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Twice in one night, my you are lucky readers!
As my regular reader (thanks dear) will know, I've been doing rather a lot of woodworking recently. My two training courses, documented earlier on this blog, were very different and both taught me useful skills. I've invested in a couple of tools but not yet got around to building a shave horse or pole lathe. Shave horse first I think! I took an inventory of my shed earlier and I reckon I have enough spare wood to bolt together a crude horse. As long as it serves a purpose, doesn't matter how it looks IMHO.
But, the lack of horse hasn't stopped me from carving a few pieces. Robin (see Woodwork chapter one) was kind enough to give me a couple of pieces of cherry to play with which I subsequently did. I also picked up a couple of freshly felled logs from my tree surgeon's yard (cheers James). Alas, I am still not very good at distinguishing the different woods from their bark so am not certain of some of the wood I'm using. Learning though! If anyone can recommend a good book that will help me identify trees by their bark I'd be very grateful! Here are some of my first pieces from left to right - baby spoon (cherry), lettuce knife (cherry), measuring scoop with deliberately odd handle (unidentified wood), tasting spoon (poplar):
Different woods work very differently. Poplar, being a very fast growing tree is very light. It isn't the finest wood but has its benefits. Cherry is great to work and looks lovely when finished. I also tried messing about with an old, dry piece of London plane. Such hard wood it is almost impossible to carve. Got a great idea of what I want to do with it though. Watch this space...
Hello out there! Been a long time, again! Sorry, I've been distracted. Last week was taken up by a short course at the English Gardening School, hosted at the Chelsea Physic Garden under the tutelage of Rosemary Alexander, Laura de Beden and Simon Pyle. This was a great course and I learnt an awful lot from three great tutors. Far too much to disclose here but suffice to say that I now look at gardens very differently. In short, it isn't all about the plants. Sure, plants are some of the constituent parts of a garden but it isn't about buying plants you like and finding a "good enough" place for them. Oh no! It is all about the space. What is it for? What will you be doing out there? Once you've decided upon that, and a few other important things, such as budget, you can then start planning. Only when the plan is complete do you start thinking about the specific plants you want to place. Of course there's more to it than that but you get the idea. We spent one of our four days travelling to a couple of different gardens, including Rosemary's. Here is a pic of her Apricot Border, still looking rather resplendent despite the cold, miserable summer:
I had a great time and am already wishing I was back at the school expanding my knowledge even further...
Hello! No, I've not been lazy, I've been on holiday. Mrs P and I were in the south of France for a short while. Wonderful time had by all, well both! We got the Eurostar to Avignon, picked up a car, drove to St. Laurent du Verdon, drove round the Gorges du Verdon, drove up Mont Ventoux, drove to Orange, drove through Chateauneuf-du-Pape, drove back to Avignon, dumped the car and chilled a little after driving a little over 1000km in our surprisingly capable diesel Fiat in four days. Then got very stressed by the prospect of not being able to return home due to the fire in the tunnel. I shall not post my opinions of Eurostar/Eurotunnel nor any details of my personal experience until I am satisfied with the compensation I receive! Instead, here's a couple o' pics:
Atop Mt. Ventoux viewing our journey back down
Gorges de l'ardeche
Mrs P looking out of the Chateau in Chateauneuf
Of the four places we stayed I adored Le Moulin du Chateau in St. Laurent du Verdon and loved La Banasterie (and their dog) in Avignon. Le Moulin is run by a wonderful Swiss couple called Edith and Nicolas who operate a relaxed, beautifully decorated B&B that forces you to relax, eat well and enjoy yourself no matter how much you resist. La Banasterie is a slightly more busy place due to its location in an Avignon back street but is similarly tranquil. Typical provencal colour schemes and decor really make this place a wonderful find and Mouchi (sp?) the Shih-Tzu is an amazingly friendly little chap! If you are planning a holiday to Provence and fancy staying somewhere more elegant, charming and personal than a hotel check out:
http://www.moulin-du-chateau.com/
http://www.labanasterie.com/
Since I've been back, I've been baking bread with my newly acquired French ingredients, making lovely chicken stock from our roast chicken remains, perfecting some of my woodwork pieces as well as starting a couple of new ones, enjoying sleeping in my own bed and embarking upon some futher horticultural training at the Chelsea Physic Garden.
So much to post about, so little time...
"What did you learn this week Plutus?" I hear you ask. Well, aside from the fact that it is possible for an entire British summer to pass with only one solitary nice day, I learnt a bit more about wood. Last week was manual turning, this week I harnessed the almighty power of electricity to make my life easier. And easier it was! I turned a chunk of laburnum into a corkscrew handle, a piece of yew into a bottle stop and a piece of mahogany into a bowl. These are all a much more refined finish that my green wood pieces. Last week, after the final pass with a skew chisel, the only finish needed was a burnish with a handful of wood shavings. This week's pieces were sanded with four grades of sand paper, buffed with webrax and finally polished with wax or oil. Much finer finish that makes even my non-symmetrical corkscrew handle look good! I gained experience with several new tools that suit electric lathe work. I had great fun, the only down side is that I am impatient and it can be slightly frustrating when starting out with a new technique and a new tool.As is becoming customary, here's a pic (albeit quite a bad quality and poorly composed one):
Now for a little rest and some wine...
