Navetas and poblats
31 May
Torrellonet (see page 322 of TME) is one of many talaiot towers on Menorca. They occupy positions of height or view and almost everywhere you look on Menorca, you can see one of these on the horizon. Torrellonet is a really nice example of a talaiot as it is still tall with intact walls, is uncovered by vegetation, is easy to climb and has great views of the runway.
From here we could see Talati de Dalt talaiot and others rising through the trees as well as the remains of a prehistoric house two field away.
The lane between Alaoir and Cala'n Porter where we were staying was a tortuous one we had to travel many, many times... Torralba d'en Salort (see pages 316 to 318 of TME) lay at the top of this lane and having seen the top of the taula sticking up already I was itching to see the place.
All the regular poblat features here: caves, talaiot, cisterns, houses and also a wonderful quarry area.
The place was crawling with caterpillars though so I had to move with extreme caution. Cleo and Rupes liked this one as there were tons to explore and had informative signs to help them understand what they were seeing. As ever, the main attraction for me was the taula itself.
To aid stability, this taula has a ridge carved up the back and is thicker than Trepuco's wafer thin cheese slice. I chose a caterpillar-free area to sit in and made a study.
It was time to tackle some navetas. Structures less like boats, after which they are named, I cannot imagine. 'Pyramids' is what Rupert called them. I like that because they are burial chambers, stand above ground level, slope inwards like pyramids and are made of large dressed blocks.
There are four close together just off the main road, all signposted and dead easy to find. (see page 307, 308 and 309 of TME).
Naveta de Biniac Argentina Occidental and Naveta de Biniac Argentina Oriental are a bit trashed, the roof of Occidental's has gone and its chamber is open.
They are both round. Have you ever seen a round boat? Nope. Me neither. All these navetas had beautiful carved 'porthole' doors in their entrance stones which Naveta d'es Tudons didn't.
We later saw this holed stone doorway effect again at a much earlier monument, a dolmen called Ses Roques Lisses, but more of that in a later weblog.
There are two navetas at Rafal Rubi.
Both are in magnificent condition and have huge cool chambers with whopping great slabs in the ceiling.
Very close to our villa is the poblat of So Na Caçana. It is, in fact, what Julian incorrectly calls Torre Llisa Vell (see next weblog). So go to pages 320 and 321 in your copy of TME and cross out the title and replace with So Na Caçana. Here, beneath the gargantuan talaiot lie not one but two taula sanctuaries.
Sadly both Ts are wrecked but there is still plenty to admire: the tall pillars surrounding the sacred spaces and the niches in the walls. I wondered what magical objects were once placed in these – skulls or horns, jars of oil or bull's blood, perhaps?
1 June
Binisafullet is a poblat just at the south of the runway at a road junction. It had a pocket-sized taula which was still up and probably restored because the rest of the site was a jumble of stones.
Moth really liked this one, but apart from the taula, which I loved, of course, it left me thinking Rupert's thoughts: 'it's just another pile of big old rocks, innit?'
We could see Torre d'en Gaumes from the front porch of our villa, its three talaiot towers rising up on the horizon just about 2kms away. However, such is the state of Menorcan roads we had to drive miles to get to it. This is government operated site and has had money put in to it – areas roped off, nice concrete paths, wooden walkways, even toilets. This is a rare one for which you pay an entry fee. However, the young woman working in the ticket collection booth was very helpful and gave me a poster (featuring taulas, of course) which I admired on the wall for free. This woman, who had an unpronounceable name, would later help us find two amazing monuments within 500ms of Gaumes.
Gaumes is a very complex monument which we didn't have time enough to unravel. It comprises all the usual features and them some more. Although it didn't have an intact taula to thrill me, it did have one or two other features which blew me away.
The first was to do with the taula. The capstone has at some point in antiquity been removed and inverted.
The carved socket which the upright once slotted into now lies skywards like a watertrough or font.
The second was a fabulous system of water storage cisterns, great holes cut into the rock.
On such a dry island, fresh water must have been a premium commodity and the inhabitants at Gaumes collected and stored their water with particular flair. There were six or more tanks.
Thirdly, in one of the houses the roof structure was up.
A roughly round space had a pillar in the middle from which long flat stones balanced and radiated out to the pillars in the walls like the spokes of a wheel.
Fourthly, a few intact 'doorframes', one of which is pictured here. Moth says that for him, it somehow makes the houses much more real!
Finally, the views, the views! Cor! From up here you can see perhaps half of the southern part of the island.
