No helping with the Christmas tree sales or festive crafts for us this year, but it did mean we had our first December work task ever! This year we spent it at the maze which was new to a few people including Andrew who is joining us as part of his Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award.
It was very muddy (as usual) but we had mince pies at break time and managed to prep more areas and clear paths as the last circle starts to take shape.
Merry Christmas!
We welcomed 3 new volunteers on our work task today, two of whom are joining to add to their volunteering portfolio for their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh award, and making 3 DoE volunteers with FoDF in total.
Alongside checking initialled stones and mending pallets, we mostly got very muddy by clearing the finished sections of large and small stones. Well done everyone!
Our worktask this morning was at the maze. It was colder than we were expecting and we even had some hailstones and rain showers every so often. We mended pallets, shifted stones and weeded the inner circle, and even found a little lizard – who did not move very much having been fooled into thinking that the earlier sun meant it was warm!
Thanks to everyone who came including two new volunteers Sue and Vanessa.
We are very pleased to announce that Peter Maris will be holding the Dry Stone Wall Maze Initial Carving Workshops throughout 2019.
Peter will also be holding three Christmas workshops on 1st, 9th & 15th December 2018.
They’ll go quick so book your place soon!
https://drystonewallmaze.com/product/stone-carving-workshops/
Firstly, thank you to all the volunteers who gave up their Saturday to help out with our maze open day for the first cohort of supporters who had bought a stone or attended a workshop.
It was a fabulous day and it was thrilling to see everyone discover their stone now it has been built into the maze. Everyone left with a smile on their face, even those who were unlucky enough to have booked their slot when the rain arrived at the end of the day!
Book your stone here http://drystonewallmaze.com/buy-a-stone/ and you’ll also get invited to view your stone in situ while the maze is under construction.
The Dry Stone Wall Maze is looking good in the spring sunshine. Here are some pictures of recently carved stones now built into the wall.
Book your workshop or order your stone here http://drystonewallmaze.com/buy-a-stone/
Carving workshops start 14th of May, there is one place left on the afternoon session.
21st May afternoon session now full, and the 9th of July afternoon session also full, but still room on all the morning sessions.
Hope to see you there!
This week saw a planning meeting for the next steps for the maze that’s being built by local dry stone waller Mark Ellis in the heart of Dalby, which will become a legacy for locals and visitors to enjoy.
The maze is an intricate build and needs over 4000 tonnes of suitable stone. It is being constructed in stages and how long it takes will be influenced by how quickly the funds can be raised and how kind the weather is! We hope the maze will be open to the public in 2019.
We have listed how you can help and how to get involved elsewhere, and the next few months will see the Friends focusing on fund- and awareness- raising. And next time you are at the Visitor Centre, please do take a moment to look at the new display that has been put in place.
We had a lovely morning at the maze practicing our stone lettering skills with local artist Jennifer Tetlow. Everyone did amazingly well and there’s definitely some talent amongst us! Nice to think that our efforts will become part of the maze. And watch this space as there will be more opportunity to have a go as the maze construction continues.
Working by the maze
Friends of Dalby Forest 