Hunting Land Update

Good thing I got my working sessions up north in before I went overseas.  Now that we are well into the hot weather season it would be much less fun.

Some things have not worked out.  I've written on several occasions on The Bean Project, whereby I'd take pounds of surplus Navy, Black and Pinto beans and turn them into huge feed lots for the plumpification of next year's venison harvest.

The results were underwhelming.  I planted hundreds of them in shallow scrapes and just tossed handfuls off into open areas.  Most just vanished.  Although in one area where we had turned the soil over well last year they are fighting it out with the thistles....

Also, I had plans to put in a rudimentary "facility".  Well, an outhouse if you must know.  As mostly guy users there is no problem with stepping outside and watering the nearest tree, but on infrequent occasions more dedicated facilities could be useful.  Staying over night in the one humble structure already on the site could make those evening and sunrise hunts much easier.

Alas, there are pesky rules and regulations on such matters.  Specifications.  Soil inspections.  Fees to pay.  A permit.  Sigh.

Such are the puny efforts of man.  Or at least of this man.  But nature continues on without much notice of said efforts.  It was a mild winter and game populations seem to be robust.  A couple of recent trail cam pictures....

Awww....

And, oh my....

A New Species Caught!

We'll get back to this guy in a minute....

It was a warm early summer day.  Fathers and sons fishing.  Specifically, bank fishing for odd fish.  I wore my Wisconsin's Least Glamorous Fish T shirt for the occasion, and sure enough the first one up was a Freshwater Drum, featured on same.

I'd only every caught one of these before.  I quadrupled my tally in a couple of hours.  In fact that was all we were catching until we moved to another spot.  Then a Golden Redhorse showed up.  I asked this youngster to try and imitate the dopy horse like face of the fish.  He's just too darn cute to pull it off.

My goal for the day was to catch a Mooneye.  It's an odd one, a fish that mostly lives in the top few inches of water.  They spend all day making little ripples on the surface to taunt me.  Eventually I did reel one in.  Here's my attempt at a Mooneye Face.  I know, not much different from my usual look.

A very lazy day.  Kids ran around and looked at rocks, dug holes in the sand, basically were just kids being kids.  Dads watched the bank poles.  The can by the way contained soda.  The area does seem popular with folks who "party fish" in the night time hours, if old campfires and the occasional beer can can be taken in evidence.

I believe my life time list of freshwater species stands at 41.  And I have some extra time and nightcrawlers this week, so might go out in search of another particularly tough one.....the Northern Hogsucker!

Mostly for my own records, here's my freshwater fish list.  Yes, the salmon can be fresh or salt water.  

Northern Pike, Musky, Walleye, Sauger, Large and Smallmouth bass, Black crappie, Bluegill, Pumpkinseed, Green Sunfish, White Sucker, Common Carp, Black and Yellow Bullheads, Golden, Shorthead and Silver Redhorse.  Pink, Sockeye, King and Silver Salmon.  Rock Bass, Yellow Perch, Smallmouth Buffalo, Lake Sturgeon, Channel Catfish, Creek Chub, Horney Head Chub, Common Shiner, Freshwater Drum, Round Goby.  Brook, Rainbow and Brown Trout.  Dolly Varden, Mooneye, Log Perch.  Dogfish (aka Bowfin), Lake Trout, Short Nosed Gar, Silver Carp,   (41)  I've also caught a few minnows and some sort of sculpin that I don't have enough evidence to identify.

My salt water list is shorter, and obviously harder to add onto.  I think its around 9.

Food and Drink Reviews - Northumbria 2026

Well, at least the small part of Northumbria that I've gotten to know well.  These suggestions might come in handy for folks walking or otherwise visiting Hadrian's Wall.  No Star ratings or major negatives, just my observations.  Each of these places could make for a good experience.

Going from East to West.....