More Menorcan magic here...
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Taulas, talaiots and troglodytes
Menorca is only 30kms long and 10km wide, but is so littered with prehistoric poblats (villages) strewn with vast monuments that from almost any point on the island it is possible to see one lurking on the horizon. True! We had promised the kids a 'beach' holiday, but as it was, we still managed to see 23 ancient lovelies, clocking up more than 715 kms as well as all picking up a marvellous skin tone, thanks to a deserted beach at Binidali.
I was particularly enamoured by the impressive simple beauty of the taula monuments – the great T shaped structures unique to this island. In fact, I believe we saw ALL the complete taulas still standing, as well as some that are destroyed or badly damaged.
28 May
We couldn't get into our villa until later in the day, so as we picked up our hire car, we decided to see as many sites as possible on the first day.
Biniparraxtet (see page 301 of TME) is actually at the airport. It was moved from its original site to make way for a runway extension and has been lovingly restored.
Its cupboards, chambers, kennels and water storage features reminded Moth and I of Skara Brae. Although my son Rupert claims to find big old rocks 'boring', so many has he now seen that he was able to read this monument's features without even having to look at the information board.
At the other end of the island lies the wonderful Cala Morrell caves complex (see pages 302 and 303 of TME). Plenty to excite the most bored of 11-year-old boys here!
Dozens of spacious rock cut chambers line a limestone ravine apparently used originally as tombs and maybe later as dwellings.
The craftsmanship involved in cutting the rock was extraordinary. Internal pillars, decorated doorways (similar to those I saw in Turkey and Cyprus) and raised platforms vied for our attention with drainage systems, water storage features and sockets for carpentry.
Naveta d'es Tudons (see pages 304 and 305 of TME) is just off the main road at the western end of the island and judging by the huge car park with spaces for buses, frequently visited by coach parties.
Fortunately, we had it pretty much to ourselves. 'Naveta' means 'boat' and some archaeologist has interpreted the large burial chambers on the island as boat-shaped and given them this name. I can't see it myself. They are more burial chamber-shaped to my mind. Anyway, d'es Tudons has been restored according to this boat theory so you have to visit this one with a pinch of salt.
It is an impressive pyramidal type structure and beautifully cool inside its double-decker chamber. We liked it a lot, despite it being a bit overly restored.
Not far from Naveta d'es Tudons is the poblat of Torre Trencada (see pages 323, 324 and 325 of TME) which was the first Menorcan prehistoric talaiotic settlement I had seen and my first taula. (We were to see many more!)
At Torre Trencada, as at most other bronze age poblats, you get your usual shopping list of:
- a talaiot (tower) or two which dominates the site, rather like a watchtower or uninhabitable broch
- some wrecked houses
- a wall surrounding the settlement
- a cave, usually enhanced megalithically in some way
- some kind of water storage feature, well or cistern
- a taula sanctuary, the ritual heart of the site
Torre Trencada is delightfully unrestored with shady olive trees growing up through the stones.
It was rough, unkempt and a haven for birds and butterflies. Rupert also saw a snake. We wished we'd had some food as someone had built a rather lovely megalithic picnic table in the shade of some olives.
As this was my first taula monument I was deeply impressed, although I would later discover the sanctuary it once stood in was pretty much gone entirely, leaving only the great T behind.
As the evening cooled off, we took the car down the long dusty track down to Calascoves, (see page 306 of TME) a bucolic rocky inlet of turquoise waters not far from where we were staying.
Carved into the rock faces in the cliffs, overlooking the crystal sea, are dozens and dozens of caves, probably hewn initially from existing fissures and naturally occurring caves and enhanced for tomb purposes. Some are up at quite a dizzying height. Made me wonder how the hell the masons got up there to do their work. The sea was alive with fish and crabs and things, boding well for future snorkelling.
29 May
After a day snorkelling at Binidali beach we took an early evening excursion out to see two mind-blowing sites.
Trepuco (see pages 326 and 327 of TME) poblat lies on the southern outskirts of Mahón, Menorca's capital where mayonnaise may have been invented in 1756 to commemorate a victory over the English who were holding a castle in Mahón - hence 'mahonnaise'.... I digress.
The site at Trepuco is dominated by two gargantuan monuments – the mammoth talaiot tower and most sublime taula sanctuary. The talaiot was probably the biggest I saw on the island, about 8 metres tall and at least 12 metres in diameter, possibly more. I was a bit spooked when Moth started climbing it, but he took it slowly and was rewarded with great views. But the taula captivated me completely.
