the wonder book of nature

I bought this beautiful book in an Alfreton charity shop for £2. From internet searches it seems to date from the 1920's. It's in bad condition, so carefully holding the spine together I leafed through and observed an odd compression in some of the pages. Noticing a hole on the outer spine, I opened the book wider and a pellet fell out! This book was shot! What tales? What circumstance? Such an invitation for the imagination.

Notice the white mark to the right of the eagle, where a very sticky price tag was placed. That was the least damage I could do to prise it off. One of my bugbears in charity shops is how old books are priced - impossibly sticky tables, the price handwritten in pencil pressed so hard it indents several pages... I'm grateful to the volunteers and understand they will not have my sensibilities, but oh my! 

dry stone walling weekend

While on the bus, while walking, my eyes search the dry stone walls running across the landscape, longing to understand their structure, the thinking behind placing one stone next to another, wondering if wallers have recognisable signatures within their stonework, the way an artist has a particular style.

In mid July I attended a Dry Stone Walling weekend at the National Stone Centre in Wirksworth. The group that gathered consisted of five women and two men and was led by Amanda, an experienced stone waller. 

It's tough work, the twists and turns of looking at and selecting stone requiring underused muscle and sinew - I ached in exquisite and particular way days after the course. Though I didn't feel strong enough for the work I enjoyed searching through and moving stone, attempting the puzzle of a wall. I enjoyed the logic and layers of walling, the names of the stone - footing, hearting, pin, coping stones. 

Going forward, I'm not quite ready for a Level 1 course but would like to find a small portion of collapsed wall and take time over sorting stones and reassembling the wall - alone, no time limit. Stone walling is time travel, back to the previous waller who handled each stone and found it's belonging, to the future waller who will hold these stones in 100, 200 years. An ancient offering in praise of a hands span, an arms reach, of being of this place, of necessity and beauty. The walls echo and whisper respectful human interaction with this land. 

 We used a mattock to clear the ground for the wall

 We selected coping stones from the stone pile - these top the wall

Mid sized stones for the wall

 Larger footing stones for the base of the wall, gaps packed with hearting stones

Missing through stones on our beginners construction!