1. Carts Bog Inn.  This is way off the beaten path, down to the south of Haydon Bridge.  It's been an inn since the 1770's.  It got its start, and its name, because carts loaded with ore went down this lonely road...and got stuck in a low spot.  The drivers needed a place to collect themselves, perhaps waiting for the equivalent of a tow truck. I'd been wanting to visit the spot for years, and finally managed it in May.  It did not disappoint.

The place has retired greyhounds snoozing on cushions.  Lots of campy artwork, much of it also dog related.

Really good food.  I recommend the Bog Pie.  It's a concoction of steak and mushrooms, and it was so tasty it even made mushrooms edible.  I hate mushrooms.  Another of our party had lamb shank, also good.

Two minor caveats.  Only open a couple days a week, and a small place.  So call for reservations.

And the beer selection was so-so on our visit.  One tap seemed to be "out".  They probably do better most nights, it is after all said to be on the location of a brewery from the 1500s!

2. The Bowes Hotel.  My home away from home in the UK.  Convenient as a place to stay, as there are bus and rail connections right outside the door.  A brisk walk up to Vindolanda if someone shows you the sneaky path!*  But for food and drink purposes.....  I recommend the Cumbrian sausage with mash, and any of the curry dishes they rotate through.  The owner's wife is from Thailand, when she's in the kitchen dial your spice request down a notch!  For drink I favor Reiver, an ale made about 10 miles to the north.  

3. The Twice Brewed Inn.  Right on the Military Road and just down the hill from the Hadrian's Wall waling path.  So, great location.  When I started going there it was a humble, funky kind of place.  I like such places.  Now it has gone upscale.  They have their own brewery on site, whose wares I recommend.  They have fun stuff like night time stargazing.  The outdoor gazebo seating areas are nice on a warm day.  I have not had the food there in times recent, but its probably pretty good.  This place is big enough that reservations might not be essential, but are appreciated.   Located exactly in the middle of the Hadrian's Wall Path this spot will always be enjoyed by hungry/thirsty walkers.  

4. The Milecastle.  A long time favorite, this is one of the first places we visited when walking Hadrian's Wall Path.  It's a small place, so reservations needed.  Very good pies, which of course in the UK will not be apple and lemon meringue sort of stuff.**  Nope, steak, poacher's pie, kidney, that sort of thing.  The place is no doubt popular with my digger pals due to the proximity of Roman stuff which gives it its name.  Supposedly in business since the 1600's, although its not just Roman buildings that come and go.  They seem to have a mobile pizza operation that I saw set up this summer, but I did not have a chance to sample this new venture.

5. The Black Bull.  Moving just a bit further west and south to the delightfully named Haltwhistle there is a little pub on the back side of the main square.  It is what I call a Time Warp establishment.  By that I mean it looks and feels just like the pubs you see on Brit TV when they are depicting the 1950s.  The owner is ex military.  He can be a bit brusque, but switched gears immediately when he noted some "ink" on one of our excavators who was a former British Army sergeant.  I've never had food there, but they serve it intermittently.  But I very much enjoy the atmosphere and the ale.  I suggest Tim Taylor Landlord, although it makes me think of Tim the Tool Man from the old Home Improvements show.  He'd find a lot to "fix up" in this ancient building.

There are lots of other food and drink options as you go here and there in the Hadrian's Wall country.  Some appear and disappear, as is the rule in the hospitality industry.  

Of course your enjoyment of a place will depend on the pleasure of the company you are with...and how badly you need sustenance and perhaps to get in out of the rain.  The above list covers quite a few places along the "best" central portion of the Hadrian's Wall Path, but I have not included entire categories, such as tea rooms.

I don't much care for tea and tearooms, but such places will often have sandwiches and so forth.  Off the top of my head I can recall places at Chollerford and Greenhead, plus the in house establishments at the "attractions" of Vindolanda, the Roman Army Museum, Housesteads and Birdoswald.  There also appear to be various "Honesty Stands" along the walking path where a much needed can of soda could be acquired on the rare days when hot sun is overhead in Northumbria....

