The First 2018 Crop Circle

It has arrived - the first crop circle of the year! Lying between Crewkerne and Mere, just off the A303, it appears that it may have been there for some time as the flattened crop inside the circle is rising up. This image was taken by Nick Bull and he has kindly allowed me to put up it on my web site. Some people may have been worrying that the circles had left us but in 2013 we did not see a crop circle until the 2nd June in East Field, nr. Alton Priors, Wiltshire.

Once we get our first circle more seem to follow quite quickly, so will this happen this year?

Spring is really with us after another spell of gloriously warm weather. I have been driving down the little Sussex lanes, some so narrow that it is impossible to even open the car door to get out, so I take my pictures from an open window. Clumps of bluebells, ragged robin, stitchwort, primroses, and violets — what a joy!

There is nothing like a walk in the countryside to allow one's thoughts to see the world in a different light; a calm and peaceful place where nature reigns supreme; thus for a moment allowing oneself to came terms with life and all its ups and downs. To breathe the clean fresh air, to listen to the birdsong all around and the gurgling of the streams as they wend their serene way, ever going with the flow. I was brought up in the country and would find myself quite out of tune and breathless were I to live anywhere else for long periods of time.

In a previous letter, I wrote a little bit about the treasures found on Petersfield Heath. Twenty-one Barrows have been found, but, due to the cost and time only two have been excavated. The others consist of a mixture of different types of barrows.

Burial urn found on Petersfield Heath

May 19, 2016 | by Katherine West

'In this fourth season of excavations on Petersfield Heath two of the three sites excavated had points of particular interest. The most exciting find is a presumed burial urn found under Barrow 8 close to its centre. The urn was placed in a tightly fitting pit, and the archaeologists and volunteers had to painstakingly excavate it and lift it complete with its contents for laboratory micro-excavation. Its full story will only be revealed over the coming months, but it is already clear that it is a Collared Urn, a ceramic type dating roughly to 2000 – 1500 BC. Collared Urn burials are not uncommon in the Early Bronze Age, but the Barrow 8 example seems to have associated organic objects. These could be further rare and significant finds to add to the mineral - replaced wooden handle from Barrow 13 and the half tree-trunk from Site 24.'

Picture: Stuart Needham
http://www.peopleoftheheath.com/burial-urn-found-petersfield-heath/

This age-old island is full of ancient archaeological treasures many of which are still undiscovered or not yet excavated. Others are well known and frequently visited by people from all over the world such as magnificent Stonehenge, the wondrous stone complex at Avebury, plus the largest and a man mound in Europe Silbury Hill together with a host of other stone circles, mounds and iron age stone forts; ancient tracks and by ways known to our ancestors as they made their way over this sacred isle.

Back to Crop circles and the forthcoming season. What amazing circles will we see and where?

There are a still a few places available on my two tours. The first is on the 24th July with the optional extra of a once in a lifetime private entry visit to Stonehenge in the evening. The second tour, on the 1st August with the optional extra of a flight over the fields and sacred sites after the tour — will be a very special occasion. Please get in touch as soon as possible as the tours are very popular.

Still more excitement, if you would like to come with me and share the costs on one of my helicopter flights. The helicopter takes three people plus the pilot. It is so very helpful to me as the cost of flying, plus continuing with my important research currently focussing on the temporary relief of Parkinson disease, is so enormous that I was not sure if I could continue at all this year.

My love and best wishes,
Lucy.

Celebrating 25 years of crop circles

01

Since last writing, events have come and gone. My scientific research day was a bonus as the weather forecast was for rain, rain and still more rain but quite amazingly the evening before when checking the weather forecast, I saw to my astonishment I that the system had moved away and what was left was disintegrating. In fact it turned out to be one of the warmest and sunniest days of the summer. Living on an island must make life hell for professional meteorologists.

After conducting the first control tests, we went into the beautiful ‘Rose’ formation at Uffcott. I will be writing up the results in my annual article early next year, but suffice it to say, they will be very interesting. Despite being ten days old, the circle was full of energy, swirling vortices and other effects.

02

James Hussey is the only farmer this year who has allowed people to visit the circles on their land. They have always done this in the past as they found the visitors polite and interesting. We could not be more grateful to them. We were all so very sorry to learn of Gill's death after fighting breast cancer valiantly for 14 years. I knew her well and she was a truly wonderful lady. James Hussey wishes all donations to go direct to The Radiotherapy Unit at Great Western Hospital via the links given here; Gill Hussey is fundraising on Just Giving for The Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Charitable Fund rather than through any other fundraising agencies. So far he has raised a handsome amount and we are all eager to help in this very worthy cause in memory of Gill.