Glowing yellow in the evening sunlight and thin like rice paper, the great stone is carved on the front as if Canadian cheddar cut with a serrated knife. On top of this impossibly thin slab of something you'd put in yer butty, a bloody great grey horned block is somehow held aloft. I was in awe.
I should also mention the setting of this ancient cheesy wonder as it follows an approximate pattern of most taula sanctuaries.
The T stone usually stands roughly centrally in a horseshoe-shaped enclosed wall, built using giant stones. Many of these are tall pillars which appear to mark out chambers or spaces. The front, or approach end, always the only way in, is usually a very shallow concave forecourt with a clear entry point. Whatever happened in these ritual places, they were not public affairs. The space is intimate and the walls originally too tall to see over. These taula sanctuaries usually stand within just a few metres of a talaiot. And from the top of most talaiots you can see El Toro, Menorca's centrally-placed sacred hill (now hijacked by Jesus, his mum and some nuns.)
All this is the case at Trepuco. We stayed here for some time so I could make some studies.
From Trepuco we drove the 4kms or so to Talati de Dalt, another poblat quite close to the airport.
Talati de Dalt has all the usual poblat features, caves, talaiot, cisterns, houses, etc. The houses here were really excellent with lots of rock cut details. This time, VERY Skara Brae. We climbed the talaiot and watched the planes come and go.
It was alive with birds here too; tons of finches, swifts, swallows and hoopoes. I found this site very, very peaceful, and sat and made a study of the taula which has its very own flying buttress.
30 May
We wanted to try a beach over to the south west of the island, so en route we called in Son Catlar poblat (see pages 310 and 311 of TME).
Extensive and impressive though this complex is, it failed to light my fire in any way whatsoever. Rupert summed it up in his diary. He wrote: '… a huge prehistoric village but it looked like a big pile of rocks, the only good thing was the wall, and even that was boring...'
We found a lovely beach not far from Son Catlar called Bella Vista, but as I got into the water I saw that it was teeming with small jellyfish. I promptly got stung. Not wanting to same to happen to Rupert, we got out and drove to another beach, Maccaretta, which was lined with rock cut caves just like those at Calacoves. Fewer jellyfish here, too.
After a few hours, the weather turned a bit iffy – very windy, grey and even drizzle - so we moved on, calling in at Torre Llafuda (see page 319 of TME) on the way back to the villa. Another delightful poblat, where the taula sanctuary which was hidden in a dip beneath some trees had two small but complete taulas still up. (Though one of them was supported by an ugly pillar of rubble.)
It was here we saw an Egyptian vulture. Identifying it was a nightmare. It looked - by turns - like an eagle… or perhaps a gannet? a hooded crow? No! Definitely an Egyptian vulture. Lovely stuff.
More Menorcan magic here...
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Rainy birthday around Carnac
We'd had suchhttp://www.themodernantiquarian.com/user/1761/weblog/0/36663"> a wonderful time with Spaceship Mark the previous day it was going to be hard to top it. But today was my birthday and Moth had promised me more of Carnac.
It started immediately, as we had stayed overnight at the Hôtel du Tumulus (31 rue du Tumulus, Carnac, phone 02 97 52 08 21) and as I threw open the window we were greeted with this sight: St Michel Tumulus
Not a bad way to start! Today we were going to focus on sites around Quiberon, Erdeven and Crucuno.
En route up towards the Dolmens de Rondossec we spotted this dolmen at the roadside, just before Plouharnel:
The Dolmen de Kergavat has a large chamber and some sizeable stones, but like so much stuff hereabouts, unceremonially ignored. But here it is, a huge and beautiful dolmen, virtually playing chicken with passing traffic, parked at the roadside.
I do like urban monuments, so the Dolmens de Rondossec were always likely to appeal to me. Whoosh in the middle of the village of Plouharnel are a lovely pair of funnel-type passage tombs, still quite buried under their mounds. They both have low passages which widen to a larger end. In a garden just opposite we noticed a menhir which looked suspiciously original to us.
Keep on Quiberon
The thin ribbon of land known as the Quiberon peninsula is much loved by holidaymakers by the looks of it. But today, with it pouring with rain, it was mercifully free of traffic, enabling us to take in the three fabulous sites down here with ease.
Julian calls it the Roh-an-Aod dolmen but the roadsigns point you to dolmen du Roch.
This very large dolmen occupies an entire plot in a small village setting, tightly squeezed on all sides by cottages and houses. We liked this one a lot as it so clearly refuses to be taken over by the human development around it. Defiant and wonderful.
