Staying away in Wiltshire last week I went to visit the Avebury Stones. Avebury is a World Heritage Site and is an astonishing and fascinating place. Nothing much is known about the people who built Avebury, or what language they spoke, or what their clothes looked like. It is thought that it may have been a place for celebrating important times of the year, or for marking important times in peoples' lives, or even their departure from life. Another theory is that they were making contact with their ancestors, or with supernatural beings or forces, often with the hope or intention of influencing matters in their own lives. Why they chose Avebury is also a matter for speculation, but a bank and a ditch were created around a circular area about 400 years before the first stones were erected. I put my arms around one of the stones and thought how very strange it was that they had been standing here for so long and that some ancient person might have done just that all those thousands of years ago. If you haven't been to Avebury, do try to go, because it is an uplifting and marvellous experience.
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A Proud Family Portrait
It wasn't a Reynolds or Gainsborough.
There were no silk or satin dresses
no elaborate hairstyles, large jewels,
or velvet neck ribbons.
There was no piano,
and no-one was reading a book.
Sitting at a wooden table
the ladies wore dull cotton dresses,
the man a black suit.
There were no silk hats, no smiles.
Solemn-faced this family
was merchant class,
had succeeded with hard work.
They were a proud family,
painted as they were
to remind themselves
and others, what they had achieved,
their dining table
a treasured possession,
their oak coffer,
their mahogany sideboard,
a Bible,
their precious gems.
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With best wishes, Patricia
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