making me wish a pox on all avian kind thanks to the cacophony they were making. I did like how the jackdaws combed the moss growing in the slate shingles for the insects. I finally fell back to sleep and dragged out of bed to another full breakfast of fried tomatoes and mushrooms, eggs and this time I opted for the glamorgan sausages. Finally a sausage I like (i.e. it's nothing but cheese, onions and breadcrumbs).
We hit so many sites today in spite of the off again, on again rain. We started in Abercastle with Carreg Sampson, a dolman style burial chamber. It had a stunning view of the coast where you could, had it not been so overcast, see Ireland. Some of the thinking is that these sites were place in these areas because of the views which could have been seen as sacred. As we were walking back to the car, Wendy (the mostly blind woman) tells me that in the photos she took of me on her camera (she will be sending them to me in something called a smile box) there is a disembodied shadow following me. How interesting.
Carreg Sampson long view
Carreg Sampson close up.
We went from there to Fishguard Harbor (a Viking port) to Goodwick where Garn Wen is. This was another stunning indictment on how poorly these sites are kept up, unfortunately. The sign was unreadable and without my guides I would never have found it. We had to forge through slick stone and mud, knee-high brachens and gorse that will leave you skin-less. Foxglove were everywhere with chamomile and valerian. How lovely. These burial chambers are small, lined up and either fallen down or were merely tunneled under glaciated stones, either way, they weren't spectacular and if not for the rather linear arrangement could have been mistaken for glaciated limestone. Pottery and cremains have been found there.
Fishguard
Garn Wen
Next on the list was Carreg Coetan Arthur. This does have some myths surrounding it claiming it as Arthur's burial chamber. Whether or not, Arthur was real, this site would have predated it. A housing plan has sprung up around it and it was going to be moved to another site. That was decided against but it's hard to get a few for what the ancients would have seen in this site (other than its proximity to the coast.) It has been excavated with more of the cremains and pottery bits. According to my guide most of this is not on display anywhere, not from any site.)
Carreg Coetan Arthur
side view
Pentre Ifan was next. This is probably the most famous and photographed burial in all of Wales. It was on my must see list and it was wonderful. It wasn't too bad of a climb up to it and not only does it command a view from the top of the hill, it had continual occupation from Neolithic times through to the iron age. There were lovely remnants of iron age stone walls that the sheep were grazing all over. There was something rather restful about this site. Some of the new agers claim you can lean against the stones and feel the vibes. Honestly, I feel nothing at all at almost any of the sites. Either there is no energy or I am not in tune with it.
Pentre Ifan you can see Angel Mountain looking under the capstone.
I’m next to what’s left of Pentre Ifans’ henge
We tried to go to gors fawr and all hell let loose. It poured. It's already in a bog, one of the true remaining stone circles in Wales. It just wasn't feasible. I'm sad to miss it. Sadder still since the hedge witch friend of my guild has horrible visions in this spot. I would have been interested in seeing what was up with this place (the hedge witch otherwise agrees with me there is a stunning lack of energy to most of these sites.)
While it was raining we went to Nevern Church. This church was amazing in its way. It was made originally by St Brechtan, but it was on a holy site for the pre-Christian in habitants. The sacred grove was wonderful. It's now a kirkyard but here the sense of peace and power is palpable (and here you thought I'd stay all scientific and not hippie dippie). Outside there is an ogma stone, barely readable then a roman engraving on it. There was a scary little face (a green man maybe) on the outside and there was a large cross on top of a stela, probably originally a standing stone, engraved later with Viking symbols, a long with the pre-Christian swastika. Inside the church was very interesting as well. It's still in use. There are two window sills that were once steps inside the church but only because someone was smart enough to flip them over and use them that way (either in Henry the VIII or Cromwell's times, not sure but either way, one of the ones who were busy whacking down Catholic churches); One of these seals had an Ogma Rosetta stone. || | ||||| | (Dana in Oghma). We went close by to the pilgrim's feet. Nevren (St Brechan) and St David's were heavily used as pilgrimages. You can see a cross scratched out of the limestone wall, naturally occurring though it looks placed there. A rumor says the holy grail was hidden behind the wall in the pilgrimage day (most likely if you ask me to speculate based on things I've read, was to give the locale a boost to attract attention. The pilgrims steps is actually where the feet of so many travelers has worn down the soft limestone into very discernable footprints (that someone has carved crosses into now).
sacred grove
‘bleeding’ yew in the grove said to be colored with the blood of pilgrims
Ogma stone
Viking cross
ogma stone
12th century cross carved into the rock face (just left of center)
pilgrim foot steps worn into the rock
Lunch was in an inn from the 1300's. It was, like the church, on the Pilgrim trail to St. David's. I learned what prawns marie rose is, tasty and hand made crisps with beef and onion flavoring. Yummy.. From there we went to Meine Gwyr two lonely remaining stones of a stone circle. There was a pit circle as well, but it was a bit too wet still to go mud bogging to it. Also, to my chagrin, I couldn’t get shots of the wild Welsh ponies, two beautiful dark ones with a foal who looked almost calico and a white mare and her foal too. Lovely beasts.
