Shake, Rattle and Roll

We went to have brunch with my bro and sis-in-law yesterday morning. Lovely to see them and Anya. She's looking more adorable every day. I took along a little gift I'd made. It is my first baby rattle that I consider good enough to give away. In short: I had a log of ash, split it, shaped it, shaved it, halved it, carved it, filled it, glued it, finished it.

As it is designed to be used by a little person, my motivation was to keep everything as inert as possible. All steps of the project were done by hand. I picked up the freshly felled log from a woodland in Surrey and did all the shaping and carving using only manual hand tools. Getting the rattle to sound right was a fun task. In my prototype, I used a combination of dry wild rice and dry red lentils. Sounded OK but needed a deeper tone. After several shake tests, I settled on a combination of dry soya bean and dry pearl barley, giving a great combination of high and low tones. The finish was a couple of coats of Chestnut Products Finishing Oil which is safe for use on toys per British Standard EN 71. I like it. It is attractive, tactile and functional:


Hopefully have time to perfect the design soon...

Not all doom

Nor, indeed, all gloom.

Firstly, the new copy of Living Woods magazine arrived this morning. I must admit, it doesn't seem right without my name in it, but that merely serves as motivation for me to get working on some creative projects.

I also received some great presents for my birthday on Monday. Ray Tabor's Encyclopaedia of Green Woodworking, Lost Crafts by Una McGovern, Grow Your Own Drugs by James Wong, the Slumdog soundtrack, the new Kings of Leon album, Hampton Court Flower Show tickets, a wind up lantern, a cool shed hanger, an old wooden block plane and more.

A little over thirty if you must know...

What is motivation?

Having been hideously over worked in the last few months, I am wondering what is the definition of motivation. Times have been quite tough of late and it makes one question one's beliefs, fabric and ethics. I strive to do everything with which I am tasked and with which I task myself to the best of my ability, within reason, of course, but am currently questioning why. Why bother pushing myself when there is no reward forthcoming? Why do any more than my hours? There are no long term career prospects in my office. Recent events have clearly illustrated that I'm not secure in my job regardless of how well I perform. There will be no raise this year and only sufficient bonus to purchase a Mars Bar for the outstanding performers. I am far from a socialist but am curious about the benefit of working to rule. It would likely only last a day as it rather contradicts my ethics but maybe I'll try. Once my current project is complete , of course!

At the very least, I need to redress the work-life balance. 14 hour working days are not good for anyone...

15 years - RIP

1st May 2009, fifteen years since Ayrton Senna was killed in the San Marino GP. An unmatched talent illustrated by this video of his lap around the streets of Monaco in 1991:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUkv6P-2SAw

Feel honoured to be able to remember watching him race!

The Garden in April

It is, apparently, one of those times. I've not posted for ages and now can't resist the temptation to post multiple times in one night.

So, I've been busy, as always. Work has been a struggle! It is enjoyable but we've had yet another round of redundancies which, again, I survived. Of course, I'm happy to still have a job that I enjoy, albeit a demanding one. It is hard to see friends of many years go through the hardship with which they are now faced. The company looked after them well, however, which restores a little faith. So I have now survived three rounds of lay-offs. Does that mean I am good, lucky, cheap, or a combination of the three? I dunno. What I do know is that there are fewer people in the company and we need to do the same amount of work. One of my colleagues made an amusing point about "the firm" no longer dangling the carrot in front of us, they are now beating us with both the stick and the carrot. Feels true at times. Especially when working until 9 or 10pm several consecutive weeks.

Whatever... this weekend is a five-dayer. Had Thursday and Friday off, have Monday off too. The reason? St George's Day, spring, my birthday, exhaustion, stuff planned, things to do. Had lunch at Mr. Blumenthal's place today and escaped without norovirus. Result!

I didn't realise how much gardening there was to do until I had spare time. Many things accomplished, aside from the veg planting I've already mentioned. We have many sedum growing in our garden. Most of them are the traditional Sedum spectabile but we have some white flowering variety also. Sedum can be glorious, despite their "see dem grow" reputation, and I've been experimenting with pruning them in spring to ensure they flower later and lower. The latter is more important - sedum get leggy and the weight of the flower heads coupled with the long stems means they are often found resting on the lawn rather than providing the expected late summer colour midway up the borders. My method is simple - cut all the heads off the plants, down to about one third of their growth, any time from the middle of April to the middle of May. As I say, I've been experimenting with it for a couple of years and am sufficiently confident that I have done it to every single head this year. The expected result is a beautiful cluster of self-supporting heads in early autumn that will last until December. We'll see.

