What a wonderful month.  I honestly don’t think I can remember a spring like this anywhere.  It started in February when we had days when the temperature went up into the twenties and now we have had almost unbroken spring-like weather since then.  Yes, too little rain and that his always a worry with the global warming trend, but we have done okay and the garden looks very good.

Wonderful colour in this apple wood - but I fear it may split very badly

It has been difficult to spend time indoors and although the doors have been wide open in the workshop, I have still spent too much time gardening and not enough time turning.  I have had some very lovely apple wood from my friend Gerry, but sadly I fear that I will not be able to use it as well as I would have liked.  I have finished turned some pieces and they have moved very inters tingly, but have also split despite all the care I have taken.  I have also rough turned some pieces and I have more hope for these, but not very high hopes – we shall see.

As with all my wood it came form a tree that had to be cut – it was touching telephone lines.  Even the pink ivory I brought back with me from Mozambique was not cut for timber - in this case, I knew someone who told me about a big tree that was cut when they widened the road near Nelspruit.  It makes getting wood more of a challenge, but it is possible to avoid harvesting rare woods.  I managed to get some reclaimed rosewood like this – they had been used as timbers in a barn and although it is now well seasoned, it still turns beautifully.  My local sawmill also keeps pieces for me that they are unable to saw and the carpenter who made all out wonderful doors and windows even keeps the burls that would have been rubbish for him!

A variety of bottle stoppers - write to me for availability and for bulk orders please.

So, the month of April flew by in a blur of birdsong, gardening, asparagus and starting to organise the workshop, while producing my ever popular bottle stoppers.  Now I have them made in pink ivory, rosewood, orange, local olive, wild olive form South Africa, local vine wood, beech, local oak – well – lots of different woods.  These are always popular with guests to the area – easy to take back and easy to order.  If you see some that you like, let me know – it may still be here or I can probably find one that is similar.