If Walls Could Talk

Recently I have been lucky enough to be involved with a film about dry stone walls. A local filmmaker (Roland Keates - www.transfigurephotography.co.uk )has made a beautiful and fascinating film due to be launched this spring.

or click on the link below

https://youtu.be/M39EsdI-KAk

Snow stops play

First winter where I have missed days due to snow....I used to love snow...

Trees and walls do not get on!

There are very good reasons not to plant trees near walls. 

The following photos show a wall with holly trees and others planted way to close. The roots grow into the wall and as the wind blows and trees move...well, you know what will happen.

Can't cut these out so they stay under the wall

Where possible I can bridge roots to allow for growth

What a beautiful land

What a beautiful part of the world we live in...here on a hillside above Parwich with over 100m of wall ahead of us. The views are terrific and over the last few weeks we have watched buzzards, wrens robes and fieldfares visit us. We have seen hot air balloons, helicopters and even a spitfire fly over us.

At any point when I straighten up and stretch my aching joints I can look all around and see the green fields and white limestone walls stretching away into the distance. What joy!

The worst thing in walling is...

People often comment that a cold winter must be the worst thing in walling....Not so, and until recently I'd have said that actually it was driving rain.
However over the last few weeks Trevor and I have been working on the beautiful Staffordshire moorlands and have discovered something far worse...
Midges!!!

and no, even this didn't work, even with every inch of skin showing, slathered in repellant....

Features

Here are some lovely features Trevor and I have been putting in garden walls this summer

A wall we have just finished where we repositioned and reset the name of the property and put in a postbox. (Trevor built the front of this wall)

Chatsworth

Just returned from a lovely weekend at Chatsworth Show with our local branch of the DSWA (Dry Stone Walling Association) DDSWA

It's a great meeting of Derbyshire wallers of all abilities from beginners to master craftsmen, professionals to amateurs and hobby wallers.

We always build a new feature which stays in situ for a year. This year we built a straight wall of around 7-8m with a wheel, cantilevered seats, hog holes or sheep creeps and other small niches.

It's also a great opportunity to promote walling and the beginners courses that we run throughout the year.