On Sunday we went back to Wooplaw community woodland in the Scottish Borders to do some more work on the walls there. There was no-one there when I arrived, but that was just because Alan had already been and had headed off to pick up Dave and Ian from the station. He'd left a clue that he'd been, however:
I noticed that a section of the low wall around the car park had been knocked down, so while I was waiting for the others I started to put it back up.
I hadn't even cleared away the fallen stones before they'd arrived, but with everyone working on it, it wasn't long before it was back up.
The actual section of wall we were scheduled to repair was further into the wood, on the other side of the burn. A tree had grown up a foot or two from the wall, and a century or two later had become big enough to knock it down.
There was no shortage of stone, there being a stone dump just behind where we were working, but a lot of earth and tree roots had found their way into the wall, and there was a thick covering of leaves and beach nut shells. A few low branches needed pruned as well.
There were a couple of curious but easily startled ponies in the field next to us, but eventually they got over their nervousness and came over to have a look.
It took the best part of an hour to clear away the fallen stones and other debris, but by lunch time we were ready to start putting it back up again.
Once we'd got started the wall went up pretty quickly, and by the time we knocked off we'd got the majority of the gap rebuilt.
We're heading back here later in the summer, so hopefully we'll get the last little bit finished then.
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