On the surface.

I've read that if you you could somehow enlarge a billiard ball to the size of the earth it would have higher mountains and deeper canyons on its surface than any rugged terrain or landscape on our world.

I really cant believe this is true. But there it is.

Theoretically then if you shrunk the earth it would make a fantastically smooth billiard ball. One that might not stop moving after breaking the rack until well after all the other balls on the table had stopped rolling.

I wonder what the textured surface of the stone ball in this photo might reveal if it were blown up many times until it was the size of the earth? Maybe there would be landscapes beyond the wildest imagination of any science fiction writer on earth. Canyons that double back in under each other and form Möbius caves and stringy hairy mountains that tie themselves into rugged 50 mile high knots? Maybe there are the equivalent of rivers and ancient sea beds too, only distorted and stretched to beyond any kind of human scope.

There is so much we don't know about what goes on just on the surface of a rock. Imagine what goes on below.

Teaching a stone to talk.

Those of us who work with stone have probably said at one time or another - ''it's like the stone is talking to me''. What we are referring to is that feeling we get when we intuitively perceive which stone to use next, or where each one should be placed. It is as though for a brief moment we are in tune with the stones. We sense in some mysterious way, what it is that the stone requires of us. We have a better feel for the way individual stones should be fitted, or shaped perhaps, as we almost accidentally discover how a selection of random stones will go together in some pleasing yet undefinable pattern.

Such a satisfying experience is tempting to try to 'replicate'. If only the stones could communicate to us like this all the time, we say. If only they could speak to us.

Indeed, teaching stones to talk might be the answer? Obviously, there are even books on the subject. Is anything too hard for a stone?

And yet I suspect it is much harder, for us to learn how to listen.

Maybe they know how to talk already?

Leftovers.

Last weekend we started to build a largish dry stone egg-shaped cairn using up a lot of left over wall material and incorporating an unusual random herringbone style of laying in the stones. You can see the shape and size of this project that we are hoping to accomplish over the next several weekends. I will keep you posted on how things progress.

Unusual tools you might try walling with.

A few months ago Christopher Barclay volunteered a day helping some friends in B C get going in the right direction at building a dry stone wall. The three built the first course, including the backing and he demonstrated how to begin the next course by building three linear feet and putting up lines. After which he let them go at it on their own using the local schist they had collected.

Yesterday, he visited the property and gave them two thumbs up for their first attempt and their creativity. He followed up by offering suggestions how to improve for next time - avoiding using thin small stones to support mass and of course the dreaded 'running joint' .

He had also suggested building into the wall implements here and there . They took it to a new level.

A card of a different suit.

This card was given to me by my daughter Carolyn on the occasion of my birthday. Inside the card simply read 'You Rock !' It was a nice thought and funny photo for sure. After thinking about it more though it seemed to me that the guy in the birthday suit deserved a better caption, one more suited to the subject matter.

I invite readers to come up with titles that capture the impact of this image better. The card caption doesn't have to be a birthday greeting at all. Perhaps it could say...

"Let's start building a bridge so we can get back across the river to get our clothes?"

or

"You know, stones feel a lot lighter when you're naked."

or

"I found a prettier rock but it was a bit too small to bring back here with me."

A trip to Landman Farms

I visited Landman Farms near Grand Valley Ontario yesterday. The blackhouse built during Rocktoberfest 2009 is looking pretty spectacular. The reason it looks better and better is that it's surrounded by an increasingly amazing assortment of wonderful greenery, which spreads out in all directions into beautifully tended flower and vegetable gardens.

Becky Landman is a grower of natural market garden produce and is a professional participant in CSA program. (Community Supported Agriculture)

Among the many vegetables she provides to clients on a regular weekly basis are yummy potatoes, fresh zucchini, squash, corn, garlic (a variety whimsically called 'Music') as well as scrumptious beets and beans.

The new shop being built on the property, where much of the farm produce will be prepared and sold, is just about completed. With its spacious interior and carefully thought out proportions, it looks like it is going to be a magnificent facility and will likely give the blackhouse some serious competition.

