A recent posting of mine mentioned 'ribbons of stone'.Here's what Nick Aitken kindly sent by way of some added thoughts on the subject.
"Near here is an old drystone wall which originally marked the boundary between two counties.
The wall is a tool of land management built by men who followed a line drawn by desk-bound planners, using the available material in the most efficient way to achieve a stockproof fence.
The style of build changes with the topography and the geology and leaves a story recorded in stone, very like a tape recorder which stores information on a plastic ribbon covered in finely crushed and processed stone dust.
It's only a difference of scale - once you learn how to replay the recording."
Thank you Nick for that analogy. Isn't it interesting too that no one uses 'tape recorders' or reels and reels of magnetic tape anymore. They have become past history. Walls, however, (-those ribbons of stone) for the most part have remained part of 'present' history.
