There's wet, and then there's ..... a sinking feeling

OK, bad idea but it had to be worth a try.  Sunny periods and showers, said the Met Office.  Yeah, right.

It rained as we were driving over; it rained as we were unloading the kit; it rained as we slithered into our waterproofs; and it carried on raining as we trudged to the wall.  Then it stopped long enough for us to view the puddles along the finished wall and the blackness of the mud where we stripped out on our last visit.

Nothing daunted, Phillip, Roger, Tony, Richard and I set about demolishing the next stretch of wall.  Squelch, slither, slosh in the primeval slime as we attempted to set new foundations - tricky when the base is under water.  It had by now rained again and the downpour (shower?) intensified as we stopped for coffee.  Now you can rain on me, blow at me and bury me in snow but don't ... don't ever ... dilute my morning cuppa coffee.

A quick show of soggy hands and there was unanimity.  Sod it!  Let's go home.  So we did!

Welcome, by the way to the guys and gals of the NCV.  Happy to share a blogspot with you and to keep an eye on what you're all up to.  I'll be writing up the more slanderous version of what Tony and Ros got up to in Bryan's Wood as soon as I have consulted my lawyers!

Normal Service Resumed at Greenhow

OK, so blogs are a little sparse at the moment and just to enhance their scarcity value I'm going to roll three into one this week.

This week (26th September) has been declared a washout after two days of horrendous rain.  Last week was boggy enough despite Phillip's gallant attempts to lay down brushwood walkways and I suspect that today there would be standing water where we'd be standing and slithering.  We don't cancel often so I hope evryone is comfortable with the decision.

Last week saw an excellent turnout (11 brave souls at my count) in OK-ish weather conditions -chilly but dry and good progress was made with the second and third stints.  We've decided to tackle one more stretch before bidding farewell to Greenhow for the winter.

On 12th September the group offered one of its twice-yearly taster days on behalf of the AONB.  Numbers have been a bit disappointing of late but, given the kind of weather we were 'blessed' with, it was frankly amazing that two people were brave/daft enough to join us, as were 8 members who rallied to the call for help with the taster day.  Thanks everyone and particular thanks to David and Catherine for tasting some pretty wet conditions at Greenhow.  We hope you enjoyed yourselves and that you'll join us again sometime.

For those of you keen to see more photographic evidence of the group at work, Richard the Elder has loaded 101 (!) snapshots on to DropBox (eh?) at https://www.dropbox.com/home/Drystone#!/home/Drystone. 

Next week, we can all blog about what we did with our day off. Second thought; maybe not!

Freak weather strikes Greenhow!

The pictures (thanks to Richard and Tony) tell the story of last week's walling session, the most amazing feature of which was the weather ... bright sunshine ... on Greenhow.

In preparation for the AONB taster day, six of the team stripped out the next stretch of wall, laid foundations and completed the first course along the whole stint.  This will give our 'tasters' a level playing field to get them started - the muddy, heavy bit having been taken care of in advance.  Who says we're not nice people?



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!