Next came the Glastonbury Symposium, its 25th year, being the oldest continuously running Conference relating to this subject. Initially it was based on crop circles alone but as the years have progressed and people have realised that crop circles and other subjects are closely allied, it has spread it wings to include other areas of interest. I attended the very first one held in a tiny room above the Blue Note Café in Glastonbury which was reached by going up very rickety stairs and along an equally rickety passage to the room at the end. This was organised by Bob and Glynnis who owned the Pendragon shop. Sadly many of the people attending are no longer with us.

As usual the symposium this year was jammed full of fascinated people and it has maintained its leading role in the Conference arena.

Another event celebrating 25 years of crop circle history is the really exceptionally well presented exhibition being held until the end of August at St Peter’s Church in Marlborough. Entrance is free and I strongly recommend a visit. Together with stunning photographs dating from the 1990 memorable Alton Barnes 'pictogram' onwards, the textual history is both instructive and absorbing.

crop-circle-exhibition

The first of my crop circle tours followed close on its heels and we were blessed with a spectacular formation at Hackpen Hill, again on James Hussey’s land. To many it was the Thunderbird, a legendary creature in certain North American indigenous peoples' history and culture. It is considered a supernatural bird of power and strength. To others it represented the Egyptian Falcon God Horus. Indeed it seemed to linked to many of the ancient civilisations.

04

Lying on the ridge with the Hackpen chalk white horse close by, it was in a memorable setting. At the request of James Hussey, Paul Jacobs took up residence in his splendid yellow caravan at the edge of the field and collected donations for Gill’s charity at the same time as welcoming and chatting to the visitors. In the afternoon, after a splendid lunch at the Barge Inn at Honey Street, to everyone’s delight we visited the Rose circle. We ended the day with a wonderful private entry visit to Stonehenge. Having got up at 5.30 that morning, I got home at 10.30pm!

The second crop circle tour was this week and once again I took everyone into Hackpen 'Bird'. Before entering, we had enormous fun as I was teaching people how to dowse. I always carry several pairs of rods with me so there were plenty to go around. To people who have never dowsed before, it is quite an amazing experience to see the rods whirling around of their own doing, in response to a question!

05

In the afternoon we visited a circle that had appeared just the evening before at Etchilhampton. The inside lay of the crop was extraordinarily complex. A series of swirling circles with a centre protected by tufts of standing crop. Unfortunately the lane approaching the field was very narrow resulting in very poor parking and indeed when the farmer came along with his tractor he was unable to get past (luckily none of my group were responsible for this). Being aware of the farmers and the access to their land is essential and I fear the farmer may soon cut out this circle. The day ended with several people taking microlight flights over the circles they had visited. They all came back with grins from ear to ear!!

There have been many more circles than the ones I have mentioned in this letter, so do please visit my web site. As flying is such a dreadfully expensive business any donations towards it would be just so very gratefully received.

My First Flight of 2015

On the 30th May I was told about a new circle that had appeared somewhere south west of Blandford Forum in Dorset. I immediately booked a flight for the following day, which according to the Met Office was to have a cloudy start but with sunny intervals starting to appear from around six in the evening.

Indeed it was a cold, cloudy morning and afternoon until glimmers of brightness started to appear, and by the time I got to Thruxton Airport there were enough blue patches "to make a pair of sailor's trousers", as the old saying goes.

Hoping for the best, we set off on a very long flight. The wind was against us, slowing us down, but the lush green fields below, of all wonderful shades, captivated me and I thought "how enormously lucky I am to be doing this and living in this wonderful Isle of Albion".

We found the formation quite easily. It was in barley, that beautiful, luxurious crop which sways in the wind, billowing out across the field, ruffling the crop as it goes, like sails on a boat.

Due to the wind, it wasn't easy to take pictures, as the crop from certain angles was distorted by the wind and an arterial road running adjacent to the field prohibited low flying.

In addition, I had accidentally flipped off my autofocus on the wide angle lens camera. I didn't spot what I had done for several minutes and as I wrestled with a camera I thought it had broken, as does happen quite often when flying over circles. It is very expensive to fly so every lost moment is a financial loss, and it wasn't until we were flying away that I spotted what I had done and we returned for a quick circuit of the formation.

It just shows how rusty one can become and how the smallest error can be catastrophic. It is a matter of running through all the possibilities as quickly as one can to correct the malfunction without panicking!!! I wont make the same mistake again! Had I been at school, I feel sure my report would have read "Could do better".

The weather (which has been so cold it seems like winter all over again) is due to pick up by the end of the week, so hopefully we will see more circles. I will keep you posted.

