Monday, June 26, 2006
So welcome friends and casual surfers.
So another year clock by and once again we gather on the Tor to welcome in the Solstice and to see if she wants to put in an appearance.
We renew old acquaintances, make new friendships, cast around, drum, drink, chill, and we wait for her…
Thought I’d attempt to share it with you…
‘jr its doc I’m @ parkway’ So Solstice begins ….
Pick doc up, set him up in the garden with a Pimms and test match special on long wave.
‘So, what do you reckon on the weather tomorrow morning ?’
‘Gonna be wet, the remnants of tropical storm Alberto is swinging through tonight.’
Check the barometer in the house and the histogram on my watch, and yep, their all ticking down. Check out the BBC weather site and the Met Office site for the synoptic – Yep there’s going to be a large front barrelling straight through Glastonbury this evening, looks like a classic north Atlantic low, but its travelling fast so it may clear by morning.
‘Doc, is that tent of yours waterproof ?’
‘Hope so, it cost enough !’
Pack my bags, load the car, head for Clifton to pick S up
pausing momentarily to pop in Jessops to pick up the velvia shots I took from the winter solstice 6 months ago.
Cross the suspension bridge and head South….
Incident free to Glastonbury (makes a change for the M5)
Drop Doc off at the camp site and check into Gorge and Pilgrims ( the 15th century coaching in on the high street)
Meet A&R in the bar and head round to Knights for a fish n chip supper (doc appears with a ear piece plugged in listening to the England game on 5 live, makes for ‘interesting’ conversation over food.
England win and the jingoistic melay continues, flags out all over the town (except on the town hall, which is flying the French tricolour – strange),
head to the GnP bar for a swift muscle relaxant before bed time
Check out the window before bed, the wind is howling through the high street and the signs hanging from the crystal shop front are going crazy – looks like the wind has backed and the veered pressures spiked up, and dropped back – here comes the rain !!
Wake up at 1.30, look out of the window, yep its stair rod’in down out their, best pack for the worst.
Wake S, grab our stuff and head down to meet AnR in the main thoroughfare
Were cheating this year, and taking the car to the foot of the Tor and walking up the hill from there. By the time we get there the rain’s mostly blown through and it’s a muggy and overcast night.
Start the climb up the trackway, look up lights are reflected off the tower with strange shadows with no discernable focus, we climb on, as we make the second turn we loose sight of the tower but the talking drums come into focus with their unhurried syncopated rhythm, just made for this place.
Lots of young zider cadets coming down, wish them a ‘happy solstice’ get some ‘and you too’s’ back and a series of blank chemically induced stares, with eyes the size of dish plates.
Climb on, as we approach the top, the focus of the lights being generated is being provided by a duo of fire breathers/jugglers.
Get to the top, breathless but successful in the ‘walk of the penitent man’, it may be a good sunrise this morning !!
I walk around the tower, past the fire breathers, there’s still rain in the air and people are huddling inside and around the tower. I make my away over to our usual spot – we come here year after year, you never no who’s gonna turn up, but you know someone will.
And find JnJ, TnT, Doc and Uncle Alan are already ensconced facing outwards where she will make an appearance.
Friends are greeted the with enthusiasm as they emerge out of the dark, some already stumbling from the mystical properties of zummerst champagne, some with the eyes like torches stimulated by more manufactured chemicals.
We chill and chat we wander around the plateau, the wind continues to whip through and is accompanied by the odd face of rain. Chocolate, booze and cake are passed around.
As if by magic the Sofa™ appears, in the company of Doc. After a 10year sojourn in Germany, he’s returned to these shores, older, wiser, but still intact – man its good to have him back and I’m made up he’s, made it up here from Kernow to be with us all this morning.
Time clocks by.
Its 4.30 am, its getting lighter and the dawn is fast approaching.
The local chief druid comes marching up the hill
He and his flock gather on the plateau behind the tower a circle is cast and opened for ‘working’
He stands in the centre, points his staff North.
‘Let there be peace in the North’ he cries
‘Let there be peace in the North the crowd echo’s’
‘Let there be peace in the East’
‘Let there be peace in the South;
‘Let there be peace in the West
‘Let there be peace all over the world’
Bread soaked in wine is passed around and the coming dawn is celebrated.
Even the local sheep get in on the act following the laylines towards the coming dawn.
Finally silence falls across the crowd, even the talking drums cease, and all faces turn towards the distant Mendip hills.
And we wait, and wait, will the front clear, will the clouds disperse.
Red and orange light licks the horizon, the low clouds becoming highlighted as if framed in an oil painting. And we wait …
And finally the guest of honour makes her diva appearance, as only she can ( and rightly so ..), clearing the horizon and dismissing the night.
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The clouds blow through, revealing a blue sky and warm vitamin S beams down on us in her morning glow.
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Happy New Year One And All
jonron