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* The owner of The Bowes is happy to arrange pick up and drop off services for guests.

**In the UK "pie" is a rather generic category.  For desserts most everything is called a "pudding", although confusingly things like Yorkshire pudding are really what we'd call pop overs.  Sticky toffee pudding with custard is recommended highly.  I think all the above places could manage a good one.

England 2026 - A Poison Garden

Here's another in the series of "Digger's Day Out" jaunts.  Alnwick Gardens.

These are adjacent to Alnwick Castle, which would also be worth your while.  Among other things it was used as a filming location for Downton Abbey.  Also Harry Potter.  They offer special Broomstick Class on the open square where young Potter first learned to fly a Quiddich broom.

In both cases the pronunciation is "Ann-ick".  Not to be confused with a spot near Hexham that is spelled Annick but pronounced differently.  You get used to this after a few visits to the area.

Now I'll say up front that neither the Castle nor the Garden are a cheap day out.  You have to go into this as we did, with the knowledge that your travel dollars (or whatever currency) are helping to maintain something wonderous and worthwhile.  OK, on to the Gardens....

The centerpiece is this grand array of fountains and waterfalls.  It's the sort of thing that you really can't capture with a photo.  But here it is from the bottom looking up:

And from the top looking down. The structure you see on the end is a nice restaurant/garden center complex.  Very dog friendly by the way, albeit with ongoing discussions between dogs and the small groups of ducks that waddle around begging for scraps.

Every now and then the fountains fire up and do interesting things.

The garden proper has all sorts of plants.  Early in the season not all are at their best, but enough were that the gardener types in our group were impressed.  Me, I was just as happy to wander through the hedge maze and find a naughty monkey sculpture...

We all have our particular interests I suppose.

There were some side trips adjacent to the Garden that we did not visit.  For a small extra fee you can visit an area called Lilidorei.  This seems to be a gigantic play area for kids with a sort of fantasy theme and what claims to be the world's biggest play structure.  

If I had grandkids in tow it would be a tempting option.  For the kids of course.....

But we spent a small additional amount of money for something else, the Poison Garden tour.

I won't give you the entire itinerary and talk, that would not be fair to the very clever staff they have doing this 20 minute or so stroll through a special section of the Garden.  But essentially they have collected a batch of famous poisonous plants in one place.  Famous of course as they have been used in assorted real and fictitious murders, all of which are described in slightly tidied up form.

Rather fun.  After the talk was done I did chat a bit with the guide, letting her know I was a former ER doctor (or A and E in their parlance).  I knew a bit about several of these plants, especially the ones that have/had medical uses.  Small amounts of foxglove, good.  Large amounts, skull n' crossbones territory...

Our authoress was not in the group that visited Alnwick.  But to be sure, we subsequently had another of our Plot Idea chats.  What if a series of poisonings happened, and after a while it became evident that someone had taken the Poison Garden tour and was going down the row using each poison for a different crime????

Meanwhile, in the general category of "name yer poison" our friend who is an aficionado of such things discovered that the gift shop sold a Poison Garden Gin!

I'm sure this will merit a place of pride in her "gin closet".  I have on occasion teased her that it is more like a "gin annex".  Or should I say, "gin Alnwicks"?

Things I'm Doing This Summer - Baseball

I have my priorities.  This summer ranking high on the list are ball games.  The grandkids are on, respectively, softball, baseball league and baseball traveling teams.  And the youngest will be doing some sort of T ball when school is out in a few days.  

Not all games are well played.  The weather is not always idyllic.  But when things are perfect, well, there's nothing better.

The bench.

A new puppy, sunk into comatose sleep after hyperactive play with kids.

The parent and grandparent chair array.  We follow each other from game to game, from year to year, from sport to sport.

When my son was the age my grandson is now, I coached him on a traveling baseball team.  I was a good coach.  My son is better.

