Stop for a moment and look

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07:13 pm April 9th, 2013

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			Stop for a moment and look - Helen's journal and online home In which an old dog attempts to learn new tricks.

heleninwales


	Stop for a moment and look
	The weather was better this morning and there was even some sunshine as I took Brith for his walk. Because of his fear of other dogs, there's really only one or two routes we can take, but walking along the quiet lanes is good for him and keeps me fit. If it's not too cold, we usually pause for a moment or two in a gateway at the furthest point of the walk before turning for home. Welsh gates are often fastened by means of a piece of baler twine. This one was actually properly hung, but very often the "hinges" are baler twine too. When I still rode, I often ended up wrestling with a heavy gate and it's complex baler twine ties while trying to get a horse along a bridleway. And when there was twine at both ends, there was always the interesting task of trying to decide which end was supposed to open. Tags: stop for a moment and look Current Mood: calm

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	Comments

	From: asakiyume	Date: April 9th, 2013 06:42 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I remember baler-rigged gates in Dorset, when we lived there. This gate looks almost bedecked by its baler twin.

I lured the cat back into the house with a piece of baler twine just now.

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	From: plantmom	Date: April 9th, 2013 07:04 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I thought it looked rather lovely, too. The pink and grey combination, maybe.

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	From: heleninwales	Date: April 11th, 2013 04:08 pm (UTC)		(Link)

It was tied in an almost frivolous way. That's probably what caught my eye. :)

I always found baler twine incredibly useful, but I'm not sure I have any left now. It's been 15 years since I kept horses.

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	From: kishenehn	Date: April 9th, 2013 09:27 pm (UTC)		(Link)

A lot of the gates out here now have spring-loaded mechanical latches, but when I was a kid most of them were equipped with an old horseshoe affixed to a bit of chain, and you closed the gate by dropping the horseshoe over one of the rungs. I always liked that.

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	From: heleninwales	Date: April 11th, 2013 04:11 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I've seen that type of gate fastener too, also various combinations of hooks and chains. I have to say that the gates put up by official bodies are not only properly hung but also have decent latches. It's the farmers who like to improvise. :)

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	From: kaishin108	Date: April 9th, 2013 11:52 pm (UTC)		(Link)

That is wildly confusing, which one is supposed to open. What a great shot. You make Wales sound like a time capsule from the past..Mmmm.

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	From: heleninwales	Date: April 11th, 2013 04:20 pm (UTC)		(Link)

In many ways Wales is something of a time capsule. More on this in today's post. :)

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	From: nutmeg3	Date: April 9th, 2013 11:59 pm (UTC)		(Link)

As a rider that would make me nuts, but from a purely aesthetic perspective that spot of color is lovely.

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	From: heleninwales	Date: April 11th, 2013 04:13 pm (UTC)		(Link)

It used to be very frustrating, especially as some of the not properly hung gates were heavy and often embedded in mud. But this was a gate leading into a private field, so not an issue.

I think it was the pretty pink/grey combination that caught my eye.

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	From: puddleshark	Date: April 10th, 2013 05:41 am (UTC)		(Link)

Lovely shot - I would never have thought baler twine could be aesthetically pleasing!

It wasn't so much the baler twine fastenings and the baler twine hinges that I minded, it was the gates that were held together entirely by baler twine and which disintegrated into a random collection of bits of rusty iron when you opened them...

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	From: heleninwales	Date: April 11th, 2013 04:15 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Oh, I've met that type of gate too! And then sometimes the farmer would lash two disintegrating gates together in the hope that they were broken in different places and that somehow, together, they would form a more or less complete gate!

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