Parking the car up a bumpy lane, we got out and walked along the Ridgeway for a while. She said she was saving the best till last… and I would have been happy with the little wood she let me drag walk her through. I like woods. You never know what you might find. What we found was a steep bank and a deep ditch… and I should prob’ly apologise for forgetting she was on the other end of the leash when I bounded down and across it… She got herself up onto her feet again and I was pretty glad to see she wasn’t broken and was still laughing. It wasn’t far then before we reached Wayland’s Smithy.
They had been hoping to have the place to themselves, but there were loads of two-legses… big ones and tiny ones… and even another dog! Thankfully, though, they didn’t stay long. Most people don’t, she says. And then we could explore properly.
She doesn’t like getting lots of two-legses in her pictures of these old places, but you need to see just how big this thing is! Me, I’m the little black dot under the first big tree on the right… She said the mound covered a burial site and was a hundred and eighty five feet long… and had been around for a very long time.
About five and a half thousand years ago, she said, the people here had built a stone floor and a wooden house for the dead. One person was buried in there and then the bones of another fourteen people were buried with them. This house was covered in earth, then about a hundred years later, they built the new mound over it, enclosing it in a kerb of small standing stones. At the front of this new mound, there are chambers and a passageway guarded by huge standing stones. At least seven adults and one child were buried in the chambers… probably just the bones. Then she said something really worrying… She said we had to find Wayland and his consort… but that we could only see them if we were dead! I mean, I hadn’t pulled her in the ditch on purpose…
I was glad she explained a bit better! The legend is that you have to leave silver for Wayland and he will shoe your horse. Maybe, she said, that story wasn’t what it seemed… maybe by offering something of yourself, the Smith would help you continue your own inner journey. But we had to find him first. ‘Pparently, the mound would once have been a lot taller, and the backs of the stones would have been piled with earth, ‘visible’ only to the dead buried there and the seers who came to commune with the ancestors. When I had a look, I could see what she meant. The fronts of the stones were not all that interesting, but the backs were alive with faces, creatures and strange forms. And I could only see half their height from the back…
I had to go and look inside… though it isn’t about looking, at least, not with eyes. You can see stuff anywhere… even just pictures will tell you what things look like. You have to look with your other senses and listen with your heart. Then you start to understand what it is you are seeing. You touch the Long Memory… dogs understand, but a lot of two-legses don’t seem to remember. And that’s okay, as long as some do. So I went in quietly to pay my respects, then we all settled down to listen to the song of the stones.
And then, it was time to leave. I was a bit tired by then, but it had been a wonderful adventure! They took me home and then went to see my boy for a while before he had to go to the big two-legs vet. I was too tired even to eat for a while so I snuggled down on the sofa… until she brought her special blanket in from the car for washing. Then I snuggled down on that instead. She just shook her head and said, “Oh, Ani….” and smiled. I think she was tired too. It was a good day.
(Click the highlighted links to read more about this site)
Goodness. Ani, your enthusiasm knows no bounds. Leash means ‘walk’ not run. It wouldn’t do to break her. 😉
LikeLike
Exercise is good for her 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wayland’s Smithy is one of those places I keep meaning to visit, but I so rarely go south nowadays
LikeLike
It is well worth making the side trip… and there is a beautiful church near the White Horse pub in the village below.
LikeLiked by 1 person
worth keeping in mind 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Ani, Oh, you do see life…plenty of fresh air and exercise and no boring shlaaps through the local park with the ducks quacking at you. Give your two-legs an extra lick by way of thanks. Be good! Luv Joy xx
LikeLike
I do enjoy adventures when they take me out 🙂 xx
LikeLike
Ani , I am in awe of you dogs are so clever. Ruby sends her love 💜💜💜
LikeLike
I’m glad someone has noticed 😃 my love back to Ruby xxx
LikeLike
💜💜💜💜
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are certainly having some wonderful adventures Ani. You’re a lucky girl. And I get to enjoy your stories.
LikeLike
I’ve been missing having adventures this year.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m sure you have.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You do have some amazing adventures, Ani.
LikeLike
As often as they can take me 🙂
LikeLike
It’s always good to get a dog’s eye view, but do try to remember that /she/ can’t take you for walks if her leg’s in plaster. -hugs-
LikeLike
I don’t think I’d like that much… though she is currently all furry from trying to groom me and says no walk till she’s had a shower. If she’s open the gate, I could walk myself 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hmm…I wouldn’t go off on your own, Ani. My boy Kushie did that soon after we moved here and there were holes in the fence. A kind but annoying person picked him up and kept him overnight [while I was searching for him madly at midnight]. Then, this annoying person took my boy into the pound. I found him, but he wasn’t a happy chappie. So the moral of this story is stay home! -hugs-
LikeLike
Someone took me in too, when the wind blew the gates wide open one day, a long time ago. They were nice and spoiled me… but she was really worried. It’s a shame, ’cause I always wknow where I am…even if she doesn’t 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Awww….-hugs- Us two legs don’t have your keen sense of smell, Ani. Once we can’t see you we fear you’re gone for good. I’m very glad you got home again. 🙂
LikeLike
Yep… she was a bit of a wreck by the time she found me 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know exactly what she must have gone through. Be good and stay home, Ani. -hugs-
LikeLike
She’s got a bigger lock on the gate now 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
lol -cough- Oh, commiserations, Ani.
LikeLike
Where there’s a will… 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
-tries desperately hard not to laugh- Oh Ani!
LikeLike
😀 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
glad you had a good day; and glad she had a sense of humor about you pulling her to the ground while on the leash… 🙂
LikeLike
She says she is sort of used to it, these days 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ani, you are just too cute – “I went in quietly to pay my respects”. Adorable ❤
LikeLike
❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a wonderful day, Ani. I’m glad you didn’t really have to die to ‘see’.
LikeLike
So am I…but dogs are better equipped for than than many two-legses 😉
LikeLike
Aye, Ani, the two legs forget sometimes just how old dogs are and our connection to our wolf brothers. My two-legs Adele is now all excited babbling on about Wayland Smith and the Seelie courts. She gets excited a lot when things click in her head. Much paw love, Dante the Dawg. xxx
LikeLike
Mine squeaks. A lot. As if the things we dogs remember are brand new… ah well, we can only do our best to teach them 😉 xx
LikeLike