With Father's Day near, what better sentiments than: "I did my best.  It was pretty good.  You turned out great and will now do your best.  Your kid will turn out excellent."

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Addendum.  At last report my grandson's two teams - regular league and traveling team - are both undefeated.  The latter just won their second straight tournament when our lad came on in the last inning with the tying run on base.....and put away the batter with three straight strikes.  It's good to be focused and well coached.  It's also good to be left handed.

Digger's Day Out, Continued.

So how do you follow up on a visit to an honest to goodness Plague Village?

For us the next stop was bizarre antiquities.  There is an antiques centre in Morpeth that has some seriously weird stuff on display.  

I suppose your mileage may vary, but I never get enough of Bad Taxidermy.

This place had lots of it.

Bad Taxidermy is a favorite of mine on travels because I can realistically never buy any of it and ship it home.  I mean, how would you even explain a fully dressed mule deer?  And where did they get one in England???

An interesting side light to that question.  Small taxidermy is much more expensive than big stuff.

I really want a wild boar's head for the wall of my cabin.  I can't explain it, I just do.  They are much cheaper than little weasels and stoats decked out in silly little weasel hats.   Probably because of the "how do I pack it?" question.  And, lets be honest, the "what will my wife say" question.

More odd stuff:

And this really surprised me.  My English friends are appalled by the private ownership of firearms.  There are even laws against knives in the UK.  So when you go to the antiques center what do you find?  Cases full of bayonets and "Deactivated" submachine guns!

Across the street was a park area for which I had high hopes.  Why, there was a "Floral Clock"!

Alas, not planted yet.

And a statue commemorating EmilyWilding Davison, a Suffragette from Morpeth whose advocacy proved fatal.  She jumped out in front of a race horse - it happened to belong to the King - apparently hoping to throw a banner around its neck.  She got clobbered and subsequently died.  From what I can tell she was a bit of a nutter, also involved in a series of bombings.  I guess in a worthy cause you can still do some damned foolish things....

Aldi has a Sense of Humor?

Apparently they do.  Parody mugs featuring variations on their logo are pretty common.  Here's one we picked up at the Hexham Car Boot Sale:

And there are others...

When over in the UK I did a quick google search for others in this genre and came across a few with dubious taste.  "Alkie" for instance.  And also, well, one I really would like to show ya but it does not appear on any searches on this side of the Atlantic.  I guess you'll just have to imagine an image of Arnold Schwartzenegger in his most iconic, sunglasses wearing role, promising that 

"Aldi Back"

To their credit the Aldi company takes a very relaxed stance on any parody products that can't plausibly be confused with grocery items.  It's likely that whoever owns the IP for The Terminator sees things a little differently.....

England 2026 - Odd Pots

In the UK I stay at The Bowes in Bardon Mill.  Great pub, and a brisk but relaxing walk up to the excavation site every morning.  The first leg of the journey takes me right through a pottery yard, specifically that of Errington Reay and Company.  

They make most of the stuff, specializing in salt glaze pottery.  Other items come from elsewhere.  And every year I have to survey the goods - in some cases as they survey me - and ponder....

The garden gnomes are rather cheery.  I really like the pottery "Wellies" back behind them.

The rabbits on the other hand look conspiratorial.  The hillside back behind the place is a bunny paradise, on a post pint walk at dusk we counted nearly fifty.

At opposite ends of the yard there were two objects d' art that have to have come from the same place.  Although the herd of elephants is studiously looking down at their feet, this young lady seems to be shedding her jeans and her heavy sweater with abandon.  I did not turn her around, although decency might suggest doing so.  Did she have a tramp stamp/slag tag stamped into the glaze of her lower back?

Hey, not gonna judge.  But I do prefer this alternate version...

It just seems classier.  You can see her face, and she's looking resolutely upward.

