Beer, Devon - for the solstice

We planned this trip two full years ago after our last visit (see blog post from before).  We planned it for June 2020, but it actually happened in June 2021.  You know why.  Rather than using Premier Inns outside the village as before, this time we booked an cottage through Air BnB right in the middle of the village, just up a tiny lane beside the church.  "Up" is important here.  The word "precipice" sprang to mind when we saw it!  Beer is built on two sides of a steep valley.  It's what gives it its charm, of course, and from our sitting room we could see right across the valley over the main part of the village over to other main residential area (see left).

Beer's main claim to fame is its beach - not a sandy on, but peddles.  Tara was not struck by these but luckily they have reused conveyer belts to make matting for dogs (and people) to walk across the pebbles.  We took coffee some mornings and lunch too, sometimes.  Shortly before this photograph was taken, Tara had VERY nearly plucked a discourteous seagull out of the sky as it flew past a bit low, cheekily eyeing up our crab baguette and baked potato.  We are not sure if she would have known what to do with it had she caught it, but it certainly perked her (and the people around us) up, causing a small ripple of applause!

Not every day was warm sunshine.  The weather (as it seems to do just now) went from glorious sunshine which could get too hot at times, to perishingly cold, rainy and windy.  This photo, taken a couple of days before the one above, shows that it was "woolies weather" while two days before we were in shirtsleeves! 

Notwithstanding the cold weather, Tara enjoyed paddling in the outflow from the brook which flows through the village down its main street (see photos in our last Beer blog) and then just disappears into the pebbles at the beach.

Now we get to the more important part of this blog post and the main reason for coming to this rather nice place.  You'll remember from the last post about Beer - from back in 2018 - Lois' cousin, Mike Green, built himself a stone circle.  Not a toy one - a proper one that predicts eclipses and indicates solstices in the way that our stone age ancestors did it (see Green, M (2015). Eclipse Prediction in Stone-Age Britain. Twelve Acre Publishing - available via Lulu.com)  The intention was that we would do the business at the circle on 21st June and see the moment of the solstice sunset at about 21:30.  Well, 21st was pouring with rain, so we didn't go then but did go for a little picnic at Blackbury Camp, the site of a mediaeval fort. It was wet!

 

The 22nd was heavily overcast so although we went up to the circle and had wine and nibbles, there was no sign of the sun!  23rd was a bit better and we managed to see the sun.   Here are a couple bits of (poor quality) video that show the circle from the air (we got a drone but didn't take the trouble to learn to use it properly!) ...

 ... and the moment of sunset on 23rd June - still within the solstice date "envelope" ...

 

And here are some stills:

This was about five minutes before sunset.  The circle is in the foreground and the sun behind it.  This isn't lined up with the keystone and the solstice stone.  The video shows these better.

Again, here is the scene a few minutes before sunset.  This one is lined up, although you can't really tell that because to do it properly, you have to stand in a hole with your eye lined up with a notch on one of the stones, looking at the sun and another stone in the circle!