Just finished this book by the American writer, Whitney Brown. Who would have thought it: a coming of age book by a stone waller — that’s not a metaphor — she builds actual walls from stones, and they look very competent — artistic even.

It is a love story between a lost soul and the Welsh landscape and culture. Someone from somewhere very different who finds herself in the wildness, beauty and solitude of the hills of Mid-Wales. There is a Welshman involved but it’s not really about him, it’s about the walls and women welders and empowerment and throwing off the family shackles of expectation — good on her!

There are beautiful descriptions of lots of familiar places in Radnorshire and arround.

Since then I have been looking more carefully at our local walls and they are awsome.

Recently rebuilt at the base of Fan hill, I’ve been meaning to find out who achieved this feat of engineering.

Looking at the size of the boulders I suspect Meurig and his digger may have had a hand in it.

They should be very proud of this gift to posterity– it will out-live us all. People who build walls, with blood and sweat, in the driving rain, like Whitney Brown, soon find out who they really are! Does anybody else know?