More Water Under The Bridge

The relaxing sound of water accompanies this short slideshow of photos of Kay's Bridge taken by John MacLeod around March 11th 2011 after a couple days of rain. The water flows freely under this dry stone bridge which we built last October at the DSWAC Rocktoberfest event held in Landon Bay Park near Gananoque Ontario.

We first visited this Canada Parks Biosphere property over a year ago to see about building a dry stone bridge there for our four-day international dry stone walling festival and coincidently that day the creek level was at the highest John had ever seen it.

John showed us the place where he thought a bridge would look good and I took a few pictures.

The sound and sight of the rushing water was quite spectacular.

Later that week I took some time and did this preliminary rendering of what a bridge might look like there, to use in promotional material to advertise the special October bridge building event. I just went back in my files and found this picture and am pleased to see that it's not that far off what it actually ended up looking like. The volume of water in both pictures is about the same.

Maybe the rails on the drawing are not the same and the arch is not as flat as the one we ended up building but everything else is pretty much water under the bridge.

It's all water under the bridge.

Was thinking today with my hands about what a lot of work it is to build a dry stone bridge. Here is an amazing picture of the beautiful bridge DSWA Mastercraftsman Norman Haddow built in Scotland about ten years ago. The burn (Scottish word for creek) is in flood and actually going around the bridge, yet it stands firm and unmoving 6 years later. The fact that it is not made of solid concrete and can let some water through it must contribute to its strength against the force of the water.

I thought too of the amount of time and effort and stone that went into building Cornish Hollow Bridge, a small roman arch dry stone bridge which DSWAC members constructed in July of 2007 north of Cobourg Ontario. This bridge was the second one we built after having Norman Haddow come here from Scotland and teach us about bridge construction at Hill and Dale B&B in Port Hope Ontario where ten members of the DSWAC built a six foot span dry stone packhorse bridge. Leigh Bamford and I were involved in both bridge projects.

We used up over 40 tons of stone in the building of Cornish Hollow bridge which had a whopping 12 foot span. That's a lot material. In comparison, however I was considering the amount of water that has gone under it since the day it was built over four years ago.

This represents a huge volume, as you can see the bridge is actually built in a flood plane and sometimes in spring run off water has to go around it as well. And yet even with it having had so much water go under it , if were it to fall down, even in say, the next fifty years, that wouldn't have been enough water, would it ? The life time of the bridge would still have been too short for the volume of water that the builders expected would flow under it. The bridge would not be considered to have been a success either.

Even though the bridge may have done a great job and allowed water to flow unobstructed and unnoticed, it would still not be enough water to not make a big thing about it 'not lasting'.

I think that it is fair to say however that concerning bridges, if we were going to use an expression like 'that's all water under the bridge' we should be referring to a long enough lapse of time (relative to the normal lifetime of a properly built bridge, perhaps) so that certain things we have done or said in the past that we were hoping to merely 'dismiss', reflects an understanding of just how much time and water we are talking about.

Twelve stones high

I recently received an update from Brian Wood about the completed workshop wall that Andy Geekie worked on in Yorkshire, an event which Andy wrote about and I posted on Thinking With My Hands last Thursday. Very interestingly this dry stone wall that was built by students in a public place as a permanent feature. Here is the article that Brian, of the Yorkshire Dry Stone Walling Guild, sent.

- This wall was built in April/May 2010 as a rather different training exercise by a 40 strong team combining tutors and members of the Yorkshire Dry Stone Walling Guild, with student groups attending three dedicated training courses. One student, a member of the Dry Stone Walling Association (Canada), came as a part of his UK holiday. The job was commissioned to enclose a new plant sales area at the Visitor Centre to the World Heritage site of Fountains Abbey near Ripon, Yorkshire.

The finished wall is 23 metres long and stands 1.82 metres high from base to top. Built in the traditional Yorkshire manner with projecting through stones, it contains about 60 tonnes of newly quarried sandstone supplied from Ravensworth Sandstone Quarry near Scotch Corner. The task took ten days and some 500 man hours to complete.

A small detail not visible in the photographs is a built in duct under the wall to carry rainwater from the building roof to a future water harvesting tank in the amphitheatre depression outside the wall. This feature had to be bridged, as can be seen, in the early phases of the construction for safety reasons and to help with the problem of reduced access height on that side. It was removed as soon as the wall had advanced beyond, it actually made access to the wall rather limited as well.

