day 2

Day 2

SUNDAY IN BATH


Sunday. After leaving the White Hart, I’ve came back to the YMCA. I am pretty tired of packed hostels, noisy young guys and carrying my bags all around. I’ve finally booked a room alone (you would not believe how difficult it is), so I can concentrate, read and write and organize my things. I am worried about the number of the books I am carrying with me.

In the book of Myths and Tales of the British, I’ve found references to the Lammas day, which is celebrated the first day of august and is related with the first wheat crop, so the folk would offer their first loaf of bread. It should be a sunny day according with the legend, but its day was right: it was a Saturday.

yes tor
lundy's alignment

In the White Hart I’ve found another interesting reference: the Yes Tor which is located at Dortmoor National Park and is one of the highest points of the area with 619 meters high. Researching further, it is part of a seven line alignment that relates the highest points in south England.

Still hard to figure out the plastic response to this trip, but some little hints been coming up. It must incorporate the landscape, the geographical reality, the pagan myths, the “spirit of the land”, which is a quotation from Watkins that I follow with all my heart.

More than the Ley Lines, what is always leading me on this trip is Watkins photographs. They are sensitive and peaceful, and charged with delicate technical care that makes the best to get the atmosphere of the places. Mine are very much following his steps, when I get.

Watkins photo

Following the Ley Lines been so far quite tricky. I can’t say for sure if the places been aligned, as so far they don’t look like. There are geometrical patterns and astounding locations, quite ingenious solutions, some elaborate structures. But no apparent straight lines. And it seems that straight lines were not part of the architectonic vocabulary of those men. Maybe the roads that connect places could be straight lines, but until now the principles that rules them are not as geometrical as economical. It looks like the places are much connected with the goods that could be produced from them, and this can be a reason for lines connecting places. Some seems have a strong ritual history connecting them, and they would connect other places too, but until now it all seems very scarce to be defined by a Ley system.
There are still a lot of places I want to be in South England before I go back to London, and in fact I am quite interested about this place.

Uffington White Horse as seem from the sky

There is the Giant from Cerne Abbas, the White Horse (or it would be a dragon?) in Uffington, Glastonbury Tor and Abbey, Tintagel, Old Sarum, Stonehenge, all of them not impossible to get. Maybe Tintagel is a bit further than the others. There’s the Yes Tor that would be nice to pay a visit too...
I realized Wales is worth to visit too, and there’s a plenty of old monuments there to see. So my plan is enjoy this week in Bath and follow to Wales when I finish visiting the sites from here.

more on Lammas day:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lammas