The pointers have come out to replace the crumbling mortar in the walls of my house.
The gaps in the mortar were big enough for blue tits to break into the wall, build a nest inside and raise a brood. At the beginning of July the men put up scaffolding against the back door. This felt a little like house arrest. It was a bit of a scramble and a risk of concussion to get out of the house and into the garden.
They chipped away at the old mortar, which was crumbling. But they couldn't replace it with the lime mixture because it has to dry and rain fell every day for the month. Meanwhile I could not get at the garden, because they had moved everything and blocked the paths, and so it turned into a pretty jungle.
The sweet peas have done well though. They like cool wet weather and they have grown prolifically on long stems.
It grew drier. The men finally finished the back wall and chipped away at other walls.
One showed me how the walls had been mortared with concrete round the stones. This, it seems, is bad as concrete is harder than stone, water forces itself through the stone and after a while the soft sandstone is eaten away. They replace it with lime.
On one side whole stones have been covered with concrete.
When the man chipped away with his roof hammer those grey slabs came off and revealed this:-
It looks rather beautiful but it is in fact the stone being eroded. The pointer will patch it up but it has started raining again.
Here's a pointer of a different sort:
Norman Lamont has tagged you for '8 random facts about yourself'. For the concept and the rules see http://normanlamont.typepad.com/lamontations/2007/08/8-random
If you don't complete this and pass it on within four moons, then ... probably nothing will happen.
Posted by: Norman | 05 August 2007 at 09:26 PM