I have been working on my little stone hut for some years
now, on and off. The end is now in sight. I still have more stonework to do
when I return to Spain in September, but I left this time feeling that I had really got somewhere. In the early days, whilst still honing my skills as an amateur
stonemason, I had almost despaired at my slow progress – thinking that I would
never finish the project. At the time I was only partway through the south wall
- my first.
The wall I have completed is the north wall and it is largest in
area.I have given the walls a slope upwards to carry on the angle
of the original roofline. I will then cap them with tiles and from most aspects
they will look like a continuation of the roof – in fact there will be a small
roof at the western end, it will cover a little hut or cupboard in which I will
install the water tanks and batteries and on which I will securely clamp the
solar collectors (people steal them I’m told). In the middle there will be an
open terrace, the base of which I have already laid.
The plan is this: Margaret and I will crouch beneath the
sloping walls waiting for someone to come by at speed (there is a 30 kph limit
on our track). They will admire the new roof from below then, suddenly, we will
pop up, as if from nowhere! This will cause them such a shock that they will
lose control of their car, tractor or van and plunge into the stream that runs
alongside the track. We will then present them with the proverb “more haste,
less speed” carefully translated into Spanish and printed on one of the terracotta
bricks that they use to build modern casetas and houses around our area and
they will never speed again.
Many Spanish people do tend to drive quickly and
dangerously. It’s odd because they amble to their cars, slowly get in,
gradually get started – then roar off at high speed, cutting corners wherever
they can (the white lines on Spanish roads are there to straddle), overtaking
anything in their path and then screaming to a halt at their destination (if
they make it). They then turn off the engine, sit for a while to rest, then
amble slowly to wherever they are going – the shop, the bar, the friend’s house
or whatever - chatting amiably and patiently to anyone they meet on the way.
Back to my wall: you know, I felt so good when I finished it.
I had to keep looking at it from different angles. There is a great
satisfaction in achieving something like that, despite the fact that it’s taken
so long. “Poca a poca,” say the locals – little by little. I hope to complete
the outside of the place later this year and am planning the opening party for
next.
