What a beautiful morning it has been, in fact the week looks set fair so this morning I went out and conquered the local mountain – Croft Hill. This makes it sound like a great achievement and I suppose on one level it is. However, it doesn’t even qualify as much of a hill apart from the fact that compared to the surrounding countryside it literally sticks out like a sore thumb.

Of course I also had a bit of a ulterior motive. The hills figures in my local history research as well as my long term photographic project “Deep Time”. Anyway, it was wonderful to be on top of the hill surveying the world around – however most of the hill has been consumed by one of the biggest holes in Leicestershire leaving just the rim. This is somewhat ironic as the rock that created the hill was first created in a huge volcano some 500 million years ago. If I had stood where I did then I would be in the middle of a magma chamber – not the best place to be.

However, this furtherest from my mind as I stood there on the hill above the birds. Instead I was thinking about how the hill used to be before the rock was removed. Then the hill was a common where people used graze their cattle and sheep. This will never be able to happen again because, well, most of the hill no longer exists.

Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk