Due to the amount of rain we have had over the last week and that expected this afternoon today’s Quest to Otmoor (north of Oxford) had to be cancelled. Otmoor is a large, flat, low level area with a number of villages I have yet to visit, as the area floods easily I will go another day. With a band of heavy rain due through around 14:00 I intended to head out into the Vale again and be home before the rain arrived.
A is for Alpaca, that seems like a good theme for a Challenge in the new year, The Alphabet Challenge could be a 12 month one. These were seen in Gozzards Ford, west of Abingdon.Despite the imminent Covid19 financial meltdown, house construction in Kingston Bagpuize carries on apace. No, not directions to the fashionable area in London, this is just single track muddy lane. Unusually the sign has it’s county designation on the top.Evidence of the recent rains, good to see the large mixed flock of gulls.This is todays target, The Blowing Stone. Legend has it that this stone was used in the year 871 by Alfred The Great to summon his Saxon army to fight the Danes. Evidently if you have the skill a loud noise can be produced by blowing into any of many holes that perforate the stones surface.Bridge Cottage on the outskirts of Uffington.Back in the day these would have been Tied Cottages attached to the nearby Pewsey House.Really like this stand of trees near Hinton Waldrist. Sadly, this would be the last of the days photos as a few miles down the road the heavens opened and I got a thorough soaking, the rain coming through a couple hours before it was due. Apart from the rain I had another excellent trip out with another 50 miles added to the years’ tally.
Post Views:164
10 response to "A Ride to the Blowing Stone"
By: Rich-Illinois
Posted: October 28, 2020
So, did you try out the stone? Considering the pandemic, maybe not a good idea right now.
Alphabet Challenge, now that might be something to consider — that one could go over a 2 year period.
Nice photos, thanks!
I’m sure one must develop a very specialized embouchure to create a sound in the Blowing Stone loud enough to assemble an army. Perhaps nobody in the world has possessed such an embouchure since Alfred the Great. One thing is for sure: This paragraph contains the first three times I have used the word embouchure since I learned it in a classical music appreciation class as a college freshman. I can’t even believe my brain recalled the word as I read your legend about a guy blowing into a stone.
Wow – that is some impressive thatch on the Bridge House.
I like to think that somewhere around the year 1000, the property owner with the Blowing Stone was so tired of that blasted rock in his yard that he couldn’t move, that he made up the story about calling in armies. Over time, the story took on its own life and is now taken as fact. Or at least I’d like to think something like that was the humorous origin of the stone’s history.
Em, good to hear from you again, yes the thatch is impressive and an unusual shape.
Interesting theory for the Blowing Stone, I believe it is a perforated sarsen stone therefore not a local stone.
So, did you try out the stone? Considering the pandemic, maybe not a good idea right now.
Alphabet Challenge, now that might be something to consider — that one could go over a 2 year period.
Nice photos, thanks!
Rich, no I didn’t as all of the accessible ones were blind and full of water.
Ah, my dear Trans-Atlantic cousin Blowing! Haven’t seen him in years. The old boy has the same grumbly visage that runs throughout the Stone family.
Bill, I couldn’t possibly comment upon your family lineage.
I’m sure one must develop a very specialized embouchure to create a sound in the Blowing Stone loud enough to assemble an army. Perhaps nobody in the world has possessed such an embouchure since Alfred the Great. One thing is for sure: This paragraph contains the first three times I have used the word embouchure since I learned it in a classical music appreciation class as a college freshman. I can’t even believe my brain recalled the word as I read your legend about a guy blowing into a stone.
That’s one of the reasons he had the title The Great.
Not sure they covered that at Music 101 at Illinois State.
But now that I looked it up —- Ahm be Chure to remember what it means.
Good joke, Rich.
Wow – that is some impressive thatch on the Bridge House.
I like to think that somewhere around the year 1000, the property owner with the Blowing Stone was so tired of that blasted rock in his yard that he couldn’t move, that he made up the story about calling in armies. Over time, the story took on its own life and is now taken as fact. Or at least I’d like to think something like that was the humorous origin of the stone’s history.
Em, good to hear from you again, yes the thatch is impressive and an unusual shape.
Interesting theory for the Blowing Stone, I believe it is a perforated sarsen stone therefore not a local stone.