Meine Gwyr
We went through a town called Mathry where they're considered a bit mad. Ha! Finally we went to Garn Turne and what a trip this was. I had to jump a gate, barbed wire everywhere. Embarrassing, the blind woman popped over like a kid. At least I didn’t fall or end up in the mud. Cow pies everywhere, huge liquidy cow pies. This one was very interesting. It feels like that the whole site might have been a place where round huts were. Some of the glaciated rock looks too deliberate to me. There's another iron age wall here. You could see for miles on the top of the hill and if those rocks weren't quarried and use, they were perfectly aligned to make a nice shelter from the sweeping winds.
Garn Turne
From there we came back to St David's where I'm staying so we could see the Cathedral and Bishop's addition. Naturally it clears up because we'll be inside. Even last night, I really hadn't made all the connections to this place. Staples, the story I recently sold and it's character who becomes Sulien in Machiavelli Moon was going to be brought up to be Bishop of St. David's. This place. He would have been here back in its medieval day. It feels like a sign to get my ass in gear on the rewrites. Maybe the sequel could end up here.
The cathedral's original bits were on a bog and when they built the bigger cathedral it was still on the bog so things aren't plumb. Like most Cathedrals, this one is just stunning in so many ways. I have SO many pictures of this. I was completely taken by the in house burials (it's not really done in the States or if it is I don't know about it. Do you?) of priests and princes. I think I took a photograph of each and every one.. The choir had miseries (choir chairs) each carved with something different. I was fascinated by those. (like I said, churches were nearly my choice of study). There was a later date burial in there for some rich broad done in marble that doesn't really fit in. We didn't go into the bishop part since it was a bit pricey and sadly the gift shop had nothing nice, just a fridge magnet of St David for 90p. My brother would have liked something from such a holy place but not so much a fridge magnet. I haven't seen anything I'd want to waste money on for anyone.
St David’s slightly off plumb since they built it on a bog
stained glass
medieval painting of king Henry IV
one of the very many in church burials
choir seat – green man
choir seat – dragon eating a dude
Rhys ap Gruffydd
I'm in a smaller room tonight, practically a closet really but nice enough. I don’t get bent about hotel rooms so long as they're clean and I can sit on the toil correctly. I did learn that I have a super low limit on my ATM card (sigh) which makes paying tricky. I headed to a pub, the Farmer's arms, for dinner. I kept seeing Welsh Gammon with caramelized pineapple and god, to prove how tired I am I didn’t even put together in my head that Gammon was NOT beef. I know Jamon is ham (hence jumbo, Pittsburgh slang for bologna). So dumbass me orders it. I do not LIKE ham. However, this was grilled, thin and actually good. They gave me a jar of mustard (foolish mortals, I nearly ate it all), Welsh red mustard which was beet colored, filled with honey and I could have eaten it with a spoon. Between it, the grilling and pineapple, I at that entire 10 oz ham steak and liked it. What I liked more was the Welsh Red mustard (must look for that) and Felinfoel double dragon stout. Oh my, how good was that beer?
I went back to the cemetery of St Davids to be scolded by jackdaws and rooks while I took photos and nearly forgot to do the EVP which is why I went back. Sadly my battery draining ability is holding true. My watch (fresh battery) is already stopping and going backwards and the new batteries in John's recorder was doa so I couldn't record today. I got new batteries. Don't know if anything was on the tape but I’m so tired I've fallen asleep, in spite of all the PG tips I've had, and nearly dropped the net book twice. Time to go for the night. This is long enough.
St David’s cemetery
Architecture of Death – George Nash. (the book that's 80$ here)
The drive here wasn't bad. The storm that my tour guide heard about while I was in Wales was evident. Trees are down everywhere here. It's muggy and gross but that's the worst of it.
I did make a terrible mistake. This is where having an iphone would have been handy. There were a couple books I could have bought but I wanted to get the Madog center to buy them like they said they would (on my neolithic sites of course). Since they were new we figured Amazon would have them. They do for 80$ and up. Many are over 200$. LIke I'd pay that for a 15$ book. Sigh.
