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.
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.
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.
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!
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.