formations, formations, formations
stunted crop at garsington
(from top):
All shots on this page were taken by CCN in August 2005 (wheat shots) or May 2006 (oilseed rape shots). Sorry the wheat images are a bit fuzzy; we;ll re-scan and enlarge them them at some point.
In early August 2005 we visited several formations which had appeared
that season in the vicinity of Garsington, Oxfordshire. Garsington
(and, to a lesser exent, neighbouring Toot Balden) has been a nexus of crop
circle activity since the 1990s, and each season sees at least a handful
of circles there. 2005 was the area's busiest year with seven formations
in all; one in rape (and a rape formation at Toot Balden), one in barley,
one in grass, and four in wheat. On visting a wheat formation which was originally discovered on 15th July 2005, we were somewhat perturbed to find areas of very ripe - though very stunted - crop in the same field.
Though the stems were much shorter than the surrounding crop, in some cases being little more than a few inches in height, they nonetheless had intact and ripe seedheads.
We're not suggesting that this had anything to do with the circle; it wasn't on a tramline that was touched by the formation, and since it is highly unlikely that the crop could have shrunk, the root cause (pun unintended) must have been from when the crop was still very young, causing the stem to stop growing yet allowing the seedhead to develop fully.
Nonetheless, we're still very intrigued, and if any of our readers of a more botanical bent can shed any light on what might have happened, please let us know.
Above: stunted. Directly below: the 2005 formation in the same field.
Below that: The 2006 'ghost'.
Update May 2007 (reporting on events from May 2006):
2006 was a quieter
year for Garsington, with only two circles, both towards the end of the season
in wheat and both - we suspect - technically in Toot Balden.We re-visited the area in May of that year, looking out for new circles, and were surprised to see a very prominent 'ghost' of the 2005 formation described above.
We weren't expecting it to be there, spotted it from a distance (photo right, taken with zoom lens) and treked to the field anticipating discovery of a new circle. On the way we encountered a shotgun-carrying farmer, at which point we got out our OS map and pretended to be lost and looking for a footpath. It turned out that said farmer didn't even own the land we were trespassing on and cheerfully pointed us in the right direction before fingering his beltful of ammo and heading in the opposite direction.
When we got to the field we were most put-out to discover that
it wasn't a new circle at all, just bald patches in a rape field (see photo
right). Then we set about looking at what was actually on the ground
in front of us. It wasn't a circle, but it was certainly something interesting.Clear circles, defining elements of the original formation, but a year on and in an entirely different crop.
Our personal suspicion is that it was nothing esoteric, and could perhaps be explained merely as the activities (or not) of a lazy farmer. Taking a close look at the ground, there were a great many cut but not picked-up wheat stems. Which suggested the field hadn't been ploughed properly, and stems which had been flattened in the original circle or by trampling visitors still lay in their same positions from the previous Summer and that the rape had merely been planted on top or amongst them and not grown due to their obscuring the light.
This picture (right) shows cut wheat stems which were thick on the ground
throughout this 'ghost'. Said stems are also clearly visible in the
picture above.We don't think there was a direct link between the anomalous crop we saw in this field in 2005, and the circle there, and the 2006 'ghost'. We see prosaic explanations for all these things but also see the synchronicity of 'the other'.