Warm Stone*

A warm day with low, heavy cloud, high humidity, a hint of rain in the air. What absolute perfection...for limewashing. I have written before how fulfilling a job it can be - though it feels a bit more pressured this year, having lost so much time to Covid. It still feels like a kind of magic that such a thinly spread, insubstantial layer of liquid refreshes the appearance and provides all the necessary protection. A specialist builder we met in west Wales described it as "a sacrificial covering". To an extent, it sacrifices itself to save the building; it is up to us to resurrect it for the next year 

We limewash the building because lime 'breathes' - it is permeable to both air and water vapour. Underneath it is lime-based render, underneath that is highly compressed bales of wheat straw, bearing the weight of a heavy roof made of large-size timbers and concrete tiles. On the inside, the straw is plastered with lime plaster and painted with clay paint. Everything is permeable; no hard barriers to build up stale air or allow moisture to condense

When limewash is applied it is highly coloured. You can see patches where it is drying and the colour becomes lighter and lighter, more and more luminescent - like that linked blip. This is a reversible process - if the wall gets wet, the dark colour returns. All part of its charm

I looked at the forecast for tomorrow and made sure I put the downpipe back securely when the job was done on this wall. Rather more than "a hint of rain in the air" in prospect, I'm afraid

*the name of the colour - I don't really get why