4 July: Salisbury and Stonehenge

See 19 June.  Yes, it is Sunday again so fit in another two cathedrals: Salisbury and Winchester.  (OK so last Sunday we didn't go to an orthodox church but I reckon the birding will have been close to worship.)

In fact we only did one cathedral as Winchester was regarded as surplus to requirements.  However deoending on your views of religion you could say we visited an earlier cathedral as well.  Read on, but first ...

Amongst the things we have noticed on the road sinc getting to the SW have been a number of ex-mammals which look rather like badgers.  I suppose this is the young ones getting out and (briefly) about.  Not good.   {An aside from back in Australia: apparently some bunch of idiotic Welsh cattle farmers - an expression in contention for tautology of the century - have asked for many badgers to be euthanased because they are spreading TB.  There are apparently 50,000 sets in the UK.  Given the effort by Somerset drivers a zero will soon be off that number and TB will soon be correctly attributed to the unspeakable practices of Welsh cattle!}  Here is an image of 3 livelier Badgers courtesy of Messrs Sainsbury.

I have tried the Fursty Ferret (named after the ferrets which used to steal beer from Ms Rosie Gribble.  I rate it as potable  plus, but not as good as the same brewery's Golden Champion.  Perhaps my taste buds were stymied by the pint of John Smith's Extra Smooth (potable at least) taken with tea at the George pub in Gurney Slade?

The main business of the day was to visit Salisbury Cathedral.  En route we went past the entrance to Longleat where the Marquis of Bath seemed to be raking in the Stg in short order (judging by the number of cars heading inwards).  On the opposite side of the road was Cley Hill, a neolithic fort.  We looked at it but didn't climb.  We crossed Salisbury Plain (being intrigued by the 'Tank Crossings' in several places) and looked at the next attraction:

There were a lot of punters there as well.  Many of them coughing up the readies to get closer to the stones.  It was quite impressive, but in terms of scale and skill pales greatly in comparison to the efforts of the Incas.

After a snap we headed into Salisbury and did the Cathedral.  My initial reaction was that it was a tad plain compared to places like Lincoln and Durham, but as we moved around the place I found it had a lot of very good things in it.   Interestingly this place as with several others seemed to be getting into supporting artists and sculptors by displaying their work including the photographer Ash Mills (his stuff is amazing I really suggest to follow the link). This is in addition to the various memorials etc around the buildings.  Here are a couple of images of the cathedral.

One of the astonishing items was a modern font.  This had been set up in the same style as 'endless swimming pools'.  As a result of the controlled water flow it gave the same effect as the mirrors in other cathedrals in showing the ceiling etc:



One other thing which surprised me was seeing this in the cathedral:

We did see some other canines going in on leads!

Before getting to the cathedral I invested 20p in the hygiene service of Wiltshire County Council.  As well as that which I needed, I gained - from a poster - some education into the meaning of the word GUM.  As well as the Russian store chain, in the UK it is the acronym for Genito Urinary Medicine.  I will be very careful about what I chew in future.

We then went to Garston Wood, an RSPB Reserve.  I didn't have great hopes for this place anyway, but it was almost bird free: we heard some Wood Pigeons and saw some wrens but that was about it.  The drive home was rather excellent, and after zipping home to rescue some washing (already rescued by our hostess Susan) we dropped down to the 'George' pub for a meal and beer.  Both of us had really nice food: we'll be revisiting them.  Apparently in historic times there were two pubs on opposite sides of the road serving the passing hordes but only the George has survived.  There is another hostelry (the Horse and Jockey) but as they appeared not to serve food we didn't go there: its main function in times gone by was refreshments for punters coming to meets of the Mendip Hunt, who unloaded their horses at (what was then) the nearby Railway station.

I recall a friend who had lived in Cambridge commenting on the anglers turning up to fish in a ditch opposite their apartment.  There is a pond at the end of our lane which was very well angled on Saturday afternoon but much less so this morning.  However the main thing this caused me to recall was the small size of the rivers we have crossed: the Molonglo at Captains Flat looks huge by comparison!

 Here is a photo of our current accomodation (and our current wheels).  The barn backs on to a field - about 10 acres - owned by our hosts in which the previous owner puts some cattle.  They come a look in to the kitchen, although a small fence has been erected to stop them licking the window.

On the subject of cows our previous host commented that all cattle are now ear-tagged and every time they shift ownership or location this is officially recorded.  It seems this came out of the BSE fiasco but has had the result that most butchers list whose farm the steak etc came from.  In addition to this a 'farm shop' movement has arisen where the vendors show how far the produce has travelled: conceptually a very good idea, although a bit of an issue for Australian and NZ exports!