Red bellied black snake

This little bloke was slithering about in the long grass. Awesome to watch but fearsome just the same.

One good turn deserves another

As promised, here are a few of the items that I have created over the last few months.   I have given quite a few away and also turned some items to order.

I really like the grains in the different woods.   Some woods are more difficult to turn than others and I find that I learn something new each time I attempt a new article.

I started turning pens and branched out to other areas as I became more confident.   I still like turning pens and am attempting to have a collection of each type of wood that I come across.

When we get back from our next trip, I want to have a go at creating jewelery boxes.   Here are a few close ups of some of my turned boxes.

 

Australian Prickley Pear



Olive

And my first attempt to carve....



The Boot



 

 

Bonsai

When Eileen and I decided to sell up and travel, the most difficult decision that I had to make was to sell off my Bonsai collection of over 150 trees.   I was able to rationalise this by taking a couple of my little starters with us.

I took a small sem-cascade Fig and a small formal upright Fig and this little Sao-to-me Azalea.   When we arrived at our first camp site, I was devistated to find that something had fallen on this little one and broken the apex.

With lots of time on my side, I created a new leader in order to form a new apex and am happy to report that this one is well on its way to becomming a fine bonsai.

This spring I will repot and change the potted angle a little and expose a bit more of the nice root structure

My new hobby

As you all know, I'm not at all happy doing nothing and now that we both have more free time, I have taken up a new hobby.

As long as I can remember, I have been good with my hands and I like creating.   Working at Carba-Tec has given me the opportunity to learn to work with wood.  To this end I purchased a small lathe and have been learning how to turn wood.

So far I have turned Pens, Small Lidded Boxes, Salt and Pepper Grinders and Bowls and Platters.   I will show you some of my successes soon.

My Lathe

My workshop looking in

My workshop looking out

Bath Time

Mum and Dad don't like me to get doggy smelly, so every week they take me for a nice bath at the shops.

I love my bath time.......

Three weeks to our trip

Starting to get excited now. We have purchased the Annex and Port Room and have done most of the little jobs around the van that we wanted to do. We are especially happy with the new vaccume toilet, it has made life so much easier than the dump trolly.

Unfortunately Brian and Shirley can not join us this trip as Shirlies hip is giving her a lot of gip and sitting in a seat for hours at a time is just going to be too painfull.