The National Trust’s structural engineer was concerned that the excavations for the footings seemed inadequate, simply prepared as is usual for a dry stone wall. We reassured him that this method has served such walls satisfactorily for centuries and also calculated the ground loading at the base of the wall. It was remarkably low with a figure of about 2.5 pounds per square foot; about the same as that exerted by a 12 stone man on his feet!!

There were then no further concerns and the project proceeded with his blessing.-

Hands On Inspection of an Arch and Walls Without Mortarboard or Scaffolding

Akira Inman is a stone mason in Toronto who came to our Rocktober Festival in Grand Valley in 2009 , and then through having met with Thomas Lipps (who we sponsored to be there) was invited to be a translator in Ventura last January, for the Japanese stone masons who came over for the Stone Symposium in California, and were demonstrating the ancient Anoh tradition of dry stone construction.

While there, he and I worked together and I invited him to do some projects with us including the wall repairs at Balsam Lake Ontario we just recently completed. During the week he worked with us I invited him to see this arch. He hung on with his 'hands' and took a closer look at this permanent arch I had built some years ago with Cam Reed, a homeowner who wanted to help and learn too about arches. (not so that he could then go and build them all over Ontario, but just so that he could say he helped build his one)

Anyway Akira told me the arch looked pretty cool and that it probably wasnt going to fall down.

For those of you who would like to learn a bit more about arches, I include a very good description of the 'former' centering used in bridge and arch construction written (and sent to me recently) by my friend Norman Haddow (a dry stone bridge builder, and yes you'll be relieved to know, a certified master craftsman waller with the DSWA of UK)

The Former

Prior to the 20th Century, the support for a new arch was called centering. The arrangement was similar to the technology involved in the construction of a wheel. Another method used for smaller arches was to pile sand on a wooden platform to create the desired shape for the stonework above. It was quite simple then to remove the loose sand when building was complete.

Nowadays it is much more common to cut the required shape on at least two boards then to cover these with strong cross pieces or with bendable strong materials such as marine ply. It is essential that the former of whatever type is strong enough to bear the weight of not just the arch rocks but also any material which will be built on top before the former is removed. Any area of weakness can result in failure.

The support for the former should be resting on a solid base. Bricks or blocks are ideal for the support as they can be easily knocked away when required.

Care is necessary when arranging these support so that the former can safely be dropped down to allow its removal, without interfering with the stone work. I have heard of people being required to set fire to the former to remove it as it was not possible to get it out any other way!

With a half moon former it is possible and useful when placing the arch stones to mark lines on the outside to indicate the required slope of the builders and especially the risers.

When the desired arch is not a half circle, the lines should be drawn from the theoretical centre.

Experienced First, Second and Third Hand.

Today we waved good bye to Cumbria and the great congregation of dry stone walls circumscribing many of the farm fields in Great Langdale.

This has been 'hands-down', the best holiday we have had in a long time. I feel very privileged.

Unless you come from this place or have visited here, you might not understand what the overwhelming attraction of dry stone walls actually is. For me, experiencing again such a diversity and density of dry stone structures 'first hand' has recharged my batteries and made me determine afresh that, one way or another, my Canada should include stone walls.

Walking is definitely the way to see the Lake District. Everyone walks. Unlike Canada, where to go for a walk in the countryside, you often have to make your way along straight, dusty concession roads with cars and trucks constantly whizzing by, the meandering British footpaths by contrast make everything more accessible and hiking so enjoyable. It helps that the whole country has been designed (as if by by some uber-landscaper) on a pleasingly human scale. Even though everything is so much closer together, people walk not just to get somewhere, but as an end in itself. I think of the lyrics to the James Taylor song which affirms, "It's enough to be on your way," and realize that it is more than enough when you are surrounded by such beauty. Yes, there is the exercise you get, and many interesting things to see and talk about along the way, and then there are all the historic points of interest to get to, but essentially it is just the 'perambulation' that is the real attraction. Perhaps Ambleside in Cumbria was actually named in recognition of its pleasing accessibility by foot.

