Showing posts with label Butser Ancient Farm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Butser Ancient Farm. Show all posts
Saturday, 2 May 2026
Saturday, 4 May 2024
Saturday, 29 April 2023
Saturday, 30 April 2022
Saturday, 23 April 2022
Saturday, 18 September 2021
Viking Boat Burn, Butser Ancient Farm
The Farm missed out on two important annual fundraising events – via the Beltain Wickerman Burning – due to Covid restrictions and ongoing Covid concerns. They have bounced back with a Viking Longship Burning event, to celebrate the coming Autumn Equinox.
The event was smaller than usual in numbers present, and subsequently had the more relaxed feel of those early Beltain events that we have previously enjoyed.
The warm up act to the boat burning were a three-piece band called Seidrblot, whose throat-singing was amazing, as were the sounds that they generated from their "ancient" instruments.
As with the more recent Beltain celebrations, the Pentacle Drummers – provided a rhythmic soundtrack to the burning ritual. Unlike at the Wickerman burning, their persistent drumming felt more in keeping with the nature of this ceremony – their hairy visages, a facsimile of the warrior spirits they so always desperately seem to be trying to channel.
The event was smaller than usual in numbers present, and subsequently had the more relaxed feel of those early Beltain events that we have previously enjoyed.
The warm up act to the boat burning were a three-piece band called Seidrblot, whose throat-singing was amazing, as were the sounds that they generated from their "ancient" instruments.
As with the more recent Beltain celebrations, the Pentacle Drummers – provided a rhythmic soundtrack to the burning ritual. Unlike at the Wickerman burning, their persistent drumming felt more in keeping with the nature of this ceremony – their hairy visages, a facsimile of the warrior spirits they so always desperately seem to be trying to channel.
Saturday, 1 May 2021
Beltain .. and a home-made Wicker Man burning!
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| pre-assembly |
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| flint-knapped "barb and tang" arrowhead author's own work |
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| assembling the wicker man |
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| preparing the fire-pit |
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| the Beltain burning begins |
Saturday, 31 October 2020
Samhain
In the time of Covid-19 we chose to forsake the annual Samhain story-telling in Little Woodbury at Butser Ancient Farm. Instead we shared a splendid evening around the fire-pit with P & C - good company, good ale, and a drop of mead or two.
Blessed be
Blessed be
Sunday, 9 August 2020
.. an Iron Age sleepover .. Butser Ancient Farm
Attending a socially distanced Ancient Living Skills course at Butser Ancient Farm, provided with it the most exciting opportunity to sleep-over in Little Woodbury Iron Age Roundhouse (Experimental Archaeology Replica).
Over the last decade A and I have spent many sociable evenings within the round of this splendid building, warming ourselves by the fire listening to story-telling, live music and catching up with dear friends - so it was a real pleasure to be able to light my own fire within it's heart, and raise a glass of mead or two to a successful day's activity.
I shared the living space with an engaging and thoughtful technical writer, who was also writing her first novel set in those distant times, and had chosen the course to experience the colours, smells, skills and ambience of ancient home-life.
Butser AF is a dark sky site, so as night fell we lay on our backs outside the roundhouse observing the Milky Way, counting shooting stars - the meteors arisng from the annual Perseid shower - and watched as the ISS tracked overhead.
The evening's fire was out by morning - so I coaxed new flames from the cooling embers. Cracking.
After breakfast, I walked home carrying a self-made spear, the product of yesterday's flint-knapping, spear shaft prep, and string making - a touch of pride in my step, and a heart full of joy.
In my absence A had kindly set the moth-trap overnight, so later that morning I emptied the trap, recording 47 moths of 20 spp. including the stonking Bulrush wainscot (Nonagria typhae) a somewhat unexpected moth for a garden set in a dry chalk valley? Although perhaps of local provenance coming from either Catherington or Clanfield Pond?
Over the last decade A and I have spent many sociable evenings within the round of this splendid building, warming ourselves by the fire listening to story-telling, live music and catching up with dear friends - so it was a real pleasure to be able to light my own fire within it's heart, and raise a glass of mead or two to a successful day's activity.
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| Butser Ancient Farm - "Iron Age" village |
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| Little Woodbury |
I shared the living space with an engaging and thoughtful technical writer, who was also writing her first novel set in those distant times, and had chosen the course to experience the colours, smells, skills and ambience of ancient home-life.
 |
| Evening light - looking west over Little Woodbury |
Butser AF is a dark sky site, so as night fell we lay on our backs outside the roundhouse observing the Milky Way, counting shooting stars - the meteors arisng from the annual Perseid shower - and watched as the ISS tracked overhead.
The evening's fire was out by morning - so I coaxed new flames from the cooling embers. Cracking.
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| a less than "authentic" sleeping arrangement? |
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| New flames coaxed from the night's cooling embers |
After breakfast, I walked home carrying a self-made spear, the product of yesterday's flint-knapping, spear shaft prep, and string making - a touch of pride in my step, and a heart full of joy.
In my absence A had kindly set the moth-trap overnight, so later that morning I emptied the trap, recording 47 moths of 20 spp. including the stonking Bulrush wainscot (Nonagria typhae) a somewhat unexpected moth for a garden set in a dry chalk valley? Although perhaps of local provenance coming from either Catherington or Clanfield Pond?
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| Bulrush wainscot |
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