Last year at the Spring Bank Holiday I participated with colleagues from the Peak District Artisans in the Derbyshire Open Arts event, at Beechenhill farm near Ilam, home of Sue and Terry Prince. It's a very nice venue, held in a beautifully converted barn, albeit well...
In 1993 we were living in a small house in St Mary's Gate in the centre of Wirksworth, but looking to buy somewhere in the Derbyshire Dales. Our requirements were, somewhere traditional, big enough for us and our two children (aged 11 and 8 at the time), and a large g...
A couple of weeks ago I had an email from a person who identified himself only by his first name, which I didn't recognise. He just asked how big a piece I could turn in my lathe, and gave me dimensions of something he needed turned for a project. I read it as being fr...
I've had a good autumn of turning, including successful shows and quite a few interesting commissions. In the run up to Christmas I thought I would make some of my food presentation boards, but this time out of really decorative wood. Here are some of the results.
Big word, but it perfectly expresses the relationship between trees and fungi. They live off each other. Not all fungi of course. Particular trees have particular fungi. Often they feed on the living tree, but when the tree dies they begin to take over. It takes time,...
I wrote a couple of months ago about about the field maple that had to come down and how what was to have been a big bowl split into two halves. I tried to salvage the halves, which were punctured by screw holes. Just so as you know, one of them I rescued after a fashi...
Every January Jacky and I go up to the Forest of Bowland in North Lancashire for a few days walking. It's a forest only in the Norman sense, i.e. a royal hunting ground, and indeed a large chunk of it still belongs to the Duchy of Lancaster ie, the Queen. The scenery i...
I've recently read two books about trees, both of which I would recommend. One is "The Hidden life of Trees" by Peter Wohlleben (Greystone Books, £16.99). The other "The Wisdom of Trees" by Mark Adams (Head of Zeus, £14.99). As the titles indicate, these are not t...
It was probably in 2002 when the University of Derby had bought the Royal Devonshire Hospital (which includes the Dome) in Buxton and was in process of refurbishing it at great expense. I made one of my routine visits to inspect progress, accompanied by the Es...