Maybe the artist was going for something here.  Rising above adversity?  Growth and maturing?  The goddess Aphrodite emerging from the swirling seas?

Or maybe she's just trying to get out of a really big sweater....

FIRST Robotics - The 2026 Season in Review

Something cobbled together for the team's annual banquet.  Appropriately, for Team 5826, this was held on 5/8/26.  I missed it, being in flight for England where in any case it would have been 8/5/26 which would not have done at all.  8526 by the way is the number of a defunct team down in Texas that only managed one season of competition.

On to new challenges, and another major team rebuild.  You always have mixed feelings about graduating a batch of outstanding kids.  Darn they turned out well.  Darn we're gonna miss 'em.  And so the cycle repeats.

Vindolanda 2026 - Uphill and Down

When I retired at 60 it was with the notion that I'd do any darn thing I wanted for a decade, then slow down a bit.  It was a solid plan, and has mostly worked out.  Of course Covid swiped roughly two of those years, so I'm considering extending the "no limits" phase of my retirement years by a bit.  Of course, you need to do the occasional reality check.

I don't drive in the UK.  And when I go excavate at Vindolanda the local accommodations are finite.  My preferred home base is The Bowes at Bardon Mill.  It is down in the valley.  The fort of Vindolanda was, logically for a defended place, built on a hill.  

The linear distance is 1.5 miles for my morning walk, 2 miles for the evening return.  I am in no rush in the afternoon, and prefer to avoid the up and down trek that my shorter, morning walk requires.  The total end point elevation difference between start and finish is about 450 feet, but for the AM commute, its up and down a series of hills.  I figure it is closer to twice that once you factor in giving back elevation with those down hill stretches.  But is is a pleasant walk, and I do arrive on site warmed up and ready to haul barrows for the day.   Here's a few highlights of the forty minute trek.

Other than, I suppose, tipping over entirely the biggest risk  is right here.  There is a very busy motorway that crosses my route, and the only way to avoid it would be an unacceptably long detour that actually would add another 500 feet or so of total elevation to the expedition.   

So every morning and every evening I dash across it.

The mornings are the tricky crossings.  I'm on a time table, and there can be mist and such.  So I've added a blaze orange hat to my travel bag.  I wear it only for the Commute, once on site I switch to the hat bearing the image of my Spirit Animal, Bucky Badger.

With careful observation I'm always able to make the crossing without drama, but a year or two back an American volunteer on site made the mistake of looking the wrong way and did get injured.  He's back on site this season I was pleased to learn....

The next segment of the walk features these guys.  Despite the ominous clouds, their dark faces and curly horns, this is no big deal.  A simple "scram" gets them out of my way.  On the return circuit I walk through a pasture with cows, they can be a bit more difficult.

More critters.  About two thirds of the way up there is a single modest stone house.  No idea what the folks there do, but they have a new Jaguar parked at the end of a road far more suited to sheep.  They had a pesky old dog that has been barking at me for years.  This year there is also a young pup barking at me.  I bring along a few dog biscuits from the communal stash at The Bowes.

Eventually I glimpse Vindolanda off in the distance.  Alas, I have to "give back" about 200 feet of elevation as I go downhill and then up again to get to it....

The return trip is as mentioned, longer but more leisurely.  With a wider swing to the west I can avoid the ups and downs.  I usually walk it with my friend Pete who stays over that way.  Delightfully, given my nickname of Badger, there are badger dens along the way.  Oh, and the promise of a pint at journey's end.

Nothing like digging about in stuff nearly two thousand years old to give you a sense of time.  Many others have walked these paths before me.  Many others will do so after I'm gone.  But for now, Old Dogs and Young Pups are still afoot, and there's biscuits for both.....

Old dogs on tea and biscuit break.

