Greetings from the beautiful south!

Well I'm no longer there, obviously, but whilst mooching round the New Forest on my summer holiday I came across this (see image below). A dry wood wall? A wooden dry stone wall? A dry stone wood wall? I'll leave you to decide what to call it, first one I've seen, wouldn't mind having a crack at one either!

Em

And the sun shines on the righteous ...

Wasn't sure whether to start with the sun shining on the righteous or something about fortune favouring the brave.  Well, at least it didn't rain on our new site up in Greenhow ... much.  To tell the truth, it absolutely bucketed down to begin with but, by the time we'd squelched around the site to size up the possibilities and had a cup of coffee, the rain miraculously ceased and we remained dry for the rest of the day ... in Greenhow!

Our new site is centred on a tiny miner's cottage called The Loanings.  Our host, Kev, is a waller himself, so no pressure there then.  Roger, Graham, Catriona and I completed a longish stint that Kev himself had started some time ago and between us we stripped out the next section.  This gave us a good opportunity to get used to the mixture of limestone and sandstone both of which are available on site.  Copes are, as usual, in short supply, but Kev gave us a good demonstration of ... how shall I put it? ... improvisation.

Commiserations to Phillip who never quite made it to site despite having driven all the way from Leeds.  Maybe we should get some of those little arrows on sticks printed with NAWG just like real contractors do.

I've told Kev we'll do 4-6 weeks up there, mainly because I suspect the weather will become increasingly inhospitable as the year progresses.  For now though, we can chalk one up to Greenhow.  See you next week?

Moving swiftly on ...

Barely had we got used to riding the swings and merry-go-round at Darley than it was time to move on again.  Four weeks was all it took to rebuild the rickety bits of the boundary wall and receive all manner of sage walling advice from passing dog-walkers.  'A good waller only picks up a stone once ....' etc. etc.

Thanks to Roger, Phillip, Graham, Richard and Catriona from all at the Darley Playing Fields Association who also made a generous donation at the end of the project.

This week we sought temporary refuge with Pete and Anita at the Bramhope Scout HQ.  Five of us helped move their walling project on a yard or two before we move on again next week to a new project at Greenhow.  Such busy lives!

Goodbye Sparrow Hawk; Hello Darley

Looking ever so slightly content with themselves, the merry band pose in front of a completed, bee-proof semi-circle of immaculate dry stone wall.  And it's goodbye Sparrow Hawk Farm.  I must admit I won't miss the slog up the hill but I will miss the cakes and pies.

And now on to Darley - a small rebuild project alongside a children's playground hosted by the local playing fields association.  The pictures tell the story - copes cemented on, wall settles, stones fall out etc. etc.  Two weeks there so far and the main stretch of wall is complete and coped.  Next week (8th August) we'll be tackling a stint outside the playground and then it's off to pastures new again.

And the next job is ...

This little beauty is about 4ft tall so it's all the kind of stone we're used to.  Sadly, it's in Cornwall so by the time we've met at 9:30, travelled down and had coffee it'll be time to come home again!  Shame!