On November 15th my pilot called me with the astonishing news that there was a crop circle near Manton House and Red Post Farm, north-west of Marlborough (roughly SU 164 704), close to where the Flower was this June.  This one is a variation on the classic dumbbell style of over fifteen years ago.  I was unable to fly right away because of poor weather, but the next day I borrowed a digital still camera and went to see the formation on the ground. 

  It’s in what appears to be barley which has been left for pheasants to eat during the winter (there are avenues cut in the field for hunters).  Although sparsely planted, the 150-foot formation is well defined.  It is a basic dumbbell with a ring around the smaller circle, and an outline encompassing the whole thing.  Finally there are a pair of grapeshot positioned symmetrically on either side of the bar, the other side of the outline. 

  When I stepped into the small circle I find the larger circle and bar.  As I walked toward it I was delighted to discover the two grapeshot, one with a tipi-like corn dolly in the middle.  Because the density of the crop is sparse the lay is very thin.  Much of it is also still green! 

  A week later the weather got good enough to fly.  (The spectacular psychedelic coloration in the aerial shots is the way the digital camera I borrowed exaggerated the actual colour.  I could have made it more natural with PhotoShop, but it’s so lovely that I chose to preserve the fantasy.)  Very close to the formation is a beautiful dew pond grown in with trees (not a round barrow as reported earlier).  The farmer has ploughed and planted around the dew pond, making it almost seem like part of the formation.  A friend pointed out that the early crop circles often appeared near water sources. 

  This modest crop formation beats the previous UK record for a cereal circle late in the year by about TWO months -- which I never would have thought possible. 

NOTE: Some suspicious researchers are accusing me of having made the formation -- I swear on my mother’s grave that I did not.  Some other people suspect that the pictures were taken earlier in the year and that I held them back to reveal them at this late date -- also a paranoid, incorrect assumption.