20 Sep. - Uffington

Image: View from the horse at Uffington

Cotswold bound.

Yellow stone, soft round thatch, fresh-tilled fields, narrow roads in deep ditches, arching avenues of trees all shade + sun speckles, hedges trimmed or hedgerows thorny + specked red with fruit.

A stop in Pangbourne (the elephant!) for apples, local cheese + a quick stroll to the meadow - Thames-side, with toll bridge, lock + pleasure craft - all sun + sparkle + fresh-cut hay in great round bales.

Then Uffington! The horse so proud + white (fresh scoured) standing sentinel to the hill-fort - enclosed by ditch + mound - high on its chalk prominence with long sight to every quarter of land + sky.

The grasses - ever ruffled by the bird-lofting wind - what memories do they hide among their soil-crusted roots?

Notes: We deliberately sought this greatest of chalk horses, but the Iron Age hill-fort was an unexpected bonus.