I try to imagine this Cumbrian landscape without the walls. Yes, it would still be dramatic and beautiful, but there would be an essential ingredient missing. The walls delineate and give perspective to a vista, otherwise inaccessible to those who pass this way once or twice, and would still require a lifetime to absorb if you lived here. Walls give proportion and scale to everything. These ribbons of stone draw our eyes across the hills and allow us to cover a greater area than we could ever reach by foot. In the same way as having our dog run ahead and splash through water we would never run through ourselves and flush out the birds and sniff out things off in the distance we might never have noticed, the walls act as a kind of extension of our being. They provide a kind of OBE. (out of body experience); not just part of the scenery but a geographical extension our hands and feet.

There is a kind of 'second-hand experience' contained in this Cumbrian landscape. We don't have to touch it 'first-hand' but merely let ourselves reflect on it from a distance. For those who slowly grasp how far these walls extend and the amount of work involved, a kind of affinity is established with the landscape. We join with others who have lived and worked and walked here in a collective appreciation for the intensity of labour that went into humanizing the environment, without destroying it, as so often can happen.

Is there a 'third-hand' experience here too? Like some sort of 'all-feeling' all-seeing third eye?

I can't dismiss the feeling that my hands have been given eyes to see beyond what is here.

There is a sense of getting 'in touch' again with something important, which so often is merely interesting, or perhaps monumental at best, There is a feeling of having passed this way before and somehow having gained wisdom.

The tradition of stone has been established here which sanctifies the vernacular. We find ourselves on a continuous pilgrimage pondering again and again the lingering, almost spiritual significance of a country of walls built by common people. This flowing tapestry of stone walls perhaps will never be understood.

Pointing 'Along' the Wall- No Pointing 'In' It!

Along with seven other people and myself, Martyn Leaver participated in a walling weekend at Cleabarrow farm near Windermere on the second weekend of March. The three hundred plus acres of rolling farmland owned for many years by the Scott family (who are related to Captain Scott who led the famous expedition to Antarctica ) is criss crossed with seventeen and a half miles of free standing dry stone walls, some of them quite tall. The farm and the walls were built in the early 1600s. Martyn who is a professional waller and a member of the DSWA of UK single handedly maintains these walls and over the years has repaired many of the sections where time has begun to take its toll.
He is seen here standing in front of a large section 'pointing' to the rest of the 250 feet of wall he has recently completely rebuilt. All the stones which are mostly mill gritstone including the large through-stones and heavier cams were lifted by 'hand' into place, using milk crates to stand on.
Martyn lives with his family in Kendal in Cumbria which is part of the lake district. He told me he enjoys working with his hands. His interests include restoring old boats, shooting the longbow and rock climbing. He spends every other weekend doing volunteer walling with other members of the DSWA repairing many of the walls in the area.
Martyn has a private business, Leaver Stonework and Paving, and explained to me that he does mortared work and cement 'pointing' as well as dry stone work. Like many other waller/masons Martyn admits that he loves building free-standing walls and prefers it far more to having to work with cement or doing flatwork. This preference seems to be the acid test amongst stoneworkers in Canada as well as Britain. To work with stone structurally, without adhesives or cements is far more satisfying and is considered a craft rather than a just a job. Martyn talked about hoping to visit us in Canada in the future to help 'lend a hand' and further strenghten ties between the DSWA Canada and the many wallers in Britain.

Restless Hands

On the outside my hands may look inactive and merely in my pockets 'waiting around', so to speak, but on the inside they are busy fixing the 'gap' in this old dry stone wall. They can hardly hold back from doing it. There have been several other times this week where I have wanted to stop along a Lake District hiking trail and repair parts of a wall.

There is an expression used for a certain kind of activity where someone does something positive or constructive for strangers without any reward, and for no particular reason. It's called a 'Random Act of Kindness'. Ive read about it and even seen bumper stickers encouraging this sort of thing. I think any wall that is in need of a little bit of repair could use this sort of thing.
It occurs to me that leaving a community with a newly repaired wall is kind of a 'random stack of kindness' The DSWA here in Britain makes a point of doing this sort of thing all the time. Volunteers go out and fix walls for the day, purely out of an appreciation for them and a desire to see them not all disappear from the British landscape.

I think of this as a type of "contra-vandalism". It is a way of us getting back at the chaos, destruction, meaningless and yes often bureaucratic red tape surrounding our lives. Its a way of doing something structural, beautiful and uplifting in our community without having to always jump through a myriad of administrative hoops to get it approved.

