Jostle stone / guardacantón (8 november 2021)

Stumbled upon an article about "jostle stones" - stones placed at the corners of (old) buildings in the days horse-drawn vehicles and wood-iron wheels were all the rage, to protect the walls.

Then it dawned on me that the curious stone at the corner of our house actually *is* a jostle stone! Our house *is* from those days, and the corner used to be at a bend in the road..

"In cities the older guard stones as a concept have been replaced by objects meant for automobile traffic, such as curbs and guard rails. As a city maintenance object they slowly became obsolete and were discarded or reused for other city purposes. When they were incorporated as part of a building's structure however, they were difficult to remove and many remain as silent witnesses to early traffic on historic roads. Today such objects are treasured for historic reasons and are often protected as part of a city's cultural heritage." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guard_stone

In Spanish they are called "guardacantón" - "corner protectors" - https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardacantón

Yellow stone

The walls were built with local pebbles, sand, chalk and earth. Also my lovely green stones are used here and there. And, this very nice yellow with black spots one!

Someone must have held it 200 years ago, and thought "what a beautiful stone!, I must use it in this wall". And yet 200 years later the plaster is removed, and someone else wonders again "what a beautiful stone!".

I have not seen any yellow stones here of this yellow, until this week when walking the dogs in the sierra above, the sister stone of the stone in my wall!

For a stone sitting in a wall 200 years is not a long time, I guess. It must have been sitting in the ground for a few million years, until a few monkeys put it in a plastered wall. And who know how long that will last. 200 years more? 500? These stones will outlast us, and the house, a long long time.

I wonder if the stones enjoy to be together again, after 200 years..

Curiously, the yellow is just a thin layer.