A Small Swarm - Landing On A Cross

The other day I had my evening planned to perfection. I had a talk quite far away (the other side of stroud) and I always like to leave in good time so I'm not rushing and I'm there nice and early. 

Then I got a knock at the door, our neighbour looks after the church, locking and unlocking it each day. He'd seen a swarm of bees. Now really I'm not next in line to get the bees from the church, having already had some and my friend who normally gets them currently being out of bees. So we, Eldest and I, walked over and had a look, all the while I tried to ring my friend. 

Simple Garden Bench

 I think I was in my late 30s when I put a stool in my workshop and it changed my working day. Getting older I think I need to sit and think occasionally! 

I wanted something for the garden for the same reason. It's good to have somewhere to park your bum and with my eldest spending so much time down there I thought it would be good for her as well. 

I've been reading Aldo Leopold, falling into his mediative essays, and you don't have to do much research about the man before you'll stumble upon one of his benches. 

Simple and quick to make with materials that are easy to find or buy. I had to build one for the veg garden. A few hours is all that's needed for this project. I will post a how-to video in a few days, but honestly even looking at it, it's obvious how to make it, only the angles and lengths need thinking over. The original is meant to be sat either way, backwards so you can rest your elbow to steady your binoculars, but I wasn't too worried about that and opted for a bigger back rest, it also kept all the materials the same. 

I loved building this and I can feel the need for a few more before the spring is out! Maybe even a single seater. 

What type of bench do you like? 

Carved Wooden Attendance Awards

 My wife told me that the award they use for the best attendance had fallen apart. 

Now in all honesty I'm not a massive fan of attendance awards, I feel that a lot of luck is needed to be well all the time, and I doubly think this when we have a a child with a disability. But the schools have targets to hit and I don't think it would be unfair of me to say that some parents let their child have a day off for anything. Growing up it felt like we would have to loose a foot to get a day off school! 

But I said I'd make her a new one, and then once I made one she said that the other half of the school would be sad theirs didn't look so nice - I should have known to make 2 from the start.

But I think as a pair they look really nice, they're both made from 50mm sycamore (so they can't be used as throwing stars) and I hand carved the wording and the design around the outside. Then treated with Briwax to help pick out the detail on the small letters. 

What do you think?

April Homestead Tour

A quick walk around the homestead while everything is bathed in the spring sunshine! 

 It's just glorious at the moment outside. 

How is your plot looking? Did you miss as many winter jobs as I did?

A Nice Day With My Son

Last week my girls and my wife had to go back to school on the Monday, but the youngest got an extra day off. 

I had planned to get some jobs done, as I had only realised he'd be with me the day before! But the jobs would work well together.