The crop circle tour on the 30th July is fully booked but there still places for the amazing private entry visit to Stonehenge. I can take more people into Stonehenge than on a crop circle tour, hence the difference in numbers for that day.

I will have to close the Stonehenge booking at the end of June so please hurry if you would like to join me on an experience of a lifetime.

There are still a few places left for the August 4th Crop Circle tour with the optional extra of a wonderful flight over the circles.

Best wishes,
Lucy

Newsletter ~ October 2014

Dear Friends,

In my last letter to you, you may remember that I was sending out a message to the Universe asking it to find the Right person who would come into my life and run my web site for me as Andy Potter felt drawn to go and help out in Gaza.

I would like to thank all the kind people who wrote to me offering their services. I had a really wonderful response from marvellous people living all over the globe and then from someone who lives in the UK, and whose ideas seem to fit in almost exactly with mine wrote to me. He is very experienced and full of exciting new ideas to bring my site into the 21C without changing the basic character and energy.  Also being within easy reach and at the other end of a telephone is a huge advantage.  A big welcome to Stephen Gavin.

So this is a new and exciting beginning and Steve will be introducing important fresh aspects like a modern `shop`. I realise that it hasn't always been easy for people to understand how to buy my goods and so this will be a big step forward. The whole idea is to make the site more user friendly. ​The 'new' site will incorporate the best of the best of my site with a WordPress site, which has not yet been 'styled' to integrate with it. ​We are very open to ideas and comments so please don't hesitate to let us know what you think.

This is just a short letter as I am struggling rather laboriously to type with my left hand due to pulled tendons in my right hand and arm. Good exercise for my brain!!!

My new 2015 crop circle calendar is now ready. It includes six wonderful circles from this summer's events. I do hope you will like it.  You will find all the information on my site.

I understand that the membership button has not been working; this is now fixed.

Popham, Hampshire

This is just a quick blog to keep you up to date with the new circles before we send out a general letter. Andy Potter who looks after my web site is home again but has 700 emails to wade through!
Popham114
I flew over the Popham circle on a wonderful summer's evening. The air was still and the light at that time of day has a wonderful soft quality.
 
There was no one in the circle as most people seem to congregate in Wiltshire and so Hampshire is relatively quiet and unvisited and the circles remain in good condition for much longer.
 
Best wishes
Popham129
Lucy

Thank you for donating to my flying

There are few more wonderful experiences than flying over the network of England’s fields on a sunny day. The patchwork of colour ranging from every shade of green from the palest to almost bottle green, the golden barley as it ripens and the odd brown field freshly ploughed.  This kaleidoscope of coloured tapestry stretches as far as the eye can see.

Badbury Rings is yet another of Dorset’s many Iron Age hill forts. It is one of the few to be covered in trees.Badbury Rings It was a hill fort of considerable size as can be seen from the number of folds and terraces.

It was once the dwelling place of Durotriges one of the Celtic tribes living in Britain prior to the Roman Invasion. Close by the remains of a temple dating to the Roman era was located immediately west of the fort.Just to the west of Badbury rings this huge formation appeared in barley on the 17 June nestling close to a hedge. (You can just se Badbury Rings in the distance)Badbury-Rings formation

I would like thank everyone who has generously donated to my flying. I am enormously grateful as at times, I almost feel that I might have to give up.

This is the first time I have attempted to add pictures, so fingers crossed!!

Best wishes

Lucy

Book Publisher Correction

I am so grateful to you all for trying to get in touch with my publisher to request a restocking/printing of my wonderful coffee table book, Crop Circles, Art in the Landscape which is full of marvellous photographs.

Unfortunately I gave you the wrong address ( I missed out a .) so nowI am sending the correct one.

 

Please, please could you drop them a line as I understand that it would be the only crop circle coffee table book available and it is too beautiful to be allowed to go out of print. The email address is: shin.su@quartouk.com.  Very many thanks  Lucy

 

Final & Wonderful Marlborough WCCSG Conference. Book Now.

 

Exclusive Programme Preview

The last Crop Circle Conference hosted by the Wiltshire Crop Circle Study

Group will take place from 4th - 7th July 2014 - see the confirmed

programme below

Full details of the weekend lectures and associated tours can be seen below.  Usually only

reserved for ticket holders, this year's programme is being published in this exclusive mail

to show you what we have put together for this special final event.  DON'T MISS IT:  Talks,

tours, dowsing, music and film; Your LAST CHANCE to experience this uplifting event

and say goodbye to the Wiltshire Group that has studied and published more information

than any other over two decades of crop circle research.
BOOK HERE