Beltane.
I'm a little bit of an ignoramus when it comes to pagan rites & ritual.
But when it comes to belief systems ones closer to nature are certainly closer to my own than the monotheistic ones that seem to cause the majority of the conflicts in the world.
So if you read this from a place of pagan knowledge please excuse my ignorance & feel free to correct me.
Something that struck me is the world is constantly in flux & change, be it seasonal, geological, natural or political.
So a belief system that has more understanding of such change &  embraces it is better than ones that try to control everything & everyone.
That is impossible.  It's doomed to fail.
The fact pre Christian pagan ritual still exists despite the efforts of many.  & the way Christianity has fixed its own ceremonies close to the timings of pagan ones.  Also that most of those pagan ritual has been handed down orally, not cast in stone or on scrolls adds to its strength in my humble opinion.

I was invited by a facebook friend to share the Beltane celebrations at Avebury in Wiltshire.
The beginning of summer.
The nights before where cold & frosty & it's certainly more like summer now a few days later.
Avebury is a quirky place.  The largest neolithic stone circle in Europe with a huge ditch dug around it with a beautiful old village & a busy road running through the middle .
The mix of believers, posh wealthy locals, & coachloads of tourists from all over the world made interesting viewing.  I wish I could overcome my own self conciousness that stops me from pointing my camera at others.

Wiltshire is a big open county with rolling hills & big skies.  Very different to my homeland & I was photographing the weather as much as I was the landscape.
Something that struck me was when away from traffic noise was the sound of skylarks.
I didn't expect to hear them in a agricultural landscape that is predominately industrial & chemical cereal lands.
It came as a pleasant surprise.
Onto the photos.

Close to Avebury is Silbury hill.
Ancient & man made & archaeologically fascinating.
My own ongoing project with my local skytip drew me to it.

A beautiful weekend despite two very badly behaved terriers that wanted to fight every other dog & each other.
Thank you Paula & Clare for sharing it with me.  
As always to view the images full size double click on the thumbs & left click view image.