Dear Wen,
Yes, it was rather and it became something of a ‘Cross Crusade’ although it was not initially intended to be such…
What was most reassuring was the feeling of ‘higher guidance’ which constantly appeared to be in attendance… once we had started with the crosses we practically fell over them in every place we went too… Brechin and AberLady being the best examples of that… both unscheduled…both a surprise and our journey to the best places of course were, literally festooned with hawks…
It was also reassuring that a large proportion of the ‘hog-back’ stones had only comparatively recently been un-earthed and put on display…
‘Houses of the dead’ returned to the ‘House of the living’ as it were…
Good too that those places which, were not particularly ‘crusade’ relevant still gave us loads of great stuff for ‘The Legend…’And what a gift to get, ‘The Aethling Thing’ confirmed in such a spectacular fashion.
I expect it will take time to assimilate it all, especially the iconography of the crosses and stones which fits in nicely with the latest chapter of ‘Scion’s of Albion,’ which is all about the iconography on the Ilkley ‘crosses’… The whole ‘entwined beast’ thing is quite significant…and obviously not purely decorative…how could it be?
It should not be too difficult to get to some of these places again; Sandbach and Heysham in particular are ‘do-able’… It would be nice to spend some summer time with the stones…
We can always pop in on Ben and drag him along to anything else in Cumbria, I expect he would enjoy a trip into Lancaster for the museum the others though will be a bit of a trek.
There seems to be a bit of a ‘sea change’ in some of the Cathedrals… Chester felt better than last time whilst Durham seemed much worse. It is strange how ‘political’ decisions can change the feel of a place. It is almost as if they have their own identity, which really ought to be taken into consideration…
I bet Old Anu thought he was never going to see you again…
He does seem to be becoming more vociferous with age and really is the daftest dog in the universe…
Love
Don x
