Turnings 'n' Toys

Good grief, my head is buzzing, Pages, Content, Tag Clouds, Stats, Likes, Shares, Widgets, Posts, Comments, Feedback. I guess I didn’t really think about getting an ‘online’ presence too well and am now reaping the rewards for a serious lack of planning!! When do I get the chance to make some shavings??? Ah!!! I do all this computerthingamebob techno stuff while you are all tucked up in bed.

However, things are slowly moving in the right direction. I have arranged a meeting with a photographer (I couldn’t take a decent photo if my life depended on it).  So with any luck, you will have something to look at next time you pop in.

It’s cold, wet, dank and downright miserable, it’s supposed to be Spring / Summer, not this depressing, grey, overcast crud!! My shed is unheated (for technical reasons that I will not go into here) and I do not like the cold anymore. It’s amazing just how much the weather affects the woods I work with. Getting pieces finished can be interesting to say the least. Temperature and humidity levels can change the size and shape of wooden objects quite significantly, which is a little frustrating (did I say Little??) at times.

Okay, so I’m a little slow with the blog posts. I’ve been busy!! Unfortunately not producing things, but trying to get my shed into some form of organised chaos. It resembled a pile of assorted junk that had been carefully tidied with the assistance of a Hand Grenade or two. It doesn’t help that I am sharing my little space with the V8 engine (in a lot of pieces) from Marc’s Range Rover.

Can I see 9 conrods or is that 81/2 ??????

Actually, I don’t mind the smell of engines and oil.  As a mechanic for a period of time in my former life I got used to the assorted odors of a workshop and it does make a change from Cyanoacrylate, Cellulose Thinners, Waxes and Finishing Oils.

A quick update, The problem with tidying up, is you can never find anything afterwards. Having coming close to throwing, not only my teddies, but the whole damn shed out of my pram. I found what I was looking for and in the process came upon a chunk of cherry wood lying around in the shed. So I turned a bowl.

Damp shavings fly!!

The Cherry wasn’t all that dry, so it may well crack or warp. Only time will tell, but it did feel good to be turning again. When I find my phone or the family camera I will attempt to take a photo of the bowl, away from the distractions of the shed.

The Major Down Side of woodturning is …

More Hampster Bedding!!!

The shed is a mess again!!!!!

The wife and kids are back at school and the house is quiet. Not a bad weekend, all things considered. A trip to A&E yesterday evening to give the medics a chance to remove a very very small piece of the Rotavator Marc is trying to fix, from my left eye where it had taken up residence. ( I think I shall give up helping him … every time I do, I end up injured. I wonder if he’s trying to kill me off a bit at a time?) Poole’s finest medic’s couldn’t / wouldn’t  remove it!! So off to Bournemouth hospital (Eye Dept.) this morning …  Success, a very nice nurse removed the offending sliver of steel with a deft swipe of a scalpel blade from close to the middle of my eye. It was tiny, but it felt like something the size of a Scammel wheel nut. A pleasant drive home courtesy of my neighbour (Cheers) and it’s coffee time. OK, coffee and a few puffs of my electronic ciggie and off to the  shed  sorry, Workshop for a quick tidy up before making some more mess.

Got conned into helping at the allotment, Marc and I started to clear the detritus left over from the previous owner(s)  I have a feeling that they must have had part shares in a chicken wire and wriggly tin recycling company from the amount we managed to tear, rip, pull up and swear at. A minor communication error between us and yes, blood was spilt. Mine!!! My trigger finger now has ventilation,courtesy of the wire. At least it lowered my blood pressure, mostly all over my trousers!

Yes, it’s the weekend and not just any weekend. It’s a Bank Holiday Weekend!! Am I sat in a traffic queue heading for the coast for the quintessentially British tradition of going somewhere nice, only to spend half of the day sat in the car listening to the kids whinging?  No of course not. I am looking out at a dull overcast day whilst mentally totting up the list of things I have to do. Ahh, I hear the call of the coffee machine, Okay perhaps I can spare the time to have just one more mug and maybe a choccie biscuit!