Walking creative walks

The workshop seems empty today. I enjoyed finishing up a few outstanding projects and meeting the visitors. Sold a piece too. People really like the Hope Chest but I can’t sell it until we have filmed it for the next DVD series and completed all the photography. I think I could have sold it three times this week had I had a price tag on it. People really like chests and especially oak hope chests. There’s something really solid about them. Kind of like, well, hopeful, you know?

I walked in the woods a couple of times for my sanity walk and to think through different events I am working on. This is often where my designs begin and I think about proportions, shapes, purpose and so on. As I walk I pick tenon sizing and dovetail options in my head. I make mental notes and choose wood types, accents and hardware as I look up through the branches and smell the rain in damp pockets and woody tilth.

It’s rained on and off for a few days, but this was a day of mixed showers and the kind I enjoy. I like standing under the trees when the rain pours as I walked I saw how saturated the colours were, especially in the flowers by the Penrhyn Castle entrance to the grand house. The trees are gaining that wonderful lime green colour and I love the shades in the early leaves of the copper beeches. The wild cherries are full of blossom and one tree I know has a nest of bees that gather from it as I walk.

I know that I live in a wonderful world and I do not take it for granted. I would that others could and would get off the conveyor belt. I work hard and long hours as I need to and shift from physical work to writing frequently so that my next book will be ready for the new year. Life choices reflect in your expectations and being realistic is critical to wellbeing. I know many people who invest and gamble in unreal expectations and false optimism.