In fact, I'd like to be part of a guerrilla squad of dry stone wallers who take it even further, not just repairing walls (as we have so few of those in Canada) but build whole new walls and nice stone benches and small sections of old-looking dry stone gardens and beautiful enclosed areas of stone, all done covertly by an efficient group of volunteers during the night, and leave these stone 'features' to be 'discovered' the next day. Hopefully people would be happy to have something as wonderful as a natural stone wall to walk by . No doubt they would appreciate the added character to their park. In this way the dreary public places people pass by every day could be gradually transformed.

Or would they all have to be taken down? I wonder.

My hands are getting restless just thinking about it.

Hand of a Professional

Master-craftsman and chief examiner for the DSWA of UK, Andy Louden, took us on an all day tour of some interesting dry stone walls and bridges in a very remote part of the Lake District yesterday. Andy explains (with his hands) that his favorite stone to work with is this irregular volcanic stone ( seen in this picture) found in the walls throughout the area we walked through, near Wasdale, Cumbria. The stones are quite small and slightly rounded and few of them have any length at all. These are not easy stones to work with and the walls have no through-stones and generally no caps. The slate stone found in many of the other parts of Great and Little Langdale provide a much better selection for wall building. Nevertheless these walls are both beautiful and obviously structural as they have survived the test of time. Many of the walls are much wider than necessary and reminded me of the consumption walls found in parts of New England. The corners of the walled fields broaden out into great stockpiles, made up of all the extra stones that have long ago been cleared off the land.

At the end of the day we stopped into Andy's Local pub for a drink and met with John Aitkinson of the National Trust and learned more about the training session Andy is going to be teaching coming up later this month, which will be run for several of the National Trust trail workers including our good friend Gavin Rose.

Handling Things Together

Last week we were repairing an old wall at Cleabarrow farm near Windermere. Martyn, Joe, Pat and Tony, all members of the DSWA of UK carried this heavy lintel stone over to the new opening we had created in the stone wall. They placed it over the opening to finish the top section of 'hog hole' we were building. Everyone had different 'skill levels' but the job got done smoothly and efficiently.

Handling a big stone requires that everybody works together. If one person lifts too much, someone else will end having to work harder to compensate for the imbalance, while another's efforts to help lift may become redundant. It is important to share the load equally. Cooperation involves not so much duplicating or copying what others do, but finding where there is both a place and opportunity to support the weight, and then simply fitting in. Each hand has a unique responsibility to balance the load without tipping up everyone else. There is danger of hurting someone if there isn't communication. There is danger of hands or people getting crushed if someone lets his end down (or lifts it too high) without telling people. Deferring to oneanother helps too. This isn't the place for hands to show off or compete or insist that they are more officially qualified. This isn't the place for too many hands either, no matter how good their intentions.

Hand Delivery

DSWA secretary Alison Shaw met with her Canadian counterpart Mary Harris in the lounge of the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel to discuss new DSWA books and dry stone literature that we will be taking back to Canada to make available at our 2010 walling events. Alison has done a great job for the DSWA for some time now and has ran a very tight ship for them. We have been able to order a lot of very good dry stone literature from her over the last 8 years of our association. This time the walling books will be 'hand- delivered'.

Along with professional waller George Eddington and National Trust trail builder Gavin Rose, dry stone artist Andy Loudon also joined us for a social drink. Discussions turned to differing walling techniques and career opportunities in Britain and Canada.

Andy shared some interesting asides about working with well-known artist Andy Goldsworthy on the Tilberthwaithe Sheepfold.

Alison tells us the DSWA is gearing up to host the 12th International Congress on Dry Stone Walling September 4-6 in Ambleside Cumbria. This year's theme will be 'Dry Stone Walls as part of the Cultural Landscape'

Ambleside is a beautiful town right in the middle of Cumbria and has many dry stone walls.

We walked Ambleside today and posted this from Esquires, a Starbucks like coffee shop with a view overlooking all the old slate stone buildings.

Bridge Hands

It was about 8 years ago that I saw my first dry stone bridge. My friend and colleague Norman Haddow took me to see this bridge which he had built using local stone in what seemed like quite a remote part of Scotland. It was based on the bridge at Glenn Lion which he had visited with his family many times as a boy. He had built this bridge barely two years before he showed me it and yet it looked as old as the hills.

