I had a lightbulb moment last year, when I was trying to think of a Christmas present for Malcolm ....... knowing that he is interested in dry stone walls, I did a search and found this. It was a simple matter to buy a gift voucher, which meant he could choose which weekend to go. He sensibly decided to wait until now, in the hope that the weather would be good, and apart from a brief shower on Saturday morning, it stayed dry, but not too hot. It turned out that several of the other thirteen participants had also been given a voucher for Christmas! Their first job was to take apart a section of old wall - the piles of green are stinging nettles, which they had to clear
next, they graded the stone and laid it out in rows
then they started rebuilding the wall
this was Malcolm's section on the Saturday - he was working at the other end on Sunday
he was creaking a bit when he came back to the cottage on Saturday evening, so we headed to Bakewell, where we sat by the river and tucked into fish and chips
back at work on Sunday, the wall was taking shape
but it wasn't all hard work
Malcolm showing off his hard work
by the end of the afternoon, the coping stones were being put on top of the wall
the finished section of wall - hopefully it will still be there in a hundred years' time!
on Sunday evening we headed back to Bakewell, where we found a French restaurant for dinner
Malcolm had chicken fricasse
while I tucked in to boeuf Bourguignonne
I'll be back tomorrow to tell you what I got up to while Malcolm was building his wall, with photos of the stunning scenery ...... and I'll also tell you about these cows