2021 so far...walling alone due to lockdown...again!

... and it has been a very wet and very cold winter which seems to have been the norm over the last few years!

Made getting to work impossible for several days.

20m of Limestone field wall near Parwich

Work has been constrained and re-ordered due to lockdown and weather. However, nights are getting lighter the snowdrops are appearing, buds are starting to sprout tiny leaves and the woodpecker is hammering furiously to attract a mate...and this waller is sloshing around in mud building walls!

Enjoyed this job near Kirk Ireton...when from a delivered pile of rough stone emerges a gateway...4 cheek ends, 2 curves and a load of hand made copestones! Deeply satisfying...

The finished gateway...

2019 - 2020 - A year not to be forgotten!

What a year 2020 has been...A year of working alone, not meeting with colleagues, no shows, no teaching and a number of jobs lost. Still, I consider myself blessed to have a job where I can be outside, not needing to worry about commuting or having to wear a face mask!

In 2019 I finished 250m of a wall in Kirk Ireton which has become known as Emma's wall to friends and neighbours who walked past on a daily basis to observe progress. It was almost a 4 season wall!

Finished!

2019 A group of wallers from the Derbyshire Branch of the DSWA spent 5 days on Orkney building a wall for a community. It was a memorable experience for us all and left a beautiful curved seat.

2019 Two operations on my hands slowed me down towards the end of the year!

Extending and rebuilding a wall encompassing a wheel as a feature

One of my most favourite walls to date in The Brund, a 60m retaining wall, all dry stone. A beautiful setting which I worked on during the fabulous weather of the first lockdown 2020.

Returned to a job to finally put the tops on completing a lovely garden wall project

Hello 2019!

Where has the time gone?
All of a sudden its January 2019 I'm layered up in thermals, my once hot drink is turning to ice as it sits in a cup as I build ... and those hot days of summer where I was getting to work for 5.30am to avoid the heat seem so far away!
It has been a very busy few months of non stop walling moving from limestone to sandstone and back again.
A couple of insurance jobs...a couple of 'quick-my-wall-has-fallen-down' type jobs some garden landscaping work and now mid winter a very long stretch of field walling to do.
So looking back since August here's a little of what I have been up to...

44m uphill, sandstone wall which had to curve around trees...quote a challenge as the trees were in the wall!

A quick day gapping at Snitterton with lovely limestone

Gorgeous early morning winter sun on part of my 255m near Kirk Ireton

uh-oh...winter has arrived!

Ancient walls

Been rebuilding 100m of ancient walls around the lead mining areas in Middleton by Wirksworth. Fascinating as we think some of these walls are pre enclosure because they are vertical. This could be late 1600s or early 1700s. It would appear that some of these have never been built looking at the condition of the stone in the middle of the wall. It's fascinating to wonder who may have built these, what their life was like, and so on.

Rebuilt limestone field walls

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!