I had a bit of an epiphany when I saw it. I couldn't remember ever seeing anything built of stone that looked so right, so beautiful, and so structural. I was pretty sure that we didn't have any bridges like it anywhere in Canada and yet it was plain to see as far as adding character it would be a wonderful thing to introduce into the Canadian garden landscapes.

A year later and with Norman's help we organized the first DSWAC 'pack horse' dry stone bridge building workshop in Canada. A handful of enthusiastic stone aficionados signed up for the course and together tried their 'hand' at building a bridge in Port Hope, Ontario at the first Canadian Dry Stone Wall Festival. Norman was a fantastic teacher.The footbridge we built and the whole idea of the festival too was a tremendous success.

The rest is history. Five Canadian bridges later and another one planned for this October at our 'Rocktoberfest' in Gananoque, Ontario (which Norman will be attending again, as he has done for the last seven years) we have now returned to Britain to tour the Lake District visiting the many beautiful stone bridges that can be found all through this part of the country.

I am particularly fascinated with one in little Langdale called Slater's Bridge, made of, you guessed it, slate. It has a very uneven walking surface consisting of the rounded-down well-worn tops of the long slate voussoirs. It has an unusual rugged look created by even longer voussoirs forming what may have been the original handrail posts which have since been replaced with metal ones. I suspect it was the bridge the quarry men used every day when they went to and from the local quarry.

Ironically they don't build dry stone bridges here anymore in the Lake District. They build new ones and replace the old stone bridges using wood or metal. This is a great shame because so much of the countryside and architecture here has been maintained and preserved so well. Perhaps we can bring dry stone bridge building back to this part of the world some day, like reintroducing some endangered species to its native habitat.

A dry stone bridge perhaps represents all that is good in this craft. Where the idea of someone 'putting up walls' can sometimes have a negative connotation, the analogy that is suggested by describing someone as a 'builder of bridges' is a very positive one. Of the people I have worked with on stone projects, those who have worked on bridges with me have demonstrated a fairly unique strength of character. While a person might build a 'wall' out of selfish or guarded motives, a bridge by definition requires a cooperative and accommodating nature. If a waller loves his craft and he is good at it, and more importantly, has integrity, then he will have no trouble making and maintaining 'bridges' in all areas of his life.

Hand-in-hand

We have been in Cumbria in the Lake District for 4 days now and I really have to 'hand' it to the weather. It has been unseasonably warm and sunny and so perfect for hiking along the scenic trails that lead up and down the hills and around the lakes that it may not leave us opportunity to justify visiting any indoor 'places of interest' at all. Even if there were no dry stone walls crisscrossing the countryside, this area of Britain remains a superbly beautiful place combining spectacular scenery, Victorian gardens, rugged slate stone buildings, and bridges .

The dry stone walls just add another dimension which turns everything into a fairy tale. It is almost impossible to take it all in. The miles and miles of walls that can be seen in every direction leaves one breathless, even for those who find that walking up and down the steep slopes, doesn't.

Can hands be breathless? Can the 'thinking hand' take it all in? Not without 'letting it out' too. Perhaps with pen in hand someone will attempt to describe it afresh, just as Wordsworth did while he lived here in Grassmere. Perhaps other hands will try to paint the tarns and fells in water colours. Musicians will finger the notes of new compositions that reinterpret the same recurring theme, just as Vaughn William's Fantasia borrowed from Thomas Tallis's pastoral inspiration and released the beauty of the English countryside in yet another form.

But for some 'taking it in' will require the help of other hands - hands that we have know and have trusted most of our lives - hands that we still care about. The hands of others hold many memories for us. They remind us of all those times of holding one another up, or helping each other over stiles and across becs or up some slippery rocky path. And this looming landscape of clinging walls and prying ghylls stretching upwards into the fells is surely the place for walking hand-in-hand. Here there are winding paths where friends and couples have walked for years. Here hands have grown old together. I sense that great handfuls of blessing have been lavishly heaped upon the outstretched arms of this place and upon those who still come here to take it all in.

Handy Goldsworthys

Any in depth exploration into the connection between hands and walling would have to include a section on Andy Goldsworthy. The stunningly beautiful and uniquely impressive body of work he has created and documented so well continues to be a powerfuly positive influence on everyone who comes in contact with his work. His energy and output is a testament to a seemingly relentless drive to push the envelope of the creative process. While a lot of his installations are not permanent, many of his dry stone pieces are. And while some might quibble whether his work fits into the category of art at all, there are many others of us who think he just might be the most significant living artist today.

