Friday, August 12, 2011

The stone circle of life.



Here lurks the evidence of a stone of unknown size. Our pounding on it with a big pry bar didn't even budge it. It lay 'in weight' below the surface right in the middle of the circular area where we needed to begin the excavating for the foundation of the dry stone amphitheatre structure which we are planning to complete during the Rocktoberfest weekend at Hart House Farm, north-west of Toronto.

It looked like it was going to be a huge big boulder; impossible to dig out with the small backhoe we had arranged to have come excavate the curved area in the hill we needed for the footings of our stone walls and seats . Luckily when the machine began digging it was nowhere near as large as we imagined. Stones are more or less full of sizes.



The bucket scooped it up and flipped it off easily to the side.

It only needs to wait a short while longer now until we fit it within the structure of our new amphitheatre. There it will achieve its purpose and serve a structural function in the wall nestled with other stones close to the very spot it had been patiently waiting for perhaps thousands of years. These are but some of the capricious and frugal aspects of the dry stone 'circle of life' .