The Exploratree….. Palaeoecological investigations around the Ness of Brodgar….. More Matters Botanical…. And Archaeological…
by Bernie Bell - 10:06 on 08 April 2023
The Exploratree
Our friends Wendy & David stay in Eday - are both Blacksmiths – made and raised an iron ‘Exploratree’ – took a picture of the Moon through the tree…
Goodness me…
Wendy wrote..
“It is strange how Exploratree has become quite a powerful presence. I find myself looking at it and through it from all its aspects and feeling a kind of wonder at how it has taken on its own life force beyond my own creative input. It is meant to be where it is, almost as if it has been waiting this last 3 + years (lying in storage) to come back to life. I originally made it about 10 years ago for "The Journey" Berghapton Sculpture Trail, following which it took its place alongside the labyrinth in our flower meadow behind St Mary's Forge. Now, after a journey I could never have contemplated at its creation, we have both arrived at our destination.”
Wendy & David moved to Eday from Norfolk, where they worked St. Mary’s Forge, Haddiscoe.
‘Exploratree’ is backed by Vinquoy Hill…...
https://theorkneynews.scot/2020/01/19/poetry-corner-vinquoy-cairn/
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Palaeoecological Investigations Around The Ness Of Brodgar…
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/palaeoecological-investigations/
My tuppenceworth re. Brodgar Botanicals…
http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=16200
Not at all scientific – just hopeful!
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More Matters Botanical..
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65211722
“spiral motifs carved on the lids.” Well, well, well……
Beltane Spirals………Life – Death – Re-Birth…….On-going………..
Hares and Spirals – Shadow and Light
Poetry Corner: What our garden is saying to the sky
And that’s all without drugs!
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And Archaeological…
https://archaeologyorkney.com/2023/04/07/tombs-of-the-isles-update-huntersquoy-eday/
Two-storied, like Taversoe Tuick. My Taversoe Tuick tuppenceworth….
“Taversoe Tuick is a strange, unique, intriguing little place. The cairn itself, is a little gem. Getting to it, was very difficult. The land around it, was totally ‘poached’, presumably by cattle. It was a matter of leaping from tussock-to-tussock. This was OK for Mike and I, as we were relatively young and reasonably fit-ish! For anyone less agile, it would have been impossible. Ben-The-Dog just saw it as some kind of obstacle course, climbing up and down among the pot-holes and tussocks, and no doubt wishing he had longer legs!
Back to the cairn. It’s built on two ‘stories’, which is un-usual. It also has an off-shoot – an extra little chamber, lying just outside the main cairn. This is an intriguing little ‘cell’. I wondered was it for some kind of rite-of-passage, or initiation? as in, place someone in there, for maybe a few days, and they’d come out crazy, clear-headed, or both! Other cultures, even very modern societies, today, have isolation tanks. The idea, as far as I can gather, is to cut off all external stimuli, so that the person……goes inside them-self, to their inner world, to ……………….meet them-self. Maybe a similar idea, here? Initiation, through isolation.
We recently attended a seminar at Orkney College, where Julie Gibson ( County Archaeologist) mentioned that there is a small ‘channel’ linking this side-cell, to the main cairn. If noises (!) are made in the side-cell, they can be heard in the main cairn. Is this part of the function of the side-cell? Changing states of consciousness? It’s a small cell, so you’d have to be a small person, to fit in it, or a young person – a teenager?
All very interesting.”
From this article…
https://theorkneynews.scot/2017/05/18/bernie-bell-orkney-walks-with-stories-rousay/
This reminds me of school essay titles….’Compare and contrast……’
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Here’s one I made earlier…. https://theorkneynews.scot/2020/09/08/jellyfish-on-evie-sands/
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