While we were walking around the gardens Becky's father, Eric Landman pointed out an interesting fact that the plants seemed to thrive more and grow taller nearer the dry stone walls....

while those growing further away in the fields didn't grow so quickly. Another point for dry stone walls.

Stone Bowl Picnic.

Dry Stone Walling

Dry Stone Walling

This lovely bowl of cherries (stones not removed) were hand picked by John Shaw-Rimmington while in the Highlands of Scotland recently.

 ·  · Share · June 30, 2011 at 3:30am · 

• Sunny Wieler, Johnny Clasper and 6 others like this.
• • 

    Dry Stone Walling Just what you need for a balanced diet!

    June 30, 2011 at 3:31am ·  ·  1
  • 

    Danny Woodward i miss scotland

    June 30, 2011 at 9:58am · 
  • 

    John Shaw-Rimmington They look more like croutons.

Structural and/or instructional

'Wall' it whatever way the stone inspires you ... as different, as high, as wide, as long as it's instructional.

Call me Shore-Rimmington

Finished up the shore line job yesterday at Chemong Lake near Bridge North Ontario. The weather was markedly hot and the water was lukewarm. The wall was built up from the lake bed (below the surface of the lake) to rise a full thirty inches above seaweed level. We used all the stones that were there originally plus about four tons of material we brought in.

Working along a lake in July was just about the best way to stay cool as a waller here in Southern Ontario. Temperatures were in the high 30's for several of the days we worked here. Our permit required that the wall be built at this time, apparently allowing for the fact that most of the fish in the lake would have spawned by this time.

When all the fish come back from their honeymoon they'll be surprised to see their new surroundings all shored up, which may make for stimulating conservation and probably whet their appetite to see more dry stone habitat created along the lake rather than concrete or huge armour stone barriers.

Planking on the Embankment (and over the bridge)

Planking is this crazy thing that lots of people are doing that some friends of mine told me about on our last trip to the Lake District. Apparently it is an activity consisting of lying face down in an unusual or incongruous location. The hands must touch the sides of the body and having a photograph of the participant taken and posted on the internet is an integral part of the game. Players compete to find the most unusual and original location in which to play.The term planking is described as the practice of lying down flat with arms to the side, to mimic a wooden plank.

Many participants of planking since 2011 have photographed the activity on unusual locations such as atop poles, roofs and vehicles, while some "plankers" engage in the activity by planking only their upper body and feet while leaving the back suspended.

The lying down game is claimed to have been invented by Gary Clarkson and Christian Langdon first becoming popular in North East England

The lying down game spread to the rest of the world, where it has also been known as "시체놀이" ("playing dead") "à plat ventre" ("On one’s belly", France 2004 "extreme lying down", (2008, Australia)"facedowns" (2010, USA and Ireland),and "planking" (2011, Australia & New Zealand and worldwide).

Sitting Stone

Last weekend we attended the wedding of some friends of ours. The chair where each guest was supposed to sit was revealed by a small stone with each person's name on it at the particular place setting. I was interested to see stone showing up at the reception table and having a fairly prominent role, even at such an important ceremony. Perhaps it is the long lasting quality of stone that was being made reference too. Perhaps it was merely an artistic touch.

Anyway I was amused at the idea of a stone telling me where I was supposed to be positioned rather than the other way around.

How does it look up there?

The tree I built on our property last year maybe doesnt 'look' safe enough for a child to climb and to sit on any of its branches. For this reason I asked Petra, one of our neighbour's children from up the street to volunteer to be put in one of the branches and demonstrate how 'looks' can be deceiving. I know she looks a little unsettled perched their in the tree but really she is quite comfortable and feeling very safe.

Free form

Wondered if readers might like to leave comments with a caption for this photo which was taken last June in the Lake District. And no, it is not photoshopped.

Seeing with my hands.

Working along a lake shoreline rebuilding an old dry stone retaining wall has presented a lot of challenges. The first two courses of stone have to be built under the water.

By the way, crocks prove to be the best footwear (yet again) for this kind of amphibious occupation.

After we took the old wall apart, sending some of the stones up over the bank and some of the bigger ones into the water behind us, we prepared the foundation and then started groping in the water to begin rolling the biggest stones back into position.