Vindolanda 2026 - Last Day

Here's the delayed Last Day report from my excavating at Vindolanda.  The final day is always very busy.  There are areas to be tidied up for the end of session drone photos, and the last 45 minutes or so are a highly informative "trench talk" where you go from one end of the dig to another and see what each small team has been accomplishing.  Compliments are handed out liberally.  The lead archaeologist would make a superb blarney dispensing small town politician.

Here's the site from the drone's eye view at the beginning of my hitch:

And at the end:

OK, it's hard to see the difference from this perspective.  It looks much different when you are hunched over a trowel for two weeks!  But here's a video that describes in detail what was accomplished in my session (Period 4) and the preceding one.

Marta does a very good job with these.  And yes, I do appear in the background towards the end.  I'm telling the lead archaeologist that we've done as much as possible in the room we'd been in for the better part of a week (my specific words were: "We've put a liberal amount of lipstick on this pig") and you'll see me heading over to a new assignment in the Centurion's apartment.  Which really did look darn good at end of session.

Here's the Period Four crew in end of dig pose.  I really should remember to strike a more impressive stance for these, my belly is more prominent than it was when I started excavating at Vindolanda 18 years ago....

England 2026 - Plague Village

When I excavate at Vindolanda there is that pesky in between weekend where they require us to put down the tools and rest.  It is usually the occasion for our little band to do some sort of interesting road trips.  This year the Saturday road trip started here:

Welcome to Throckrington.  The ancient church and an adjacent farm is everything that is above ground.  It is a plague village, a community of the dead.

Evidently it used to be a thriving place.  But in 1847 a sailor returned home....with cholera.  There were so many deaths that the village was abandoned, its structures burned to the ground.  Today it is a wind swept, lonely place.

Some of the tombstones make me think it may have been a bit peculiar even back in the day.

And....

If you squint through the lichens it says:

In Memory of ISABLE Wife of 

JACOB COOK, who died

May the 11th 1814 aged 75 years

Also JACOB COOK who died on 

the 9th of March 1817, in the 78 year of his age

For more than fifty years he was

deeply acquainted with experimental

relegion.  He lived a holy and an use

ful life, and died a happy and triumph

ant Death.  

(It does go on to list various other members of the Cook family, squeezing some grand kids in right down at the hard to read bottom edge).

Another notable burial in the place is Lord Beveridge.  At first glance I thought it was Lord Beverage, which would be interesting. I might have been thinking of a later stop on our itinerary.

Lord Beveridge of Tuggal is a pretty recent addition to the graveyard.  He is said to be one of the architects of the modern British welfare state.  I'd say he was lucky to have gotten into hallowed ground, as he described himself as a "materialistic agnostic", and dabbled in Eugenics.  He also - along with Albert Einstein - was part of a People's World Convention that post war was proposing to draft a Constitution for the Federation of Earth.  Rather Trekky.....

It was a busy Saturday, and I'll have to save the strange antiques market and Mad Sufferegette for another day.  But we ended it in style, with a visit to the brewery and tap room of the First and Last Brewery.  They make the Best Bitter that I enjoyed frequently at The Bowes.  Mmmmm for now all I can do is remember a pint of Reiver after a dusty day of digging.....

Vindolanda 2026 - Day Ten and Last

Sun and good spirits across the site on the last day of the session.  Report on Day 10 and on various ancillary matters will have to wait a few days. 

Shower-Curry-Pints-Sleep-Auto-Plane-Plane-Shuttle-Car that hopefully starts-Bed......

Oh, and I'll try to explain this guy.

 

Vindolanda 2026 - Day Nine

Rain shortened day.  This will happen in England.  Annoyingly after the day was "called" the skies cleared and it was rather nice.  Sigh.

I started the day back in the Centurion's apartment.  It had been a tedious bit of floor cleaning the day before so I was angling for a reassignment but was sent back for more exposing and polishing of cobbles.  Fair enough, I am actually quite good at this.

My karmic reward was a coin.  Now, I am not allowed to show any metal finds of consequence.  And so I shan't.  But I don't see that there is any prohibition against noting that the Romans often put on the reverse of their coins an image of a goddess holding a staff.  Sort of like this example which was NOT found on site!

