Avebury and Barbury Castle

Avebury: standing stones and the popular Red Lion pub on edge of the village

We spent the weekend with friends in Wiltshire and amongst other places visited Avebury and its standing stones as well as Barbury Castle, an Iron Age hilltop fort near Swindon. 

 Start of the walk up to the fort

The inner and outer rings of the fort (above and below)

The inner ring on the southern side   

The photographer's feet and shadow

Views northwards from the Castle 

CRM and Chris 

CRM and the sky

Wild life – a black beetle 

 More wild life: a couple of decorative snails (above and below)

The Black Sheep of the party

The Castle, trees and rape field in distance

Decanter deadlines – dont' miss them!

 Two former contributors of Decanter....

Around half way through the Sancerre tasting this morning we became aware of a small group of snails in the bijou vineyard that is sited just outside the Decanter  magazine's tasting room at the Blue Fin building, home of IPC. The tasting room has a spectacular view over the Tate Modern towards St Paul's Cathedral with the Gherkin etc. off to the right. But to return to the snails...

It is well known in the industry that Decanter are strict about the importance of their contributors meeting their deadlines. After spotting the small troupe of snails there was speculation that we would be enjoying snails for lunch once the hard work of tasting had been completed. However, it soon became clear that there was a darker story here. We learned that at least two of the troupe of snails are former contributors to Decanter who were endemically late in providing their copy. In an attempt to encourager les autres they have been transmogrified in a decidedly Kafkaesque fashion into a pair of escargots!

Now which two distinguished Decanter contributors are no longer seen...!