Bridge of Sighs

Next time you're in London and you happen to be anywhere near the Thames at Westminster, do have a look over the side of the Hungerford foot bridge as you cross. What you'll spot below, on the base of the bridge's supports, are hundreds of skateboards.

These commemorate the life of skateboarder Timothy Baxter who was brutally beaten unconscious and thrown into the Thames in 2000. His friend Gabriel Cornish was also similarly attacked but survived.

At the trial of the group of youths responsible - who said they had carried out the unprovoked attack for fun - Judge Ann Goddard said that they had shown no mercy to Baxter and were guilty of "heartless, gratuitous violence". Three of the gang received life sentences.

Historically, bridges have always been viewed as special places - symbolic, liminal paths that lead from one place to another. You find them in many religions, for example. Writer Fred Andersson describes them like this: 

'The bridge as a liminal space is a way for us to travel safely and still explore life, and maybe even experience something strange, without interfering with civilization in general. The bridge is there to help us overcome stuff but also move us forward to our intended — or unknown — destination. To me, the bridge symbol always makes me think of adventure — what’s on the other side? What will meet me? Or greet me?'

In the past, the heads of traitors were displayed on them. In the modern age, people attach padlocks to them to remember loved ones lost or to mark their love for someone else, such as these I spotted on a road bridge in Dublin and on a river bridge in Bristol.

In anthropology, liminality (from Latin līmen 'a threshold') is the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of a rite of passage, when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they will hold when the rite is complete. During a rite's liminal stage, participants "stand at the threshold" between their previous way of structuring their identity, time, or community, and a new way (which completing the rite establishes).

Life is full of these kinds of rites of passage and the bridge becomes a metaphor.

Interesting isn't it?

A miniature world

I was walking the dog yesteday and as I passed by the old barn that acts as the village council building I spotted a concrete and aggregate bollard that Nature is slowly overhelming.

Photographed from above it looked like a miniature green world.

Life finds a way.

 

An encounter with a Red Kite

Red Kites are big birds of prey. And, around this area of the Chiltern Hills, they're as common as pigeons. To what can we attribute their success? Well, for starters, they're not really hunters like their cousins the buzzard, the sparrowhawk and the kestrel. They're scavengers, which is why you'll see hordes of them following the plough on farmers' fields. Worms are easy pickings. And the recent heavy rains and saturated soil has brought thousands to the surface this past week and the Kites have had a feeding frenzy. There's also the fact that the Thames Valley has more motorway than any other region in the country including the M1, M4, M40 and M25. That's a lot of carrion. 

If you want a good view of Red Kites, simply throw a broken up chicken carcase into your garden. It'll take them a while to build up the courage to retrieve it - they're quite cowardly for such a big bird - but once one does it, they'll all come down. I took these photos through my kitchen window about six years ago.

Return of the Monoliths

The inaccurately named monoliths are back! Well, one is anyway.

This one has turned up on a hill in Wales.

The silver structure was spotted by walkers on Hay Bluff, near the town of Hay-on-Wye on the weekend. Sprouting up out of the mud and measuring about 10ft (3m) tall, its discovery has led many to take to social media to question who put it there and why. 

Local builder Craig Muir said he was "taken aback" when he spotted what he assumed was "some sort of a UFO" while out hiking. "It seemed like a very fine metallic almost like a surgical steel," he said, describing the monolith, a large single upright block usually made of stone."It looked perfectly levelled and steady, despite the weather being windy." 

Since there is no way to drive up to the top of the hill, Mr Muir suggested it could have been taken there by a group of people or dropped into position from a helicopter. "It didn't seem like it was chucked in there, instead it has been accurately put in the ground," he said. "However, there were no obvious tracks around it and one would think that something like that would cause a lot of mess."

I'm sure you all remember 'Monolith Mania' back in 2020 during lockdown when these things were popping up everywhere. In November 2020, a monolith was spotted by people aboard a helicopter in the remote Utah desert in the USA, before disappearing days later.

A few days later, another monolith appeared on the Isle of Wight. Similar structures then popped up in Cornwall, and a few isolated parts of Europe. One even popped up on top of Glastonbury Tor, an area steeped in Celtic mythology, inscribed with the words "Not Banksy" on the side. In total over 200 monoliths appeared around the world - there's a full list of all sightings on this Wikipedia page.

Oh, and why did I say 'inacurately named'? Because the word monolith means 'single stone'. These are man-made artefacts (no, not alien!) and they're made of metal. If you want to see a real monolith, go to Rudston (see here).

Musings on a Nation

Yesterday I celebrated St Piran's Day - Cornwall's national day of identity. All the Celtic nations are proud to celebrate their patron saints' days. But why not England and St George?

Here's a new - and somewhat philosophical - dog walk video where I muse on this very subject.

Happy St Piran's Day! Gool Peran Lowen!

My video from last March 5th.

Have a great day!

I celebrated in suitably gluttonous fashion.

When is a Monarch not a Monarch?

Here are some interesting facts about stags and their antlers. 

The normal maximum number of points on a stag’s antlers is around 12-14. Any stag with 12 is known as a ‘Royal’ and a 14 pointer is called an ‘Imperial’. Anything over 16 points is a ‘Monarch’. 

So now you know why Landseer’s Monarch of the Glen painting is so named ... although, weirdly the painting only shows 12 points.

Hunters have developed lots of terms for the various antler parts. Here they are starting from the skull and moving upwards: 

• Beam – Central stem of the antler. 
• Burr – Bony rim of the pedicle. 
• Brow Tine – The point at which the first antler branches off. 
• Bay/Bez Tine – The second branching-off point. 
• Tray/Trez Tine – The third branching-off mark. 
• Sur Royal Tine – Fourth branch on a separate tine of a deer’s antler. 
• Fork – End of the antler that forks out into two tines. 
• Palm – Usually used to discuss moose, this refers to the end of the antler that spreads out, resembling a human hand. 
• Crown – The top tine on the deer’s antlers. 

These definitions explain the layout of deer antlers. Some other terms used to describe the state of the antlers. They include: 

• Rack – This term refers to the complete set of antlers; racks are usually typical or non-typical. 
• Abnormal tine – This is a tine that grows off another tine instead of off the main beam. 
• Typical – This adjective refers to a rack that has all its tines growing upward with no abnormal tines.  
• Non-typical – Refers to a rack that has one or more abnormal tines, or tines that grow off another tine instead of the existing beam. 
• Drop tine – This phrase describes a tine that is growing at a downward angle. 
• Kicker point – An abnormal tine that grows from the burr, near the pedicle. 

So now you know.