Not far away is the little seaside town of St Pierre Quiberon which is home to two fabulous monuments. The St Pierre alignments nestle comfortably like a park in the urban setting.
St Pierre Quiberon town felt very like my home town of Stratford on Avon, satisfied with itself, charming and much-loved by visitors Indeed, if you transported all the stones from West Kennet Avenue to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre gardens, this gives you an idea of the feeling emanating from this monument. The three or four rows of stones (23 in total) were very Avebury-like in size and shape. And within a couple of hundred metres of these alignments is the WONDERFUL Kerbourgnec cromlech.
Julian's instructions in TME to find this horseshoe are unnecessarily complicated. Simply follow the path at the back of the St Pierre alignments past the tennis court and turn left at the top. About 50 metres in front of you, under the massive pine trees is the monument. Thirty seven stones form an incredibly graceful arc maybe 50 metres wide, which cannot be photographed to adequately describe this place. The arc now embraces a nice middle class tennis court. Fortunately, the land immediately in front of the cromlech is clear of development, so you can stand well back and contemplate the whole thing. I loved this. I loved that there were so many stones still up and that this quiet part of town had grown up around it without encroaching on it.
Leaving Quiberon behind we travelled a few kilometers north to find the St Barbe alignments.
Blimey! There're some big buggers here. And according to the books, it's not very long ago since the fields at St Barbe were littered with some pretty complete alignments. But 19th and 20th century activities felled many of them. Despite the driving rain, I had to get out of the car and walk right up to these stones. And I'm glad I did, because sometimes it's not until you actually stand next to something you realise just how massive it is. The biggest stone of St Barbe is seriously whopping – have a look at TME and se just how teeny Spaceship Mark looks standing next to it.
I was looking forward to the sites in and around the village of Crucuno. The Crucuno dolmen is bang slap in the middle of the village, now looking more like an extension to a farm building these days, but no less impressive for it.
I made a little sketch of it while I sat in the car out of the rain while Moth went off exploring.
He was looking for Crucuno rectangle which is in a field outside the village. Dripping wet, he returned to the car and we drove down the farm track as far as we could so that I least I could stay a bit dry.
The rectangle is a mystery to me. Like the rectangle at Manio, which we saw the day before, this is something that I couldn't get my head around. Stone CIRCLES make more sense to me, partly cos I've seen tons of 'em, so to see an alternative shape is very peculiar. The stones are large here (average of five or six feet high, I'd say) and the corners very precise. Recently cleared of its gorsey undergrowth I paced round it, trying to make sense of the lines and the corners and failing.
Just about 500ms away up among some trees is Mane Groh dolmen a lovely allee couverte with four transepted chambers and lots of capstones still up. A little stone cist, not unlike a water trough for horses, stood very close by.
Not far away, around the village of Erdeven are tons of goodies. Call me undedicated if you like, but the combination of the weather being so horrible, the lack of time for painting opportunities and the prospect of a very wet 2km walk to see more stuff, didn't appeal. Moth, being a completist wasn't going to miss a thing, so he set off from the car park at Erdeven and began his walk to take in the Kerjean alignments, Kerherzo alignments, Mane Braz dolmens, Coet er bein and La Chaisse de Cesar. I stayed in car, driving it up to a place to get a good view of the Kerherzo alignments.
I lit a fag, got out a flask of tea and my sketchbook and while munching on a pain au chocolat, made this little study.
After picking up Moth, who found himself back at Mane Groh dolmen at the end of his very wet walk, we thought we'd have a go and look for some monuments we'd spotted on the map at Belz, a seaside village a few kilometers away. We had only a not very detailed map and my megalithic radar to guide us. We subsequently discovered these don't even feature in Burl's 'Megalithic Brittany', so we were pleased to have found two of the three marked on the map.
Urban dolmens! I love 'em. Forgotten but not gone, the dolmen at Belz east was actually two burial chambers.
Only one still has capstones up, the other, directly next to it, just has a few uprights left marking the line of the chamber. It is situated on high ground overlooking the sea on a village greeny area.
Driving around a bit around the village a bit, we located Belz dolmen west up to its knees in soaking wet buttercups on a patch of land occupying an entire building plot among the houses.
Despite a bit of scout around, we couldn't find Belz dolmen south at all, though I suspect we got pretty close.
