Eday Industrial Heritage…..A Maes Howe Day?.......
by Bernie Bell - 08:55 on 28 November 2024
Eday Industrial Heritage….
https://archaeologyorkney.com/2024/11/26/eday-surveys/
I’m particularly interested in Redhouse, as our friends Wendy and David own it. They had Papleyhouse renovated and live there.
https://archaeologyorkney.com/industrial-heritage/eday/redhouse/
They are still exploring their bit of land and discovering its secrets.
Wendy wrote a poem and sent it to me…….
Garden of Secrets
Bees are floating
among the borage
buzzing purple
at the periphery,
on my knees
I scrape and pull
clumps of opportunist grass
shake out and brush away the soil
revealing stones laid beneath.
A pebbly path
curves around the alder
stretching its heavy branches
along the shelter
of dry stone wall.
I touch another texture
a patch of mottled cream
hollow when tapped.
Half hidden still.
I work my fingers
gently round the shape,
loosening the grasping roots
lift a sculpted bone
curving to blunt square end
craving attachment.
"A whale"
my whispered exclamation
"a whale bone,
in my garden!"
then I see another,
fan shaped piece
leaning against the wall
moss and lichen camouflaged.
With reverent strokes
my hands explore
the contours
of these giant bones,
great beasts of the sea
who roamed these isles
long, long before me
now longing to know them.
I do not know
who placed these treasures here
who laid the pink and grey stones,
the gravel paths
who lived and dreamed and loved
this place
yet I touch
what they have touched
walk and breathe
where they have walked and breathed
separated by unknown time.
To them
I mouth a silent promise
I will cherish
this gift,
my wondrous garden
of secrets.
Wendy Alford June 2023
And nearby Cusbay…
Cusbay
The silence
sweeps and folds
around me
in conversation
with the curlew
pulled to and fro
with the tides
the air is too big
to breathe
and yet I do
without effort
the sky
overwhelms me
and carries me up
stretching
taking all in
being
taken in
Wendy Alford May 2021
And Vinquoy Cairn…
Vinquoy Cairn
Two of us enter
on hands and knees
through close dark passage
to round chamber of stone
****
thin light filters from
circular hole above
where layered rocks
draw up and lean in
****
fingers stretch out
to touch each side
the green dampness
of ancient walls
****
four low small rooms
from the centre lead out
in cardinal directions,
we pray to each:
****
fire, air, earth, water
then sound begins
in my throat
with my breath
****
seeping out from the stones
up through my body
resonating vibrations
of some other voice
****
strong and deep
a masculine intonation of
powerful prayer from
old earth rituals
****
then, slowly, softly
female song rises
harmonic waves
possess this space
****
body and rock
mind and place
resound as one,
in the voice
****
time falls away
I return to myself
and the quiet
and the now
and you.
*****
Wendy Alford May 2019
A Maes Howe Day?.......
Sunset over Hoy – 27th of November 2024……
I wonder what was happening in Maes Howe? It’s not just on one day….
https://theorkneynews.scot/2017/12/22/the-light-in-the-mound/
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