peat spades 

Mayday weekend. Traditionally the time to head to the moor to cut your peat.

#RaptorPersecution 19th century style in the #peatlands. from ‘Raptor’ by @JMLockhart2 @4thEstateBooks 

Beltane Bannocks, traditional oatcakes baked on the new-kindled fire (cooling like slabs of peat drying on the moor).

Fire rituals have remained as part of the peatland culture up to and including modern times. On the first of May Beltane is celebrated. Cattle and people would pass through fire from winter croft to summer pasture on the way to the moorland sheilings. 

Lighting my peat fire with a taper of bog wood.

King David on the Dupplin Cross. Pictish, c. 820 A.D.

“I waited patiently for the Lord;/ he inclined to me and heard my cry./2 He drew me up from the pit of destruction,/ out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock,/ making my steps secure. 3 He put a new song in my mouth,/ a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.”

Psalm 40

Billy and peat hag, Wick. 

Cascade, Chateau de Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine.

 

Cloaca Maxima, Rome.

Cento Fontane, Villa d’Este, Tivoli