I'd pretty much had enough by this time; the rain was just too depressing to go on. And my flask of tea was empty. But Moth could resist 'just a couple more.' And so it was we saw the Menhirs du Vieux Moulin…
and Les Trois Marchants which being so big and so close to each other were all part of the same complex at one time, surely?
But Moth's fiendish plot was not quite over. He insisted on detour of just 100ms off the main road to see
Runesto dolmen. It doesn't look like very much until you are right up to it, because the bulk of the structure still lies below ground level, hidden under its mighty capstone. I dived straight in, to feel the space and the height and keep out of the rain. A large, ugly snail (ugh!) had had the same idea and lurked scarily on one of the giant uprights so I didn't stay in for long.
Despite the rain I'd seen eighteen sites around Carnac. Not a bad 42nd birthday treat, was it?
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S'ain't-Just no ordinary place
Saint-Just, a very ordinary and comfortably pleasant French village, is the guardian to a wild and wacky ribbon of monuments which will have me scratching my head quizzically for the rest of my life. Nothing here makes any sense at all as the path to the west of the village leads you on a megalithic mystery tour.
Each monument on its own is intriguing … beguiling … but together, so close together they become a megalithic headf*ck. Sorry for using such language, but no other words quite explain it!
We parked to the west of the village and followed the ample and informative signs which led us under the pines towards the Cojoux heathland glowing golden with gorse and ringing with birdsong. Apart from us, there was no one else around at all. The monuments - and the birds - just kept on coming. Warning: this weblog is quite a long shopping list of goodies
The first monuments you reach are the Moulin-de-Cojoux alignments. There are three sets of alignments. The first, northern row is a long row of white, quartzy, sugar lumps.
The second which runs parallel just metres away, are an elegant series of blade-shaped menhirs of various different sizes, colours and types of stone.
Some 50 metres away are the third, western alignments which consist of the same white, quartzy, sugar lumps as the northern alignments.
And next, following the path west (I didn't go up towards the old windmill to see the gorsedd) snaking its way through the dense, tall gorse forest for about 400 metres we reached the stones of Les Demoiselles Piquées the 'worm-eaten women'. Not a very nice name, but you can see why they are called this. These are big stones, too. I stood next to one and felt like a midget. A novel feeling for me.
And next 200 metres on, is Chateau Bû, I paused to admire the numerous pink-breasted linnets and listen to them sing. I spotted a bird of prey in the distance and I knew it wasn't a buzzard it was too lightly built. This had a different outline, but I could identify it. Briefly it landed on the tallest stone of Chateau Bû, but had already swooped off by the time we got there. We were to see it again later in exactly the same place.
Chateau Bû! What on earth is it??? Chateau Bû! is caged up. Straight-jacketed. Probably for its own protection because it is INSANE. Without being able to get right up to it, walk round it, get into it, it's hard to make any sense of it. It has a mound, perhaps two metres tall, with a chamber in it like a cairn. Then it has four uprights on top of it.
And then a bit of a cromlech at one end. I've seen a lot of old crumblies in my time, but this one I can't fathom. You'll have to see it for yourself.
And next, 200 metres westwards over the health from Chateau Bû lie a whole pile of monuments, some -quite literally- within spitting distance of each other. The first set you encounter are three nice-but-nothing-to-write-home-about burial chambers called La Croix de St Pierre. Two are now little more than ground plans and the other is just a stone cist.
And next, immediately adjacent to these is the La Croix de St Pierre Tertre Tumulaire, a 20 metre long mound surrounded by small kerbstones marking out its shape. Not much height left to the mound though.
And next, again immediately adjacent to the previous feature is La Croix de St Pierre cairn (which Julian calls Le Dolmen West.) I loved this. It's very restored but it has a style and character, clarity and sharpness which I found very appealing.
And next, still within shouting distance rather than spitting distance, is Le Tribunal cromlech. This wide horseshoe of stripy zebra stones swings around from the south of the path. Each stone is so carefully chosen and positioned they each invite special consideration.
Having recently seen all the crazy carved stones at Gavrinis a couple of days before it occurred to me that the ancient builders of this site, instead of laboriously carving all those motifs into the rock, instead went out and sought stones which already had a natural decoration.
 The position of this arc of stones, within metres of the graves of revered ancestors and with a name hinting at tribal law, felt like a very important meeting place within the Saint-Just complex. But this isn't the end of the affair. There are more monuments just beyond.
Next, up on the hill, about 30 metres away we spotted this…
…unnamed burial. Not indicated on any of the literature we had at the time.
