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Saturday, the 21st of June was a great day for me as I left with friend Pat, to go from Worcester to Stonehenge, with a couple of stops along the way.  Pat is an American friend of ours here in England.  She has been aching to go down for this annual event for some seven years now, but knowing it would be much a concert like atmosphere, she did not want to go alone.  I was the perfect candidate because I am so fearless, or brainless, whichever!  What follows is the slide show you would be getting on my wall if this trip had occurred before the Internet. 

We made our first stop in Stroud to see a scenic overlook there, then made way for Cirencester to see what remains of a Roman Amphitheatre there.  Now it is just a pair of banana shaped mounds of dirt covered with grass, but the idea was to be able to understand the scale of the place and see something that has been here since the Romans invaded some two thousand years ago. 

We also went to see one of the hill side horses, but of them, there could only be one to point the car at, and that was at Uffington White horse.  It is the original white horse, and has been around since the Neolithic people decided that the birds needed to be the only things to see a work of art. 

Since I could not see the horse too well, I sat on the Manger, a hill with a flat top, and looked down to see the scene pictured above.  I had to get a photo of the light dancing across the grassy hillsides. 

Thirsty, we then made way to a pub for a quick drink in the garden.  Over the road we saw this cottage arrangement which looked kind of funny with a palm tree superimposed in front of it.  It just seemed a little out of place, like Americans in England. 

Sillbury Hill is just south of Avebury, and is the largest manmade hill in Europe.  It was originally constructed in the Neolithic period, and has been explored in the 18th Century, and in the 20th Century.  No clues have been found to indicate the reason it was actually built!

At the top of the hill in this picture, you can see a man on the right side of the flat spot, giving you some idea of just how big of a hill that seems to have been built for no apparent reason. 

Passing under this rail bridge, we got the impression that they wanted us to see that it was there. 

After passing through a firing range where the British Army practices with their tanks, we got to this.  When I say passing through the range, I really mean we were going over tank crossing signs and past warnings not to enter if the big red flags were on display, as they were that day.  Anyway, we wondered of course if we were far enough away by the time we got in line to go into the parking for the big event at Stonehenge.  We did not get blown up, so we think we were okay.

After entering the car park as the 1.123rd car to enter, we looked back to see the sun was soon going to set over the very long queue that still remained.  In all, some 6,500 cars filled the lot that night.  So we were early!

The sun is getting closer to the horizon, and we were not yet in a hurry to get out to the Henge. 

When we did get there, we found someone who could answer our question about what time the sun would come up.  as it was, I asked none other than Merlin, who is the Magician and time keeper in the modern Druid world.  He is also number 2 in the Stonehenge Druids.  If you look carefully, you can probably guess which one he is in this picture. 

Stonehenge itself was filled with a Rave all night long.  There were drums being banged non-stop literally all night.  The atmosphere was energetic and I found it easy to stay up all night.  Especially as we were asked twice if we had any drugs for sale.  I have too much camera gear to fall asleep with it at my side in this place!  

People were peeing everywhere because of how long the queues were to the loo’s.  In fact, a girl slid into the ditch right in front of us and debagged and did her business while people walked around her.  It was astounding!

Pat suggested I go into the Henge to get some photos, and experience the real focus of the all night event.  Well, that is what I came here for!

In addition to the provided lighting, someone brought a flare. 

What an amazing place to be!  People are only allowed in to the actual stones four times a year.  Few visitors ever get to touch the stones themselves.  As for me, I set my camera on one to get these photos.  Apart from that, I made sure to keep off them.  The results were at times amazing!

There is no question where this picture was taken.

Did I tell you the queues to the loo’s were long?  This was only the smaller of the two sets, and the line was shorter here.&#16
0; It was  a favourite place of ours. 

Pat chilling after a nap, and enjoying the atmosphere of one of the greatest nights ever, but not really fitting in…

…as you can plainly see.  These girls were fairly typical of the revellers.  Many were dressed in clothes one might consider not wearing to meet the parents in. 

King Arthur dressed as King Arthur does, and who is going to question or criticize that?  After all, he is the number one guy in the Stonehenge Druids. 

After watching the Sunrise Ceremony and taking the Druidian Oath, we made our way back to Sillbury Hill and neighbouring West Kennet Longbarrow.  Ancient Druids were buried here, and flowers are still placed on the gravesite today.  Sorry for just sort of skipping to this, but surely you are getting tired!

Pat was so happy that at West Kennet Longbarrow, someone had nicely put in a crop circle.  She wanted her picture with it, and I wanted pictures of it, so that worked out kind of nicely. 

What a nice touch for our Solstice Celebration!  You can see a guy in the bottom of the circle.  He nicely stood there to again give you some scale.  I am not one who subscribes to the idea that aliens did it.  Someone is laughing hard today!  Ockham’s Razor! 

I hope that you enjoyed the photos!  Of course, I have put them up for sale on my website, if you are interested! 

http://www.kelseyphoto.com

By the way, I slept most of the way home.  Thanks to Pat Gildea!  This was one hell of a trip!

According to this article, male blue collar workers are losing the highest number of jobs of any category.  The recession is hitting them, and their families the hardest.  Several aspects of this article point out problems that need resolving, such as the most glaring and obvious need for some protection for the blue collar worker, which is the back that the Unites States was built on. 

At the end of the article, on the bottom of page two, an example is cited about a family where the husband worked as a heavy equipment operator making $800-$900 per week digging foundations for luxury homes.  He developed a heart condition a few years back and his insurance company dropped him.  Question one; why do we allow insurance companies get away with this?  The government should be backing such expenses when they are beyond a threshold, allowing a man to keep his coverage when he needs it! 