Other highlights? I pruned Wesley, my wisteria, per instruction from Bernard at Wisley last year. Lo, he flowers! Wesley, not Bernard. The cornus are beautiful now that they are in leaf. The ranunculus, tulips, dicentra, azaleas, rhododendron, kerria and mahonia are all romping away, providing stunning stress-relieving colour to an already delghtful space. See:


Other news... I am now Uncle-Plutus. Welcome to the world beautiful little Anya. Also, welcome young Sen! I look forward to being an influence on both of your lives - lots to teach. And yes, I do realise that week old babies can't read blogs!

I have lots to do tomorrow. I'm currently working with some ash and some walnut and have many things to create. So little time...

Paper Potted Beans

I've been busy sowing and planting recently. Most of my veg are now in the soil having been started off in the greenhouse. Could be a little early for some of the beans to brave the elements but I'm both optimistic and impatient so, combined with the fleece protection with which I've covered them, I think things will be OK. This year I started many of my beans in newspaper pots. Last year my friend Sean gave me a paper potter made by Nether Wallop Trading Co. It is a simple, tactile design that enables you to make seed pots from newspaper. Seeing as we only get round to putting our paper out for recycling once a month, there are plenty of unmade pots round here. Incidentally, Sean runs a wonderful little oasis of tranquillity just off the Kentish Town Road called The Boma: http://www.bomagardencentre.co.uk/

If you are ever in North London, I'd highly recommend popping your head through the door, not just because he's a mate. He sells a huge array of wonderful things for your garden and it was looking particularly beautiful and serene in the spring sunshine when I popped in last Saturday while helping my friend Mo landscape her weed patch, er, I mean garden.

Anyway, back to the paper potter... I've been growing a whole variety of beans, as you will have read in a previous post, some of which are significantly more vigorous than others. The borlotti beans took off surprisingly quickly:


I had, however, evidently firmed down the compost in one of the paper pots a little too hard. He showed no sign of breaking through the surface but the pot was steadily climbing above the others. Indeed, he had broken through the bottom of the sodden pot and was propelling himself skyward:


Soon rectified and he's now happily in the veg bed awaiting summer sunshine...

Weekend-tastic

Been a busy and exhausting weekend. Spent Saturday in Wiltshire tending to grandpa-in-law's garden. Lovely to catch up with Cyril and to enjoy his beautiful view over a sheep-filled field. Sunday was a garden day. I managed to get my first crop of peas planted - yellow mange tout, hurst green shaft, little marvel and the 10ft climbers. About 80 plants in all I think. Sure the slugs, mice, squirrels, foxes, cats and other critters will each claim their share. Planted out some purple kohl rabi and a couple of radish varieties too. Also put out my broad beans of the red epicure variety and a few red little gem lettuces between my onion rows. Hopefully they'll all work in harmony together!

No photos this time I'm afraid. A relatively woodwork free weekend too. Next one's a four-dayer tho', can't help but get some good stuff done...

I Love Spring

It's true, I do. Here's why...

So many forgotten treasures in the garden reminding you of why you love them
Progress in the greenhouse every day
Longer, lighter days
Sunglasses need dusting off
The Formula One season has started
It's the business end of the football season
Nearly the beginning of the cricket season AND it's an Ashes summer

All wonderful things! What makes this spring better than all the others? Not only am I very proud of Mrs P, I am also soon to be an uncle and am rather excited. Looking forward to meeting little niece-P soon (note I don't refer to her as P-niece - say it to yourself a few times and you'll understand why).

Here's a picture of a viola from my garden:

Gone for a predominantly yellow theme this spring with more colours joining the party as spring grows into summer.