And next, only 20 metres away up a bit on a rise lies the charming but a bit crumbly allee couverte of La Four Sarrazin
It had one or two underwhelming cup marks on it, but no intriguing carvings of swirls or zigzags, 'breasts' or chevrons. From up here there are some magical views back over the heath, with the tallest stones of Chateau Bû poking up from above the gorse.
Twitcher moment: As I walked the mile back to the car, I took time to admire the skylarks, crested larks, linnets, greenfinches, goldfinches, thrushes, tits and chaffinches darting all around, filling the air with song. We also got a good view of that bird of prey again, which we later identified, thanks to Moth's wonderful photograph, as a juvenile peregrine falcon.
As we left, I took a moment to make a quick sketch of the alignments.
Apart from the string of monuments out to the west of the village, Saint-Just has a couple of other interesting sites. As you drive north out of the village, directly opposite this crazymadbonkers Christian grotto (which I had fun leaping around on rather disrespectfully)…
…. we saw these three very tall, slender standing stones Les Trois Collonades on the same side of the road as the cemetery.
We were about to leave Saint-Just and as I looked on the map, I noticed another monument marked very close by but not featured in any of the literature we had. We had to go and see if we could sniff it out. Without having a clue what it would be, we picked up a sign to a 'dolmen' and parked. Scrambling up a steep bank into some woodland punctuated withamazing natural rocks, we followed the path until … WOW! What a find! Treal allee couverte.
An absolute beauty to end the most wonderful and megalithically perplexing day.
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La Roche-aux-Fées
"Come in, she said, I'll give yer shelter from the storm"– Bob Dylan
Fifteen miles or so to the south east of the city of Rennes, near Essé is one of France's most famous prehistoric monuments: the super-sized La Roche-aux-Fées.
Well-signposted from the main roads and now with its own small village close by, this colossal construction is more megalithic hall than over-sized allée couverte. Indeed, the size of its groundplan is pretty much the same size as the ground plan of our house.
We've all seen pictures in guidebooks and on the telly of famous iconic buildings throughout the world; the Taj Mahal, the Alhambra Palace, the Giza Pyramids, Angkor Wat, and so on. But just like all those places, the familiarity with them doesn't lessen the impact when you stand face-to-face with them.
And so it was for me at La Roche-aux-Fées on this miserable chucking-it-down April day. It is jaw-droppingly vast; made up of 40 giant slabs of purple cambrian schist, obtained from at least 5kms away. Its six gigantic capstones weigh between 40 to 50 tonnes each. Surely this wasn't only ever a tomb? Today it wasn't.
Today it served as a wonderful and roomy shelter from the pelting rain, a place for me to sit, think quietly and sketch; have a cuppa and feel its stones enclose me and protect from the dreary outside world.
The large car park suggests hundreds of visitors come here in good weather but today it was almost entirely ours. I wasn't going to be rushed here. Feeling safe and dry inside, I got out my paints and make a little sketch. I loved the way the damp stones glistened in the wet and made the massive slabs hanging above my head seem to loom even larger still.
An hour and half later and the rain had stopped. Moth suggested we move on. We only had one more place to see today – but what a place. Madcrazybonkers Saint-Just.
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Habitat: Commonly sighted in fields round Oxfordshire and Wiltshire.
Distribution: Widespread; occasional migrations to overwinter in Africa or other hot climes.
Characteristics: A tall, blonde, opinionated bird with feisty temper when provoked. Prone to spells of gloom during winter months. Usually sporting dark plumage, except for golden head, can often spotted with sketchbook and brushes near megalithic sites.
Feeding habits: Easily tempted with cheese (any variety) or a nice cup of tea. Unfeasibly fond of curry.
Behaviour: Unpredictable, approach cautiously. Responds very favourably to flattery.
Abhors: slugs, invisible sky gods, Tories, the Daily Mail, bigots, eggs, the cold, walking and timewasting.
Adores: a man called Moth, painting, live music, furry creatures, tea administered frequently, hot places, cheese, writing crap poetry, David Attenborough, Ernest Shackleton, Vincent van Gogh and the English language.
Want more?: see her website.
Big old rocks I find appealling
Their secrets they are not revealing
Some are chambers, some are tombs
Hidden in valleys and in combes
Some are said to act like clocks
With shadows cast out from their rocks
I like the way they just survive
When I visit, I feel alive
So I chase my rocks around the maps
Round England, Ireland and France, perhaps
But there ain't nothin' that I liked so much
As to see the Hunebedden, dem is Dutch.
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