On the plus side, rocks are surprisingly lighter in water. Rocks that would be impossible for one person to move become easier to handle as long as you don't try to lift them up right out of the lake.

My hands became my eyes as I probed the translucent shallows looking for the right shaped stones to fit in each space I was working on in the wall. At Rocktoberfest we often have various dry stone walling competitions. I had considered in the past introducing a category of blind stone walling. Using stones from the lake, that can only be felt has given me a better idea of how a wall might possibly be built seeing only with my hands

As the wall grew in height I got better at judging thickness and shape under water, and even did some shaping of stones with them partially submerged. The water buffers impact and the exploding fragments loose their momentum in water.

I wonder about building a wall completely under water some day? Hmmm.

The heart before the course.

For anyone who builds dry stone walls there may be a better, more applicable version of the old adage of 'putting the cart before the horse'. If a waller adds the hearting up inside the wall higher than the outside course of stones it will be in the way of the next course of stones.

So, one must remember not to put the hearting before the course.

But on the other hand, one shouldn't add a another stone course on before the lower course of stones has been properly hearted.

And of course if your building in a random rubble style you can't afford to be any less heartless.

Just putting out some handy thoughts.

Moonlighting in the hot sun.

Possible names for phony concrete imitation stone.

Alternative rock

Phony stone

Sham rock

Foe stone

Cultish stone

Ashliar

Mock-rock

Badstone

Stoney baloney

NOT Gneiss Stone

Poopy-stone

Arsecraft

Shim Sham

Rubbish Rubble

Boulderdash!

Flintstone flimflam

Simulate Slate

Aggregated basalt (to the eyes)

Quasi quartz

Fallacious fieldstone

Fraudulant fragments

Shifty shards

Philistone

Stoneless

Doctored Fakinstone

Ersatzite

Facial erratic

Lying Con-Cretan

Fecking fauxlithic

Unreal-lickandstick

Rock TV

Yesterday a TV crew from Toronto drove up to film a segment about dry stone walling across Canada. The interview went very well. We looked at several dry stone structures in the Port Hope area. There are some really unusual ones within a five mile radius of here including three bridges, several dry stone trees, a folly ruins, two stone-roofed sheds, a vaulted behive hut, a couple of circular walled enclosures on town property and a dry stone pre-viking boat-dwelling. If you are ever driving through this way you might want to check some of these out. Definitely bring your camera (crew).

Thanks Vincci Chung of Fairchild Television for taking the time to find out more about 'walls without mortar' for your viewers to enjoy. www.fairchildtv.com

Maybe one day there will be a full time documentary TV channel in Canada focusing entirely on all things pertaining to walling and stone structures. Rock celebrities could have their own prime time shows.

Just thinking with my hands again.

Things to play on in the park.

This tank in a park near Collingwood Ontario got me thinking about the fact that dry stone walls are often sited as being unsafe structures for children to play on in public places. People have said to me when I have been commissioned to build one somewhere - "But what if a child falls from that?" I usually say something polite about how safe dry stone structures are. The fact is that kids like to climb but they are usually pretty careful. My secret answer to these sort of questionings about children being protected from climbable structures is - "Well, what was God thinking when he made trees?" Or in this case- " What are town park planners thinking when they drive a tank into the park for kids to play on?"

Picking Up Pretty Stones On The Beach.

I went for a walk the other day along a beach that has many interesting, finely shaped stones. It's a great place to pick up real beauties. Lots of the pretty ones have already been taken. In one area only the 'cover-stones' remain soaking up the late afternoon sun.

I started to think about the fact that stones are often taken home and used to 'dress up' a property. Using rocks and stones from trips to the beach or the country require real skill to avoid making a yard or garden look tacky or garish. It is almost impossible to do when you are merely 'decorating' the place up with stones.

Stones prefer to take a less showy role in the garden. The stones that look best are arranged in fairly subtle, definitely more structural applications. They like to have a reason for being where they are. It's not easy for a stone to look or feel comfortable when it's been thoughtlessly tossed into a new relationship in some window well, around a pond or along the side of a driveway.

That's probably why the best ones don't mind staying where they are, just being admired and chaste along the beach.