Few other things before you go.
Had a great weekend. Got up for the live qualifying and race in Australia. Knackered now but I only have to meet my new CEO for the first time tomorrow, nothing important. Busy day Saturday in the workshop. Made a few things - a bench hook, a sanding pad and a mahogany test tube holder for Mrs P senior's botanical drawing classes (although stupidly forgot to take a photo). Experimented with some ideas - built working prototypes that look pretty good. Today had a lovely lunch with the family. Got home, planted up all my beautifully chitted potatoes, weeded my onion and garlic beds and added a few filler plants, including a couple of interesting dwarf miscanthus, to the borders courtesy of Mr & Mrs P senior-in-law last weekend.

Happy days...

Le jardin

Garden's going well too. While much of my time has been occupied with the workshop, there has been a little time to plant a few new additions. A bunch of Cornus sericea 'Flaviramea' offset by a single Cornus alba 'Sibirica' underplanted with several Heucheras (Key Lime Pie and a purple one, possibly Amethyst Myst). All this has a quickthorn hedge as a backdrop with a young laburnum to give a bit of height. All sounds very impressive but the plants are quite young so will take a while to establish.

Veggie-wise, last week's warm weather has helped things along very well. This year, I'm concentrating mostly on peas and beans with a few root crops. Here's a few of the varieties I'm trying:
Peas - Hurst Green Shaft, Little Marvel and some yellow mange tout and another clibming variety from Mr. H
Beans - Dwarf french 'purple king', broad 'red epicure', climbing purple, borlotti, dwarf french yellow 'berggold', Kidney bean 'yin yang' (from the Eden Project range!) and dwarf green 'Triomphe de Farcy
Kohl Rabi - both purple ('Modrava') and white ('Lanro')
Radish - normal red ones and some 'Hilds blauer Herbst und Winter'

Then there's the salad crops, a few brassicas and some peppers, a couple of types of carrots, my potatoes, japanese onions, garlic and horseradish. Sounds like a lot but we'll see what survives the squirrel attacks. Things are looking OK so far:


You should stop by some time...

Another New Beginning

Hello. Yes, yes, another long time between posts. I reluctantly apologise for keeping you waiting but there are two good reasons:
1) I've been spending every waking hour that I've not been at work building and furnishing my workshop
2) You don't exist and therefore are not entitled to voice an opinion (if, in fact, you do exist please post a comment, send me an email, give me a call, write about me on your blog, publish my URL... anything you like really).

So what's been going on in the world?

I'll go first...
OK, the usual rubbish about work - it's busy, challenging, tough, but actually quite fun. Enough of that. What about important stuff? Well, as you may have seen and guessed, I've been building my workshop. Woodworking outside in the winter doesn't sound too hard but it has been a rough winter and I have been suffering having been exposed to such miserable weather. Also, as the warmer weather arrives, I don't really want to be sawing and banging within earshot of all and sundry so a remote location (end of my garden) is perfect. Previous post shows the base Mr P senior and I built in January. Here it is again:
So then we built the workshop a few weeks later. It was on sale from a garden building website - actually remarkably good quality and easy to assemble:

So Mrs P and I agreed that "generic shed orange" wasn't the colour this building was going to stay. After a discussion about masculinity and a couple of Cuprinol tester pots, we agreed on a light green called willow. The result? Judge for yourself:

What do you think? I rather like it.

So in all, the project didn't cost too much. Aside from the building itself:
- I already had the slabs for the base so that part only cost me a few bags of sand and cement
- No additional screws or nails were needed to build the thing although I did invest in a roll of stronger felt for the roof
- I chose to insulate the interior. I was debating what would be the best solution and, despite being tempted by Celotex decided upon polystyrene and hardboard from Wickes. In all, that job cost about £50.
- The furniture? Bench is made out of an old door courtesy of my friends HY and W. Thanks again - it is perfect! The legs are made out of old fence posts etc that I had.
- I built a shelf unit for the right wall. I had a load of old pine shelves (also courtesy of HY&W) that had been sitting in the shed awaiting a purpose. Indeed they found one. I needed a few lengths of timber for the upright and long, lower shelves but managed to pick these up from a local timber yard for buttons.

So, in all, while it took quite a few hours, it cost me very little. Result!

Now, however, I must allow my little paradise to fulfill its potential. The potential to transform my spare time from well-intentioned pottering to a productive and lucrative past-time. Indeed this is a new beginning...