Well here is it... the eagerly awaited by all (only Jeff!) task report for Rauceby Warren. The pictures included were taken on the 17th May
The reserve is a small stretch of land tightly tucked between the A153
and the golf course and along the edge of the reserve is a dry stone wall.
This not only act as a separation for the road but as a habitat for all
sorts of wildlife from creepy crawlies to lizards.
The group has for sometimes worked on this wall and we are finally seeing the results as the targeted section to be rebuilt, by us and other volunteering groups, has finally been achieved and what a fantastic result, it looks fantastic (No, I’m not biased!).
‘Dry’ stone walling is very much like a 3D puzzle and it can be very therapeutic and if the weather is nice it can be enjoyable too... Well that, I can just imagine as so far each time I have been to this task it has rained... and our last time on this job should not have been any different.. Well apart from that it did not just rained.. it poured!
Sarah the warden and Derek a professional dry stone waller were already
working hard when we arrived. Despite a wet start we got going and as
we had a clear target for the day which was linking the newly rebuilt wall
to a section of still standing part, around about 20m of wall to do.
Several showers throughout the morning involved taking cover under the trees
and during a lesser wet spell we took this opportunity to have a tea break
but by 1pm the weather began to win this battle and we had to pack up not
having planned for any Mae West and other water rescue equipment and not
finishing our target.
It is with great sadness that we left this reserve as we felt robbed by the weather of our fun day out.... but frankly the thought of the settee and the central heating was too tempting. I’m sure there will be other dry/wet stone walling with the group so we should not despair.
Delphine