Curved Wall by Chris Barclay

This curve beside a greenhouse is part of a garden being landscaped by Christopher William Barclay. A shape like this is quite tricky to achieve as much of it has to be done by eye. Using strings tends to result in angles appearing instead of a smooth surface.

Next entry shows the hardship which workers sometimes have to endure  working further North in Canada.

Kissing gates

The top picture was sent to me by Sean Adcock it shows a brilliant use of Welsh slate to create a Kissing gate.The second photo is another gate

close to my home town, a  Victorian Kissing gate. It must be quite a long time since it was used and sadly most of  the stone from the original adjoining walls has been removed. However there is a crop of modern houses nearby and some of them have very attractive rockeries. Probably where some of the rocks went. Recycling is much preferable to dumping.
The entry on 28th April is a curved wall built by Chris Barclay.

Stone Money

Rai stones are large circular stone disks (coins if you like) carved out of limestone with a large hole in the middle they may weigh up to several tons. They were used by Yap islanders in Micronesia for social transactions such as marriage, inheritance, political deals, sign of an alliance, ransom of the battle dead or just in exchange for food. The value of the stone was based not just on their size and craftsmanship but also on their history. On one occasion a stone, being transported by canoe, was dropped into the sea it was never recovered but everyone assumed that it was still there so it continued to be circulated. With the introduction of Iron tools in the 19th century a form of inflation set in and the stones became of less value. The attached images are open source from Wikipedia so you can find more information there. Thanks to Chris Haddow for bringing these very interesting items to my attention.

The entry on 25th March is a kissing gate.

More from Danny Woodward

This photo shows another example of the way Danny combines steps with walls using a mixture of coursing and strong uprights. I really like this type of landscaping and look forward to seeing the same area later when the planting is complete. For molre information about Danny's work contact him on nonservum@hotmail.com 
The entry on18th March shows amazing "coins" .

An old problem with trees

I have recently had to do a repair on a farm near home. A couple of hundred years ago a line of trees were planted, close to, but at the time seemingly far enough away from the wall not to do any damage. Nowadays that estates do not want to chop down beautiful mature trees I often have to deal with the long term result. This involves bridging large roots and sometimes putting in a lintel to give the tree freedom to grow for another fifty years or so.
The entry on 17th March will be another example from the work of Danny Woodward.

Danny Woodward

This is a fine example of the effect that Danny Woodward can achieve with his dry stone work. I have the  feeling looking at this photo that the steps are flowing peacefully from the walls.

Another Australian Wall

This photo of a cleverly built wall was sent to me by Duncan Haddow . He saw it when visiting a park in  Queensland. This is well done with what looks like very irregular blocks of rock. Takes considerable skill to end up with a neat wallend and a flat top using this type of material.

Walls in Australia.

This wall was photographed by my son Duncan. He saw it in the Botanical Gardens in Sydney. I know that Geoff Duggan, a mastercraftsman with the Dry Stone Walling Association of GB,  works there and assume that this shows his influence.
More walls from Australia on 7th March.