Lockdown projects

With lockdown meaning no work for photographers, especially event photographers, I have had plenty of time to get on with some other projects I wanted to do, though with lockdown easing and enquiries for corporate work and headshots coming in, my free time will become more restricted.

The garden is the biggest one for us at home and raised beds have been built and filled, a fruit cage now covers our raspberry canes and gooseberry bushes, both of which are full of fruit. The beds have been stocked with a variety of vegetables, salads and herbs, all doing nicely. The green house now has a full complement of glass and is once again usable.

As well as already enjoying the fruits and salads that are ready now, we shall soon have fresh peas, mange-tout, chard and more. Some others will not be ready until later in the year.

The next phase of garden work will see the building of a workshop/garden office at the far end of the garden and closer to the house a new paved seating area under a pergola. There is some re-turfing of lawn to be done as well but that will wait till last.

As you can see by the photos on this page, I have been busy with another project that has been on my mind to do for a while, namely a custom dog bed made from oak. This has been an enjoyable if time consuming thing to do. The legs and sides are all good solid oak whilst the support slats are in pine. There are no nails or screws etc used to hold this bed together, just traditional joinery, draw-bore mortice and tenons. The finish is simply and couple of coats of raw linseed oil which brings out the colour and grain textures beautifully. Additionally the whole thing has been built using hand tools.

Our two dogs have taken to it straight away and seem very happy with the raised position it affords them. Sadly for them they will not have it for long as the first person to see it asked if they could buy it, so this beautiful bed is on its way to a new home very soon. I guess I will have to start again for our own dogs, unless that is, you would like me to make one for your special dog.