No, really, what makes a good teacher?
I don't necessarily mean a school teacher. In my opinion, anyone who imparts knowledge upon people on a regular basis is a teacher. Some teachers are professional educators, some are people trying to promote their wares, some are religious indoctrinators and some are simply people who love telling others about stuff they know and love. We've all had good and bad teachers in our time. Occasionally individuals connect with their tutor on some "higher level" but more often than not a good teacher is almost universally accepted to be a great imparter of knowledge. Why? Of course topical knowledge is critical but many subject matter experts make horrendous teachers. There has to be more than knowledge. I believe passion is vital, encouragement important and then there is the balance. The balance between giving someone the knowledge to find the answer to a question/challenge and stepping back just enough to allow the student to make, and learn from, their mistakes. I've had a couple of good pedagogues recently, some bad ones too. I've also delivered both excellent and substandard training in my time.
I'm taking several more training courses in the coming months so will probably have more to contribute on this subject but, in the mean time, I welcome your comments...
OK, so the wily little ####s are squeezing behind my net construction into the greenhouse, locating the nicest looking tomato and making an artful exit. I bound the net to the greenhouse more firmly but they can still manage to squeeze through. My neighbours must think I'm a bit weird swearing at and threatening what appears to be an empty greenhouse. Next step filling a juicy tomato with rat poison a la "Danny, the champion of the world"? I probably don't have the heart. Probably...
My education continues. I went up to Essex recently to learn the basics of green woodworking and wood carving. My teacher was a great guy called Robin. He's been working with wood for quite a while in a variety of capacities and there is nothing better than learning from someone who is genuinely experienced! I spent two days with him in his wonderful workshop and learnt a hell of a lot. I started off learning how to split logs with a froe, chop them into a rough cylinder with an axe (a lovely Gransfors of which I am quite envious), shave them into a cleaner cylinder on a horse with a draw knife and spokeshave then turn them on a pole lathe. Man, I have to build one of those. A beautifully traditional method of turning wood - driven by a treadle connected to a pole (or bungee or anything else flexible) with a connecting line that is wrapped around the item to be turned. Here's me making my first turned item, a dibber, on the lathe:
Robin offered just the right balance of leaving me to make mistakes, from which I learnt a bucket load, correcting me and offering to put the finishing touches to my pieces in order to take them from just OK to perfect. I've done a lot of teaching/training in my days and recognise when I come across someone who genuinely enjoys imparting knowledge upon people. And he and Vanessa provide exactly my sort of lunch! If you are interested in learning how to use a pole lathe, how to work green wood, how to carve, how to sharpen tools or any other wood related skills, I'd highly recommend looking up Robin at www.treewright.co.ukMy pot scraper, rounders bat, dibber and spatula:
I've since started my own tool collection. Thus far I have inherited a couple of gouges and a skew chisel from my dad, picked up a cheap spokeshave and bought a couple of new carving knives from an excellent shop on Southampton Row in London called Buck and Ryan. They have a small concession in Selfridges but the main store is really where you want to go!Next step is to build a shave horse and a pole lathe...
It was my friend's birthday recently. She decided we'd go karting. One of my favourite activities. I was quite looking forward to it. A little liquid on the track and my kart decided it could no longer be bothered to go round corners. Went straight on into a barrier. Hit my leg on the steering column among other injuries. It 'king hurts. Doctor told me that it is an impressive injury but I'll be fine. I tried to disagree but apparently a PhD in medicine outranks my GCSE in biology. Here's my leg just after the injury happened:
Actually looks worse now, one week later. I'm not posting any photos of it in its current state, makes me feel unwell...
As you get to know me, you will learn that squirrels and I aren't exactly the best of friends. We had a disagreement about the ownership of a couple of sunflowers about 5 years ago and it has been steadily downhill ever since. Due to the ongoing feud, I deem it necessary to cage up most of my vegetable plants. I am currently growing some tomatoes (gardener's delight and peacevine if you're interested, red ones if you're not) in one of my cloche type mini greenhouses with a net construction firmly fastened to the front to prevent the tree rats from entering. I thought it was foolproof until I just went for a stroll and saw a half eaten tomato wedged between the outside of the back of the greenhouse and the fence. There are no visible signs of entry so I'm a little confused as to what's going on. Surely the squirrels wouldn't be so mean as to steal a tomato from elsewhere and wedge it behind my greenhouse, would they...?
Different woods work very differently. Poplar, being a very fast growing tree is very light. It isn't the finest wood but has its benefits. Cherry is great to work and looks lovely when finished. I also tried messing about with an old, dry piece of London plane. Such hard wood it is almost impossible to carve. Got a great idea of what I want to do with it though. Watch this space...
