Dreich

Helena said today's weather is dreich.

I think this is a Scots term for a damp, drizzly, dank, overcast, murky, misty and generally dull day. She grew up in Argyll, near Oban, so certainly knows how a dreich atmosphere can feel.

I can't even see the hilltop above Butterow, across the valley, maybe half-a-mile distant.

I think I feel dreich too, after the long weekend. I always need a quiet day to recuperate, after finishing a workshop like I've been at over these last few days.

This wall was started by John, an old friend, and actually a palaeontologist by education, who was showing me the basics of a dry-stone wall. The stone came from the nearby Knockdown Quarry, where we hand-selected each piece. I chose them for the colour which this particular honey-marble limestone has; one of the many varied tones of the Cotswolds, and my favourite. At some point soon, I will finish the rest of this stretch of wall, beside the stone steps leading down into our garden.

Some wonderful spiders have already taken up residence between the layers, pulling their bodies back into the shadows like tortoises into their shells, when disturbed.