Springtime…time for the blog to come out of hibernation!

Since Christmas life has been very busy at home. We have been busy getting the house and garden to a somewhat liveable standard and spending a lot of time with our little fella, Miles. I have been busy learning the craft of green wood turning. However, due to lack of space and the bad weather I’ve had to turn to the ‘dark side’ i.e. the electric lathe. Exponents of the art may find that derisory, a classical craft on a powered lathe, but I feel it’s better to turn than not turn at all.

The first finished product is an ash stool, pictured below. It’s seated in Seagrass, which I may be reluctant to use in the future considering it’s travelled ‘all the way from China’, as Leonard Cohen sang (on Suzanne). If anyone knows of a suitable, locally produced seat covering please let me know.

The current situation I have for work is not ideal as you can see from the picture. Subtle hints like, “you’ve got bloody shavings in the sink again” and “oh God, not more mess!” have given me the impression that working in the kitchen may not be fully appreciated by others, so it’s time to move out to a workshop. I have a patch of land in the garden which may be ideal to house a small bodger’s hovel, giving me the pleasure of working outdoors and the freedom to set up at will. Hopefully more pictures to follow soon.

The raised beds which I included before Christmas are now finished and are now home to onions, garlic, potatoes and will be completed with carrots and peppers once the seedlings are grown. The soil quality is good and is being further enhanced by one of our cats which insists on digging and shitting in amongst the vegetables. One would assume this will add to the soil as fertiliser although some more investigation needs to be carried out to determine any harmful effects of defacus gatus.

The next step....

The midst of Autumn surrounds yet the temperature is still to fall. I have been firing up the wood burner every night, only to sit in a sweat before opening the windows in order to cool down again! In the garden the raised beds have had to take a back seat now that the clocks have gone back, and it's dark when I return home from work, though hopefully I'll be out again in the garden this weekend.

Being a new father has also had an impact on my time organisation. Gone now are the plentiful hours where I was free to do whatever I chose. Being responsible for a four-week-old means that time has become a precious commodity and I have to steal any spare minutes and put them to use. The loss of daylight has also had an impact on my plans; now I have to work in the kitchen, cutting wood while trying to maintain a clean environment. One of these projects has been the building of a shaving horse. This is a three legged plank which one sits atop to use a foot operated lever to grip timber. This timber can then be shaved with a drawknife, or a spokeshave into whatever object is desired.

(This isn't actually my shave-horse, but once it's finished I'll upload my own attempt)

The wood I'm using to build the horse is all reclaimed timber, of which I have been fortunate recently to have acquired a large amount, which will be put to good use for the pole lathe, shave horse, and maybe even a shed should there be sufficient wood left over.

My desire to make and create is linked to a yearning for a simpler way of life. I believe many people now are becoming increasingly stressed and suffering mental health issues due to our lives being overly complicated. Every day our senses are being constantly bombarded by advertising, information, warnings, advice, noise, sound, bleeps, sirens, telephones, announcements, and people trying, like sirens, to tempt us from the path and play poker, claim money for negligence, sign for a credit card, change our energy suppler, eat less, look good, spend more, spend less and, ironically, to relax.

Working outdoors with the smells of the Earth, far from the madding crowd, using your two hands to fashion something something from the woods growing around you; wouldn't that be something? So, to this end my plan is to reach the goal of working part time at home, doing a bit of wood working, metal fabricating and other plans I have in the pipeline to make a living. This too would mean I have to spend less time working and more time at home with my family.

On a final note, hopefully I'll have some more images by the end of the weekend to post of the garden now that our lawn has appeared from no-where!

Until then...