Pair

Girl Power Cerne Giant

reactions differ 

altering ancient symbols

amused or irate?

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Our One-A-Week Photo Challenge prompt this week is PAIR

Ronovan’s Weekly Haiku challenge prompts are : AMUSED and IRATE

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The photo is of a painting I did in 1994. I had just returned from a round the world trip looking at all sorts of ethnic symbols in Nepal, Australia, Tahiti and America and realised there is a very powerful symbol in my home county. The Cerne Giant.

I have written about him before a couple of times, here is one post describing a walk in that area. Rainbow Junkie has also written about visiting Cerne Abbas.

When I was playing around with the Giant design, first I gave him a mate by putting my girl version next to him in a painting, but this one is my favourite – girl power!

My 7 year old grandson, Master R asked to me the other day, “Why are boys more important than girls?”

“They’re not are they?” I replied

“Well why do we have the World’s Strongest Man competition and the World’s Tallest Man competition but not the World’s Strongest Woman or the World’s Tallest Woman?”

“Good point,” I said, “I think a long time ago men thought they were more important just because they were in general taller and stronger than women, and some of that still stays on in our culture, but we know better now don’t we, all that thinking is a bit old fashioned.”

We then had quite a long discussion about all the things that girls were better at doing, boys were better at doing and things which boys and girls were equally good at.

They take me into interesting arenas of discussion these grandchildren of mine – looking at the world through their eyes is a very useful thing to do.

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Cathy and I have created a list of Photo Challenges, just for fun. You can see them all here.

Please leave a link to your ‘Pair’ in the Comments, we’d love to see them, and i will include your link in the monthly Round-Up.

 

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Art Walk on Wednesday

A couple of weeks ago I went back to Cerne Abbas to do the circular walk again with art as my focus. (you can see more of the walk here, here and here)

The Giant itself is a piece of landscape art

humans being drawn to make a mark on any surface they come across, even scrawling on barn doors.Whilst walking I noticed shapes and outlines with doodles in mind

… imagine that stag-horn-like petal on the left in a mandala or doodle

Joining Cee’s Flower of the Day: Knapweed

Wood lying around, like sculptures reminded me of Anthony Caro’s work.

Bits that show signs of human history intrigue me, as well as the interaction of other creatures – can you see the cobweb in the picture below?

Hints of Barbara Hepworth here

Two Figures (Menhirs) 1964 Dame Barbara Hepworth 1903-1975 Purchased 1964 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/T00703

And Chris Drury here.

If you click on the photo above it will take you to my Photo Page where you can see it in more detail, especially the lichen.

The picture above is a work by Chris Drury called the Wheel of the Year

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Every so often I did look up and out at the glorious landscape

But mostly my camera was set to Macro.

Have you enjoyed any walks this week?

Wednesday Walk continued

In my last ‘Wednesday Walk’ post I left you half-way round a Cerne Giant circular walk, about to descend the hill to Minterne Parva

a tiny ancient hamlet tucked away amongst the trees

with its 18th Century circular building believed to be either a granary or a cock-fighting ring, next to the stump of a medieval stone cross

the trees with just a hint of Autumn stood out against the oh-so-blue sky

and then further along, just by the lane and next to a little stream there are 4 slate posts created by Rachel Jackson. Carved on them are the local field names found on an old map from 1728, courtesy of Lord and Lady Digby.

once over the main road you head for Up Cerne

Here is a link to another walk you can do in the area

A double avenue of trees leading seemingly nowhere, just after Up Cerne Manor. I’m entering this in Cee’s last Which Way Challenge. I’m sad to see this challenge  go. 

Turn right at the end of the trees up a chalk lane past fields of corn,

then up over the hill and down through an ancient hazel wood where I once heard a nightingale, to see Cerne Abbas in the distance.

A walk through an ancient deer park takes you down into the valley once more.

to the foot of the Giant’s Hill

to find a tea room in the village

serving a yummy cream tea.

Next time we might try one of the two pubs.

After our tea we walked back past the creaky old houses

taking the path along the river back to the car park.

What a gorgeous walk! I’ll be going again soon!

I’d love to see where you have been walking, just leave a link in the comments below.

Minterne Parva to Up Cerne

Joining in with Cee’s ‘Which Way’ Challenge.

To see the photo in a larger format go to the Photo Page.

Another step along the Giant’s Walk

A Walk on Wednesday: To see a Giant

The Cerne Giant.

This rampant fellow strides across the hill beside the ancient village of Cerne Abbas, just a few miles north of Dorchester, Dorset. (just look at that sky! that is how it was here on Sunday – perrrrrrrrrfect)

I have been yearning to go on a proper grown up walk. I spend a lot of time walking with 3 year olds and in places where pushchairs can go, so for the sake of balance, it was time for a real ‘up hill, down dale’ walk that would give me a bit of a cardiovascular work-out – and walking up that hill to the top of the Giant’s Head certainly does that.

But first I just had to find the church garden that Cathy had posted a photo of last week. I have been to Cerne Abbas so many times, but did not know about this wonderful little gem – thank you Cathy!

What a beautiful place

With huge scented magnolia flowers in the far corner, smelling deliciously of lemons
and the myrtle beaming in the sunshine
There was a plant list in the little gatehouse, why did I not stop to take note of what type of magnolia it was to be flowering at this time of year – an excuse for another visit soon.

From the garden my friend and I walked up the street past this rather elegant house, which looked across the street at these extraordinarily enormous begonias – what a culture clash!Then past ancient walls and through the iron gate to cross a graveyard

to the fields beyond

the leaves of the beech trees glowing yellow in the early autumn light

The footpath goes through the woodsand then along below the Giant’s feet, but we climbed to the top, walking alongside the fence and were rewarded with glorious views of the village below.

Not sure why these two pictures are such different colours when they were taken minutes apart – but looking in different directions.

At the top we came across this bird who seemed very used to walkers passing by

I think it could be a Whitethroat, but you might know better.

We walked along the top of the hill searching for the footpath. We were aiming to follow  the Giant’s Circular walk as written about by Rodney Legg in his book Dorset Walks, written in the 1990s.

I was wondering about how to make this walk an ‘Art Walk’ and my friend pointed out all the shapes and textures in the landscape: the lines of grass in the foreground, the geometry of the fields, the domes of trees and shrubs and the fluff of seed heads before the wind takes them, there are also white dots of sheep on that green hill.

It is obviously a good year for sloes. 

Everywhere a beautiful view, both of us were born in Dorset and enjoy our deep connections with the landscape.

The hill is a permanent pasture grazed by sheep which allows for all sorts of flora and fauna. I must look this flower up in my wildflower book.

At last we found the path we were looking for and headed down into the valley towards Minterne Parva  ……

To be continued ……..

I’d love to see where you have been walking, just add a link in the comments. It can be a walk you took years ago or this week, it would be fun to walk along with you.