Wales Day Three
I woke in around 4 Am and couldn't sleep between rooks, jackdaws, sea gulls and collared doves, making me wish a pox on all avian kind thanks to the cacophony they were making. I did like how the jackdaws combed the moss growing in the slate shingles for the insects. I finally fell back to sleep and dragged out of bed to another full breakfast of fried tomatoes and mushrooms, eggs and this time I opted for the glamorgan sausages. Finally a sausage I like (i.e. it's nothing but cheese, onions and breadcrumbs).
We hit so many sites today in spite of the off again, on again rain. We started in Abercastle with Carreg Sampson, a dolman style burial chamber. It had a stunning view of the coast where you could, had it not been so overcast, see Ireland. Some of the thinking is that these sites were place in these areas because of the views which could have been seen as sacred. As we were walking back to the car, Wendy (the mostly blind woman) tells me that in the photos she took of me on her camera (she will be sending them to me in something called a smile box) there is a disembodied shadow following me. How interesting.
Carreg Sampson long view
Carreg Sampson close up.We went from there to Fishguard Harbor (a Viking port) to Goodwick where Garn Wen is. This was another stunning indictment on how poorly these sites are kept up, unfortunately. The sign was unreadable and without my guides I would never have found it. We had to forge through slick stone and mud, knee-high brachens and gorse that will leave you skin-less. Foxglove were everywhere with chamomile and valerian. How lovely. These burial chambers are small, lined up and either fallen down or were merely tunneled under glaciated stones, either way, they weren't spectacular and if not for the rather linear arrangement could have been mistaken for glaciated limestone. Pottery and cremains have been found there.
Fishguard
Garn WenNext on the list was Carreg Coetan Arthur. This does have some myths surrounding it claiming it as Arthur's burial chamber. Whether or not, Arthur was real, this site would have predated it. A housing plan has sprung up around it and it was going to be moved to another site. That was decided against but it's hard to get a few for what the ancients would have seen in this site (other than its proximity to the coast.) It has been excavated with more of the cremains and pottery bits. According to my guide most of this is not on display anywhere, not from any site.)
Carreg Coetan Arthur
side viewPentre Ifan was next. This is probably the most famous and photographed burial in all of Wales. It was on my must see list and it was wonderful. It wasn't too bad of a climb up to it and not only does it command a view from the top of the hill, it had continual occupation from Neolithic times through to the iron age. There were lovely remnants of iron age stone walls that the sheep were grazing all over. There was something rather restful about this site. Some of the new agers claim you can lean against the stones and feel the vibes. Honestly, I feel nothing at all at almost any of the sites. Either there is no energy or I am not in tune with it.
Pentre Ifan you can see Angel Mountain looking under the capstone.
I’m next to what’s left of Pentre Ifans’ hengeWe tried to go to gors fawr and all hell let loose. It poured. It's already in a bog, one of the true remaining stone circles in Wales. It just wasn't feasible. I'm sad to miss it. Sadder still since the hedge witch friend of my guild has horrible visions in this spot. I would have been interested in seeing what was up with this place (the hedge witch otherwise agrees with me there is a stunning lack of energy to most of these sites.)
While it was raining we went to Nevern Church. This church was amazing in its way. It was made originally by St Brechtan, but it was on a holy site for the pre-Christian in habitants. The sacred grove was wonderful. It's now a kirkyard but here the sense of peace and power is palpable (and here you thought I'd stay all scientific and not hippie dippie). Outside there is an ogma stone, barely readable then a roman engraving on it. There was a scary little face (a green man maybe) on the outside and there was a large cross on top of a stela, probably originally a standing stone, engraved later with Viking symbols, a long with the pre-Christian swastika. Inside the church was very interesting as well. It's still in use. There are two window sills that were once steps inside the church but only because someone was smart enough to flip them over and use them that way (either in Henry the VIII or Cromwell's times, not sure but either way, one of the ones who were busy whacking down Catholic churches); One of these seals had an Ogma Rosetta stone. || | ||||| | (Dana in Oghma). We went close by to the pilgrim's feet. Nevren (St Brechan) and St David's were heavily used as pilgrimages. You can see a cross scratched out of the limestone wall, naturally occurring though it looks placed there. A rumor says the holy grail was hidden behind the wall in the pilgrimage day (most likely if you ask me to speculate based on things I've read, was to give the locale a boost to attract attention. The pilgrims steps is actually where the feet of so many travelers has worn down the soft limestone into very discernable footprints (that someone has carved crosses into now).
sacred grove
‘bleeding’ yew in the grove said to be colored with the blood of pilgrims
Ogma stone
Viking cross
ogma stone
12th century cross carved into the rock face (just left of center)
pilgrim foot steps worn into the rockLunch was in an inn from the 1300's. It was, like the church, on the Pilgrim trail to St. David's. I learned what prawns marie rose is, tasty and hand made crisps with beef and onion flavoring. Yummy.. From there we went to Meine Gwyr two lonely remaining stones of a stone circle. There was a pit circle as well, but it was a bit too wet still to go mud bogging to it. Also, to my chagrin, I couldn’t get shots of the wild Welsh ponies, two beautiful dark ones with a foal who looked almost calico and a white mare and her foal too. Lovely beasts.
