Arbor Low

And now the flight ban has ended, Britain’s Transport Secretary has declared that theinternational safety regulators were too cautious, and I don’t know what the volcano and the weather have in mind, but it looks like Monte and I will be boarding a plane for home on Saturday, or at least there’s a very good chance of it. (It is impossible to say anything with certainty on this subject.) I suppose I should just be relieved, but I have to admit that I was beginning to warm to the prospect of an extended holiday and unanticipated travels; we had some pretty good schemes cooked up. Anyway, we’ll just have to see what comes to pass.

And I could go on and on about this whole bizarre volcanic ash situation...it certainly stirs up a lot of reflecting and philosophizing...but to tell you the truth, I’m sick of it.

I’d rather tell you about a Stone Age henge monument we went to today on a ridge near a town called Hartington in Derbyshire. It was constructed about 2500 B.C. and was an important ceremonial site during the Neolithic and early Bronze Age eras. It consists of 43 large stones arranged in a circle around a central setting of stones known as The Cove. There is also a Bronze Age burial mound at the site.

None of the stones of the henge are upright, and the theory is that people pushed them over during medieval times because they were fearful of the monument’s pagan and spiritual associations. But the place retains its power and mystery, and you can give it any name you like, it still feels somehow sacred.

There's nothing like a brush with ancient ancestors to help you forget the tangled jangle of the present.

Even if just for a moment or two...