Austin's memorial tablet is progressing slowly but we really are getting there. At long last, a piece of Orkney bluestone (same stone as Stonehenge) was extracted after much begging from Orkney Aggregates and Malcolm Dowell, our monumental stonemason was able to get to work.
His first job was to transcribe by hand the font we had chosen – Castine by Brian Willson of OldFonts.com – onto the stone block. (It's the same font as we have used on the memorial to Kenneth and Angela in St Peter's Kirk).
After which, Malcolm of course had to cut the letters. This he did in ultra-old style, using just a hammer and chisel. In fact, for this job, which he very much likes because of the idea that a piece of Orkney is going to be sent right down to the far South of England, he took up his father's hammer which he had not used since his death. And this is what he produced:
And here is the artist himself in his workshop:
So now we move on to the next and nearly final stage of the saga: McAdie and Reeve, our local removals firm will now be crating and transporting the finished pieces to Roberts Stonemasons in Ramsgate who will then take the memorial tablet to St Augustine's and assemble it on Austin's grave.
So far, all this has taken about 8 pleasant months!