Stone Song

I have a deep-seated and unexplanable love for stone walls, and I don't know why. I watched a young man build this one last summer just down the street from my house -- an artist at work.

On a trip to England in 2001 after being overwhelmed with the sheer number of beautiful stone walls, I realized it had to have something to do with my English heritage. My husband and I and two dear friends from Manchester were touring the countryside around the hamlet of Wycoller in northern Yorkshire when we chanced upon a gentleman named Arthur, master builder of stone walls, as he was repairing a chunk of wall. We spent good part of the afternoon with him and the next day we met again and he brought me a lovely picture book of walls in the area, information on the Yorkshire Dry Waller's yearly competition, a copy of the industry magazine "The Waller and Dyker" and patches for my sweatshirt making me an honorary menber of the Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain, Mid Lancs Branch. I was thrilled.

It was great fun watching this wall as it went up and I was delighted to be on the periphery of its creation but it really made me want to get back to Yorkshire and all its glorious stone walls and maybe find Arthur busy with a repair along a country road. I also have a passion for hedgerows, but I won't find any of those here to blip and, sadly, I hear there aren't all that many left in England.