Having said that, it surprises me how often I run into people who have never heard of him. It is always a treat then to have the opportunity to introduce them to his amazing work.

Yesterday Mary and I were hiking in Cumbria from The Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel in Little Langdale to Coniston. We were being shown many of the more interesting and historic dry stone walls as well as abandoned stone quarries in the area along the way. I wonder if you can imagine how exciting it was for us to come around the corner from Tilberthwaite to discover one of Goldsworthy's famous sheepfold installations situated unobtrusibvely off to the side of the road. Our friend and guide Gavin Rose very cleverly made sure we 'stumbled' across it in our ramblings. There were no signs.

This sheepfold is one of many others which are part of a major countywide sculpture project created by Andy Goldsworthy. The project began in January 1996 as part of the UK year of Visual Arts and the building program continued until its official conclusion in April 2003 having achieved 46 folds.

The offical website explains that "Rather than making new sheepfolds Goldsworthy committed himself to working with existing folds in various states of disrepair or in some cases folds which had disappeared altogether but were clearly indicated on old maps. This enabled him to connect directly with the farming tradition and history of Cumbria but, at the same time, as each sheepfold was rebuilt so he invigorated them with a new energy by incorporating his sculptural response."

Andy and his colleagues (one of them being Andy Loudon) built the particular sheepfold we visited as a large squared-in area. The four traditional dry stone wall sides each contained an unusual large square section of thin slate each incorporating a four foot circle of the same slate material fitted so that the stones in each circle of each wall angled in four different orientations.

These circles are so tightly fitted you can't wiggle even the smallest of the thin slate pieces. The structure invites you to touch it and try. As with so many of the beautiful older slate walls (examples of what could also be considerd artist's handiwork) that we had been seeing all day on our walk through Cumbria, there was no sign anywhere that said 'Work of Art by so and so' or 'Please Dont Touch'. I was reminded again about this connection there is between 'hands' and 'dry stone walls'. It was this 'touchstone fold' structure that made me realize that it is not just those who create them but those who come to discover and appreciate beautiful dry stone walls (found in so many 'handy' places throughout parts of Britain) who also are drawn to touch the stones with their hands.

Walling on the lefthand side of the road.

It only makes sense that wallers in Britain wall differently than we do here in Canada. They have been at it longer and it has developed and is developing differently than it is here. It would be unreasonable for them to suppose, or worse, insist on driving on the left whenever they came to Canada for a visit. There would be calamitous complications

But at the same token it is no more our business telling the Brits how to wall than it would be to tell them what side of the road to drive on when they are in their own country. That we can agree on so many principles of dry stone walling is wonderful. It is tantamount to discovering that the normal mode and mechanics of transportation along roads in both countries is basically the same. i.e. that generally we travel along roads in motorized vehicles having at least 2 wheels and that we must avoid bumping into each other, any stationary objects and of course people.

That we have some differences of opinion about things like whether we should all stop at major intersections for interminably long red lights instead of smoothly meshing with cross-traffic at roundabouts is where the temptation to compare the logic of one system over another begins (whether it be walling or driving). There are some things they do right which we would do well to emulate or at least to try to promote. And here we are all doing our best to encourage that very thing at the DSWAC.

Of course when it comes to the rules of the road the biggest difference between the two countries is the issue of which 'hand' side one drives on. It is also the most arbitrary. I now ask myself is there a dry stone walling equivalent to this?

I would suggest that while we in Canada strive (rightly or not) to build new dry stone walls and garden features, the British strive, with what's left of their still many miles of traditional walls, to primarily maintain them.

They, so much of the time, are constrained to rebuild these walls taking into account the elements of the local style (working in the accepted method of construction and utilizing the peculiarities of the local stone ) at the same time recognizing the wall's historic context, and functionality, while we in Canada are literally able to build walls along a number of new roads.

While we don't need, nor want to 'reinvent the wall', surely we can take the opportunity presented to us (in this new time and place) to explore our options, and perhaps adapt, avoid or just 'loosen up', if necessary, some of the 'rules' where they are proving to be traditional formalities or unhelpful contrivances.