Meine GwyrWe went through a town called Mathry where they're considered a bit mad. Ha! Finally we went to Garn Turne and what a trip this was. I had to jump a gate, barbed wire everywhere. Embarrassing, the blind woman popped over like a kid. At least I didn’t fall or end up in the mud. Cow pies everywhere, huge liquidy cow pies. This one was very interesting. It feels like that the whole site might have been a place where round huts were. Some of the glaciated rock looks too deliberate to me. There's another iron age wall here. You could see for miles on the top of the hill and if those rocks weren't quarried and use, they were perfectly aligned to make a nice shelter from the sweeping winds.
Garn TurneFrom there we came back to St David's where I'm staying so we could see the Cathedral and Bishop's addition. Naturally it clears up because we'll be inside. Even last night, I really hadn't made all the connections to this place. Staples, the story I recently sold and it's character who becomes Sulien in Machiavelli Moon was going to be brought up to be Bishop of St. David's. This place. He would have been here back in its medieval day. It feels like a sign to get my ass in gear on the rewrites. Maybe the sequel could end up here.
The cathedral's original bits were on a bog and when they built the bigger cathedral it was still on the bog so things aren't plumb. Like most Cathedrals, this one is just stunning in so many ways. I have SO many pictures of this. I was completely taken by the in house burials (it's not really done in the States or if it is I don't know about it. Do you?) of priests and princes. I think I took a photograph of each and every one.. The choir had miseries (choir chairs) each carved with something different. I was fascinated by those. (like I said, churches were nearly my choice of study). There was a later date burial in there for some rich broad done in marble that doesn't really fit in. We didn't go into the bishop part since it was a bit pricey and sadly the gift shop had nothing nice, just a fridge magnet of St David for 90p. My brother would have liked something from such a holy place but not so much a fridge magnet. I haven't seen anything I'd want to waste money on for anyone.
St David’s slightly off plumb since they built it on a bog
stained glass
medieval painting of king Henry IV
one of the very many in church burials
choir seat – green man
choir seat – dragon eating a dude
Rhys ap Gruffydd I'm in a smaller room tonight, practically a closet really but nice enough. I don’t get bent about hotel rooms so long as they're clean and I can sit on the toil correctly. I did learn that I have a super low limit on my ATM card (sigh) which makes paying tricky. I headed to a pub, the Farmer's arms, for dinner. I kept seeing Welsh Gammon with caramelized pineapple and god, to prove how tired I am I didn’t even put together in my head that Gammon was NOT beef. I know Jamon is ham (hence jumbo, Pittsburgh slang for bologna). So dumbass me orders it. I do not LIKE ham. However, this was grilled, thin and actually good. They gave me a jar of mustard (foolish mortals, I nearly ate it all), Welsh red mustard which was beet colored, filled with honey and I could have eaten it with a spoon. Between it, the grilling and pineapple, I at that entire 10 oz ham steak and liked it. What I liked more was the Welsh Red mustard (must look for that) and Felinfoel double dragon stout. Oh my, how good was that beer?
I went back to the cemetery of St Davids to be scolded by jackdaws and rooks while I took photos and nearly forgot to do the EVP which is why I went back. Sadly my battery draining ability is holding true. My watch (fresh battery) is already stopping and going backwards and the new batteries in John's recorder was doa so I couldn't record today. I got new batteries. Don't know if anything was on the tape but I’m so tired I've fallen asleep, in spite of all the PG tips I've had, and nearly dropped the net book twice. Time to go for the night. This is long enough.
St David’s cemeteryArchitecture of Death – George Nash. (the book that's 80$ here)
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Date: 2012-07-10 12:33 pm (UTC)Have you tried British Amazon (amazon.co.uk) for the books? It's often a lot cheaper to buy and get it shipped over than to buy an import, for some reason. I use the US and French Amazon stores occasionally myself.
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Date: 2012-07-10 01:36 pm (UTC)and no. thanks. I'll try that and if nothing else, I'll see if my college library can get it from somewhere. It looks like something a university with an archeology dept might stock.
hmmm it's 18 pounds. I'll talk to the Madog centre and see if they care to buy that for me.