His wife went to work in a coffee shop to get insurance to cover him.  Now he has lost his job due to the recession, and her earnings are enough to cover food and maybe one utility, according to the article. 

Is this what being an American means for him and for his children?  Sorry folks, but you live in the most powerful country in the world, the richest, and the most well developed in most areas, but sadly, your father will likely die because there was no money set aside in the economic stimulus package to cover the costs of helping those in need.  There were no doctors willing to cut their costs to save lives.  There were no hospitals that would accept him because he had no insurance anymore.  What will we tell the children of people like him?  “Well, the economy was crap” is just not good enough for me!

I am positive that I wrote three e-mails today.  I am off to bed now, and I have not one reply.  It is as though it never happened.  What does that mean?  Nothing sinister, I am sure.  Even though the recipients are in three completely separate parts of the United States, two out East, but a Thousand miles apart, and one in the West, only a Thousand miles from the Coast.  Nothing sinister, like the United States fell into the Ocean, leaving only a sliver of land called California hanging there alone in the sea.  Surely not!

Actually, I am off to bed, and while I have not yet heard back from three friends, only two of them reply normally within a day, and that is not predictable, especially as both have been forecast for good weather today!  I hope that both are out enjoying it!  I would be if we had it in England, ever…

Yours,

Mr. Doom  (LOL)

I set up the new photo blog on Blogspot and am going to use it now in place of the Pixelpost blog I WAS going to use.  This should work out better simply because it is someone else’s job to keep the blog up and running, and not mine!  This means of course that I can focus on content and not on operability.  Yay!  So, I moved in copies of the images I had posted so far on the Pixelpost blog and have edited the daylights out of the template, though I am sure I will do more as I post more. 

So the PhotoBlog is there for the pictures, and this one is here for the articles and information.  It is separate, but allows me a place to focus on image content for the sake of visitors to my website.  I think it makes sense, anyway.  Two Red Bull’s later…

So, watch for more articles based around my photography here in the future, and I WILL be including relevant pictures!  In fact, maybe now is the time to really pump this up!  I’d better have loads more Red Bull handy!  Maybe it is time to change the template here too… Stay tuned!

The images in this posting are moved in from the old blog I was keeping on my site, but as that proved to bee too troublesome, They are being put where I know I have a greater chance of reliability.

I have been at work yesterday trying to refresh the website yet again.  It is not about content at this point, but design.  I want fresh, easy to navigate and clean. I got it yesterday on an html editor, and uploaded it.  I left it last night and when I came down this morning the Photoblog did not work anymore.  Was I happy?  No.  Do I know why?  No.  Have I tried to fix it?  Have I failed at that?  Yes to both.  I cannot delete the entire file structure either, so how do I start all over again?  I don’t know.  I am going to have to figure it out and do just that today though.  But first, I think I need to spend a little time away and relax a bit, or a certain computer might get damaged.  With any luck I will have  a repaired photoblog up and running today, and with any real luck, I will find a simpler one.  The one I have been using is nice, but the backend work is a bit daunting.  So I want to stay away from that again because of situations like this one.

On Saturday morning I caught a train from Worcester to Gloucester to take some photos and have a look at the Cathedral and the historic Docks.  The Cathedral’s website says that the Cathedral was started in 1089, and it says that in 1216, nine year old Henry the III was crowned king there.  King Edward II is buried in Gloucester Cathedral, though it was an abbey then, until Henry VIII ordered the abbey surrendered in 1540 and the monastery dissolved.  From January 1541 the newly formed Cathedral became the seat of the Bishop of Gloucester.  Bishop Hooper was burned at the stake here in in 1555 under the orders of Catholic Queen Mary.  Rather than remodelling or rebuilding, the Cathedral was conserved and maintained only during the 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries. 

John Stafford Smith was a choirboy in the Cathedral as a child, his father being the organist.  Smith wrote a tune called “Anacreon” which Francis Scott Key set the Star Spangled Banner to during the siege of Baltimore. 

There are many other historical facts about the Cathedral, and interesting people interred there, but in modern times it is known for starring in many scenes as Hogwarts in the “Harry Potter” films.  The Cloisters were used in the Philosopher’s Stone (Sorcerer’s Stone in the USA) and the Chamber of Secrets.  The door to the Gryfindor’s Common Room is also here, as are the columns Harry and Ron hid behind when the troll headed to the girl’s bathroom. 

The Halls of Hogwarts

The Hiding Place from the Troll is under the arches on the right. 

There are other locations as well, but the rest of the photos to follow are views of the historic Cathedral. 

This is the detail of the ceiling of the Cloisters. 

I hope that you have enjoyed the views of one of the beautiful cathedrals of England. 

It is Bank Holiday Monday and we are all just hanging about.  It is May the Fourth, so of course we are all watching Star  Wars as our family SW day.  May the Fourth Be With you!

Katrina being off all this week, I am still able to go spend a day out, but I don’t know where yet, or how to get there.  I would love to do a train journey, but I spent all my allowance this weekend on a Nikon SB-900 flash.  It is a lot of money for one, and I begrudge having to spend it, but I got a great price on a sale.  That will arrive earlier this week with any luck!  Cancel that, I just checked on the website and it is on back-order.  That’s what they get for putting it on sale for less than £300.  Looks like I am free to go out.  Where, where, where?  No money, no flash…  Might be best to dig the bike out of the shed and see where I end up, especially in town! 

Yesterday I found the Nikon SB-900 on the Jessops site for £290.  That is a damned site cheaper than I have found it anyplace else!  It should be here early in the week.  I will be able to tell you how it is!  With this little addition, I am actually able to do a low end wedding job, AT LAST!!!  (By that, I mean I am comfortable that I am equipped well enough not to do a hash job of it!)