The Secret Sharer

Sept. 1st, 2005

Had a good day at work today and managed to rewrite a whole chapter, only keeping one paragraph out of five pages. Something tells me tomorrow might not be as productive, but giving myself nine hours in town every day makes sure that something gets done. It's hard to believe that in a week I'll be done.
Went for another walk tonight and it was as clear and crisp as the last entry. Well, there were some cumulus clouds this evening riding in on a southwesterly wind, and halfway through the sun began to set behind them and shaded them from blue to pink to the colour of soiled cotton wool. I've been walking mainly this week on the road which leads to the reservoirs from Bridford, and have only met one car in two nights. It was rainy last night and I was in low spirits, hence no walk.
On Sunday, Tupa and I took a nice four-hour walk to a cairn circle on the moor north of Bridford. You must walk north from the village and cross the Teign river valley, and then from there go west. You walk quite a ways up the hill, and suddenly the moor opens out before you with not a tree in sight. The cairn circle is unmarked on the trail, and with all the gourse you don't see it until you're right on top of it. Nevertheless, there's a circle of grass marked on its perimeter by stones about a meter high. I'm not sure what they were used for, but it leaves fertile ground for the imagination. Up above the circle there is another smaller cirlce of grass without rocks where there are remains of bonfires. I busied myself imagining modern day pagans coming there and doing all sorts of things, but once again I was letting my imagination go. Once I get done with my dissertation, I intend to find out what they're for or what they were. Perhaps I'll find out they're not ancient at all, but there are many of them on the Dartmoor map and they would have to be special in some way or another for them to be marked. Anyway, Tupa and I loved it, as it was sunny and warm and we had good conversation.

posted by moor-rambler @ 12:54 AM