With the snow behind us and the clocks ahead, Spring finally felt like it had arrived as we returned to The Japanese Gardens at Cowden Castle.
The pond has now been emptied to allow access for the construction of a new bridge to the island at the far side and to give us a chance to take a look at some of the dilapidated dry stone wall beneath the footbridge at the end of the causeway.
On seeing the pond emptied, the first thing you realise is that the "pond" is actually a lot deeper than you might think! The section of causeway we're working on is the top band of stone, just above the algae. It really underlines the effort it would have taken to construct this over 100 years ago.
For the causeway we are continuing to lift, dig out and reposition the stones which have been upturned by trees while the gardens were left derelict. The trees have been cut down at some point in the past and the stumps and roots left to rot, but they still require a great deal of digging, splitting and crowbarring to remove them before we can rebuild those sections.
While I set about stripping out this section of causeway, Trish took on rebuilding the two walls beneath the spillway. The section of the overflow spillway you can see beyond it is wall we repaired from 2016 to 2017, but we couldn't safely reach beneath the bridge while the pond was full. The dry stone wall here is actually hiding a rather less attractive concrete wall which holds up the bridge and retains the causeway end, but over the years the dry stone has partly collapsed due to a mix of vegetation, tree roots and as we discovered, a distinct lack of hearting.
Another indicator that Spring had arrived was the tide of frogs making their way down to what was left of the water's edge. The collective mating call provided a wonderful soundscape to work to, though we had to evict a great many of them before rebuilding.
By mid day Trish had not only completed work on the first wall but had started on the second. Meanwhile my work on the causeway was progressing at a rather slower rate as I wrestled to remove the remaining tree roots and reposition the deceptively large and unwieldy granite stones. That's my excuse anyway! ;)
As the day drew on we were treated to a light shower, but eventually the sun crept back out. Trish finished off the top of the first wall, hiding the concrete beneath and tidied up the second as we'll need to finish it off when we return later in Arpil. Although hard going, the finished section is very satisfying to look at. Very keen to see the overall effect once we've finished the last few sections this year!
That's it for our first weekend of 2018! We'll be at RM Condor on the 31st March to repair a whinstone wall within the Forest Garden. Until then, be sure to Like and Follow us on Facebook to keep up to date with the latest news and events across Scotland and the UK. If you're a DSWA member you can check out our Member Events schedule on our website. For anyone interested in learning the ancient craft of dry stone walling, we have a number of Beginners Training Courses running throughout the year. The next one is at Cherry Tree Lodge on the 7th of April, though places are limited.