On 11th April we started the pointing of the old building. This consists of raking out the old clay jointing, removing any loose stones or pebbles, cleaning out any gaps and then ramming the lime and sand mixture into the deep holes, filling any wide gaps with
galettes (small biscuit sized stones) and building out the pointing to the original stone lines. With cement the process is to get the surface as flat as possible before leaving it to set, there's a much more beautiful and fulfilling process with lime that takes much longer and consists of leaving the jointing surface rough until it has gone firm and then brushing it with a stiff bristle brush to expose the grain and let the jointing surface flow smoothly flow around the stones. The final effect really integrates and brings a sense of consistency to the varying sizes, colours and shapes of the stones and makes the walls look as if they are a single entity. In reality of course they were built at different dates, have been patched, repaired and neglected in equal measure and stone is a natural material with great variability.
We stopped pointing on the south wall in June when the temperatures made it impossible to keep working - lime goes off too quickly in hot sun. Adam re-started the work at the end of October - really very late in the year to try to point with lime which doesn't like cold or frosty weather either. Apart from one disasterous night - when driving rain washed out all the previous day's work - the weather has been on our side and today the final area was finished and the wall signed off.
