I Hear The Sounds (Of Distant Guns) | Forum

Northumberland 23

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Stoneshifter Aug 25, 2008 10:00:31

Replying to Stoneshifter

Returned to find no damage to my camp at all - for the very first time this year. The shooters were out on Tuesday and Wednesday, on the other fell. Tuesday the weather was so bad you wouldn't want anyone to go out in it, torrential rain with bits of hail mixed in, and on Wednesday the last person wasn't off the hill until 7pm - which is a quarter century record, by a two hour margin. Just after this landrover disappeared the sky brightened and some hints of sunshine were seen. Friday morning started bright but turned to overcast just as the beaters formed a line. The morning went normally but they didn't start to shoot in the afternoon - as I left, later on, the Air-Sea Rescue helicopter flew over on a beeline for their location. Probably a heart attack. The shooting owner will develop a reputation for being a Rain God - and there's not a lot can be done to shift it.

Last week of my wall work coming up - all being well. I've been filming, on 8mm, the shepherd's smout. The film needs bright light for exposure and a dark night for loading. There was a piece on the radio about Northumbria police moonlighting to supplement their salaries and the list of occupations was quoted. There was just one artist listed and, I guess, that would be our Wildlife Liason Officer. He can paint and he's good-looking ! Here's a link to an interview he did (http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/northeast/series1/hen-harriers.shtml). Many's the time I've asked to come to LINE!! in a dishevelled condition, with a beatup jalopy, to push a wheelbarrow and observe the keepers. At the end of the season the few birds of prey realise they're not going to get shot by me and forage nearby. On Thursday morning there were three kestrel feeding near me - I filmed one - and, in the afternoon, three buzzards. The keeper was out that night till late - at least eleven - and then back again about six thirty the next morning - then the shoot started at about nine ...

I'll try and film David's Cairns this week, if there's a sunny evening. Try and get some Kodachrome flare. The last week.

Hob Aug 25, 2008 22:37:25

Replying to Stoneshifter

I really hope that if one day some monuments are recorded in those hills, that this thread is archived as part of their history :)

Stoneshifter Sep 1, 2008 12:52:38

Replying to Stoneshifter

Some damage to the tents when I got back. It may have been copycat vandalism. The shooters were quiet all week - just arriving on Black Hill on Friday morning. It was bright early on, clouded over when they showed, and tried to rain at lunchtime. Finished my wall and that shepherds smout, got out on Friday. Left nothing behind but my footprints, a couple of plastic buckets and a Wilkies' spade.

The tally of monuments I've found this year is reasonable. One each of a long barrow, standing stone and long cairn. A pair of ploughed out round barrows. It's fair to say that the support I've received from the various agencies has been laughable. Support by my contemporaries - nil (but there's no prizes for second place). The main achievement has been in verifying the observatory - which I now realise is lunar - at Broad Mea, at the head of the valley. It's the only known Bronze Age observatory. The failings have been in not photographing the Whitehouse Four-Poster nor the roundhouse foundations near Money Currick.

When I delivered my stores in May I encountered a hillwalker - he'd just been diagnosed with Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder and was going back for more tests. I've not seen him since and fear the worst, but he told me about going into the Tynehead levels, near Garrigill, Alston. He told me that the water was at waist height but the walls were the vivid green of Malachite, a copper ore. So it seems that there were other prehistoric mines nearby and, consequently, that there will be more monuments associated with them (just waiting to be found).

It occurs to me that anyone wishing to study human nature could forgo meditation and Freud, Adler and Jung and simply study sheep. I've encompassed my research findings in a short video which is at ( http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8964200684062967711 ).

Me aidez? M'aidez? Mayday? lock

Me aidez? M'aidez? Mayday?