The Village Of Ghosts

Imber Church.

Saturday afternoon and it is raining again, but quite warm. I just went outside to feed the birds and they had not eaten what I gave them yesterday, which was peanuts. I could not get suet pellets yesterday which they like. Bugger! If they don’t eat the peanuts, I’ll eat them myself.

When I got up this morning and was sitting in the kitchen, I could hear the sound of mortar bombs and artillery exploding in the distance. I am not joking, because on the outskirts of Westbury behind the White Horse is Salisbury Plain where there is a huge army firing range, so you can often hear shelling going on. There is a ghost village quite near here called Imber. During World War 11 all the villagers were told to evacuate the village at short notice, and they left, never to return to their homes. The village is now used for the army to practice house to house fighting and that sort of thing. The church of St Giles is still there, and generations of families are buried in the churchyard. Once or twice a year services are held in Imber church. The Ministry Of Defence still owns vast tracts of land on the plain which was acquired during the war and kept ever since. Although it is quite sad about what has happened, one bonus is that the land has become a wildlife sanctuary and some rare birds such as the Bustard have returned. There are lots of deer as well, which is where the deer who get into Westbury cemetery and eat the flowers probably originated from.

Talking about noise, when I went to the front door to pick up my post, I could hear two lorry drivers arguing outside, “Why don’t you look where you are going, you f+++++g dickhead”, and this sort of thing. I thought it was quite funny. You hear it all when you live on a main road..... The sound of Car Wheels On A Gravel Road by Lucinda Williams is filling my kitchen now. I haven’t played it for ages. What a great album it is. Nearly every song is a classic, Drunken Angel, Concrete And Barbed Wire, Lake Charles, Greenville and lots of others. If you like a country rock ballad sound, then I am sure you would love this album. 

My team Peterborough United aka The Posh are playing today. It is 0-0 at half time. I will let you know the result. If they win, I might treat myself to a drink tonight.

Me & Posh.

Addendum: Posh won 3-0 !!!!!!!!!! 2nd in the table now !