Okay, so herewith completed comments:
This is a link to a blog which has plenty of formation pictures, but I do not know if the Bray Hill one is there.
http://cropcirclereporter.wordpress.com/
I forgot to ask Olivier Morel, the leader of the small group ;(four Taiwanese who live and work in London, my daughter-in-law and I ... my son waited in the car as he is not at all interested in looking at some flattened wheat!!) for a link to the Bray Hill crop formation we saw, but have sent an e-mail to ask if he can supply one. He had a portfoloio of photostaken by himself. He has been involved for some years by the sound of it, knows the farmers and the microlight pilots etc. These last take people up for aerial views for about £50 per person. The cost to each of us for the day was £20, but that varies I think according to the programme for the day. From ground level, it is not possible to observe more than a few sections at a time of the whole pattern. It was well into a very large field with roads nearby, but not running alongside, except for the lane to reach the gate, which you'd have to know about.
It was a hot day, no wind, not even a breeze, and we walked along a track to the centre of the formation. Before leaving the cars and going into the field - where there was a 'donation box' for the farmer- Olivier was giving the background story to crop formations, in which he referred to the 'scientific' discoveries etc. This information he continued from the centre of the formation itself. The wheat (to be harveested any day now) had been neatly flattened , either in radial lines or parallel to the circumference of each circle. There are groups of smaller circles at intervals around the whole and most of these had a central group of stalks left standing.
There was another small group of visitors with a leader but otherwise it was really quiet and you'd have to listen hard to hear the traffic. In fact, we could hear a crackling sound - which was the grains popping from their outer skins we assumed. We had plenty of time to walk to as many of the areas of the shape as we liked. Some of the larger areas had part of the shape left standing which created a dark/light contrast in the aerial photo.
There was, however, absolutely nothing that was not most definitely man made! It was evident to Helen and me that, however complicated the pattern, they would be fairly straightforward for those with the practised skill and experience, along with the latest things, such as GPS, we surmise?
I had explained that I was a scepticbut did not try and spoil his stories, as he was using phrases such as 'there have been many experiments....', ' people think x and y might....' and was not being categorical. He had a charming French accent too!
It was to be a leisurely afternoon, proceeding to visit two other formations, but since from the photos we could see that this one was probably the best of the three, we opted to drop out at that point. Helen had, in fact, never walked around the Avebury stones, so we had a cup of tea at the café and then I sat on a handy stone while A and H looked at the Avebury circle.
Back to Salisbury then, and home on the train, arriving back just before 5:0 p.m. Olivier had anticipated finishing about that time, but that would have been too long.
I will probably do something similar next year, but do not anticipate any change in the 'atmosphere' in a formation. It was a most enjoyable day out. It is a commercial enterprise, I am sure. To convince me of other-worldly connections, I would have to see some overwhelming evidence of such mystery. One has to greatly admire the creative ability of the designers and equipment makers, the organisation and efficiency of the enterprise, the maintenance of secrecy by photographers, microlight pilots, publishers etc and not forgetting the farmers who are quoted as being really annoyed at having their fields messed about with, but for whom the financial compensation must make up for the relatively small percentage of crop lost by being flattened; particularly in this high-yielding year. Well, that's what I think, anyway!
I think I've covered everything. I'll add the link and a couple of photos of the day as soon as I can.
By the way, Tech Support sorted out the screen reader with a couple of clicks here and there this morning!
