Ye gods, I'm getting old

The weeekend at the flower show has finished me off I reckon!!

Three days of two way journeys and lugging heavy flower pots around is too much for these tired old bones. I might have to take a day off to recover.

Anyway, its finished for another year and thanks to
a) the weather
b) the economic situation
c) the twits advertised the wrong dates on their website...............!!!!!!

the footfall was a bit down this year. In the end, the take was only about 50% of last years. Still a reasonable profit but this is the biggest one lump earner of our year so all a bit annoying.

Anyway, amongst all the rush I forgot to take a camera but these were the main elements of the display along with a floral arch. The cheshire cat decided against accompanying us to the show but allowed us to include him here sans grin. The cards had already had their heads chopped off but I omitted to do a bloody bit around their ex necks. Probably sensible as there were loads of kids at the show. Wouldn't want to upset any of the poor little dears now would we???

All quiet on the GusBlog front

Not much going on with me at the mo, its all about Ronnie.

Her main show of the year is this weekend and its been quite hard work for me.

I don't enjoy gardening or anything connected with it very much, I just cut the grass and she does all the rest. However, the show demands that we have a good display and this year's theme is Le Grande Epoche which is basically Victoriana.

We decided to do Alice in Wonderland and so I've been making silly things like giant teapots, white rabbits and headless playing cards with arms!!

Should be a laugh. I will try and remember to take some pics when its all up and running at the weekend.

Why oh why???

can't I leave well alone??

We are having a swap (SWOWP??) for the UK members of WOW. Its been extended a bit to include whoever wants to join in, its a postal swap so some of the postage might be interesting.

Anyway, I 'finished' mine early and wrapped it up and put it away. Couldn't resist having a look a few days ago and found a couple of tiny cracks had opened up. Not unusual with yew but I thought, as this is to go to another turner, I'd try and fix them!@!!

Oh dear oh dear. I'd forgotten that I hadn't put a finish on the wood but just buffed it and waxed it. The CA immediately went in and stained all around the cracks. Stupidly, I then tried to sand it out and of course, now have some flats and obvious flaws in the surface.

My wife, Ronnie, called me a ..... well it shouldn't be repeated on line.

So, I've done a back up and am going to try and remount the original and redo the outside. This is going to be very interesting indeed. Its going to have to be hot glue mounted and absolutely dead centre at that. The walls are a bit thin. So there is every chance that it won't just be spoiled but translated into firewood.

I could have just wax filled the cracks and polished but there you go. A lesson learnt every day.

Its annoying because the original had a unique feature that just made it especially attractive and its damn near impossible to repeat because it depends on the bit of wood used. I searched and searched the woodpile but nothing was right.

Shame I'm a twit.

RATS

Life is just great.

Started to cut some oak up for the fire yesterday, reached sideways for a lump of wood and POW....

....the back has gone again. Can hardly move.

There goes any turning or anything else for a week or two at least.

Probably my own fault for not doing enough limbering up and flexibility exercises every day.

My wife's brother has given her instructions to give me a good clout round the head if I don't do them!@!! Trouble is, I can't move quickly enough now to avoid the incoming!!!

As Hugh Grant so eloquently put it

"BUGGER BUGGER BUGGER"

Yew to Ash

Much as I love working it yew, it has made a lovely change to turn some different wood lately. There has been some pear, chestnut and cherry but mostly its been ash. I have three or four big chunks from a year or so ago and now have what seems like half a tree in the barn with the other half yet to arrive. The new one is well over 800mm diameter and should provide for a few bowls!!

Anyway, a few test pieces on the earlier delivery. After my experience with some green chestnut, I expected a bit of movement but this has stayed rock solid and dead round. If you work in the right grain direction, its like cutting butter. My favourite of the forms looks just like alabaster in the flesh. Really nice stuff,

More experiments to follow I suspect. I thin Ronnie has already earmarked one for our 'collection' upstairs. I though this was for money and stuff!!!!