Interestingly the recording of small finds is done differently this year.  In times past the finder of something fun would be given a special marked pole and one of the archaeology team would record the find with something like a surveyors device called a Total Station.   It was fun, you held that staff up in victory even though it was not your picture being taken.  Nowadays there is a GPS based device and it is generally held by one of the assistants.  I think the similarity to the above coin image is rather interesting....

Last day tomorrow.   Sigh.

Vindolanda 2026 - Day Eight

The days are winding down....

Current place I'm excavating is the apartment of the centurion.  His room was always the largest and always at the end of the barracks block.  Here's an overview.  I know, making surfaces look interesting in a photo is a challenge.

The very observant among you might note that the floor is not buckled and bowed like the other barracks rooms.  In addition to quite probably better maintenance, it seems likely that the earlier wall that "broke the back" of the other rooms is not present at this end of the building.

Various small things turned up.  Not all that exciting.

Lumpy iron thing.  Probably a nail, but outside chance of it being a low grade "bow brooch".  It goes in the general finds bag with the pottery, glass, bones, and, yes, nails.  Let post ex figure it out.

This one I had figured out right away.

It is an iron ring...with a rust stained stone stuck in the middle.  Use? Ah, who knows.

And lacking knowledge I can have a little fun with speculation.

One of the ladies digging the same trench is from New Zealand.  In the course of chatting I learned that she had a side gig as an extra in movies filmed over there.  Of which there are many.

In one production she wore pointy ears and was part of a fantasy genre.  She had signed an NDA and so could not tell me which one. * But it got me to thinking......

Hmm, hobbit sized person.  Comes from as close to Middle Earth as you can get on this planet.  And I find a mysterious Ring.  Knowing that The One Ring can change sizes based on its wearer it is probably for the best that there was a stone wedged in there.  Otherwise I supposed I would by now be turning dark and hissing about "MY PRECIOUSSS...."

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* she showed me a photo of herself in full makeup and costume.  At which point I asked if I would have to watch the execrable Rings of Power series on Amazon to see her.  Thankfully, no.

Vindolanda 2026 - Day Seven

Wally World.

 Spent a good part of the day chasing a wall.  

The barracks room we were in was constructed circa 213 AD.  On top of a different barracks from 50 years earlier.  Presumably nobody on the later construction crew had any idea what was underneath, so things were plotted out nice and neat....and then started sinking into earlier ditches, pits and assorted features.  Here's an example of what can happen:

Yes, this is a wall.  Or rather the top of one.

It dates to the Antonine stone fort, so lets say 140's or 150's.  It looks like junk at this level but I'm told is actually pretty nice down another foot or so.

What we had to work with was without question an annoying bump in the floor to the guys who lived in this barracks room in later years.  And I mean lots of later years.  After the 213 build was completed the space was occupied through the end of the Roman era in the early 400's, and to some extent on into the Dark Ages.  So, a couple hundred years of slumping floors, patching and replacing floor levels.  And through it all the big ridge right down the center of the room was just....there...

You can actually see evidence of this buried wall all up and down the length of the barracks block....

As viewed from the next barracks room over, you can see where the later wall has had its back "broken" where subsidence has happened on either side of the presumably solid wall beneath.

That's a bit more "feature" talk than many will find of interest.  So here's a sight from my morning walk up to the site.  It's about forty minutes of up and down hills.  At one point I go past a riding stable.  I'm becoming friends with the horses who continue to expect me to produce an apple or carrot out of my pocket some day.  I like the zebra style horse coat....

The Romans actually knew about zebras.  They called them Hippotigris, which means horse-tiger. Once in a while a live specimen would be brought back from the coast of East Africa.  They were rare novelties that were occasionally seen pulling chariots in the circus or being dispatched in the Colosseum.