Shapwick Heath

Tags

Avalon Marshes, Burns the Bread, coot, dendrochronology, heron, Natural England, RSPB, Shapwick Heath, Somerset Levels, Somerset Wildlife Trust, swan, Sweet Track

A few days ago, when the weather wasn’t as bitterly cold as it is now, a London friend came to visit me, and among other things we had a lovely walk on Shapwick Heath, part of the Avalon Marshes, also known as the Somerset Levels. The whole area has been restored for wildlife after a century and more of being worked for peat.  Natural England, the RSPB, and the Somerset Wildlife Trust each manages part of the Marshes.  The visitor is rarely aware of who owns and manages what, and the bodies work together as part of the Avalon Marshes Partnership.

Another feature of the place is the existence of the Sweet Track,  built by people living in the area in 3807 BC or 3806 BC.  How so precisely dated?  By the science of dendrochronology, reading the tree rings of this wood beautifully preserved by the acidic bogs.

We walked for about two miles each way along the River Brue, straightened and canalised as part of the draining of the Levels centuries ago.  To our left was the river, to the right marshland.

Coot

We walked as far as, and examined as best we could, a new hide being built,

opposite this view beyond the Brue

before turning back and along a track

to an old one, called Noah’s Hide.  We stayed there for quite a while, enjoying big landscape views and smaller more intimate sights, bordering on voyeurism once or twice.

We were disappointed that no pair was formed from the three Great crested grebes we saw.  Their courtship dance is wonderful to see, as they bow and weave in perfect mirrored harmony on the water.

When it was time to return to the car and home, we congratulated ourselves on the weather which had certainly been better than forecast, and felt that the exercise we had done amply justified eating the Eccles cakes we had bought from Burns the Bread earlier on in the day.

Glastonbury’s ‘Crystal shops’, Part 2

Tags

Athelney, bookshop, Burns the Bread, Glastonbury, Glastonbury High Street, King Alfred, Meditation

Continuing our discovery of Glastonbury’s alternative lifestyle shops, a little further up is Moon Mirrors, and The Mystic Garden. On either side of the High Street are several alleys, reflecting the mediaeval layout of the town centre.  Some of these have totally disappeared, but some of them are still delightful to explore.  The Gauntlet is a very recent exploitation of the original layout, in that the developer not only beautifully restored buildings on either side of the alley, creating shops and accommodation, but extended it further with more housing.  Come and visit these byways yourself… Continuing up the High Street, we come to Yinyang. Glastonbury High street does have a few conventional shops, such as this flower shop, the name of which nevertheless has an Avalonian influence,and the wonderful Burns the Bread, award winning baker. It’s very difficult to pass without just popping in for a pastry. I joined a behind-the-scenes tour of the bakery with the Glastonbury Conservation Society a year or so back.  It was Bob Burns himself who guided us.  What a wonderful name, enabling a good old-fashioned English pun for the name of the shop! (It was only a few miles from here, at Athelney, that King Alfred – if he did – burnt the cakes.)Then we come to a shop focused on Africa, followed by The Goddess and the Green Man,a shop selling imported Indian goods, dilliway and dilliway, and Lilith. Here’s another bookshopand Covenstead’s Curious Cottage, opened recently, in the place of a failed newspaper shop.  (Two years ago we had three of these, now we have just one.) Perhaps you seek Enlightenment? Are you a Natural Earthling? Or perhaps you’d like to try Soul Therapy Meditation.(To be concluded tomorrow.)