The critters with whom we share our lives

It's a sad day today. Manx, the livelier of the two budgies, died this morning. We knew he was sick. I took him to the vet on Thursday and got the bad news. We've kept him as happy and comfortable as we could and he continued to be pretty feisty until the end. Last night he was out of the cage on Richard's hand which is a big accomplishment. He was also eating millet with his regular gusto so I think he had a good last meal.

He was all puffed up this morning and got to the point where he was losing his balance on the perch and made his way down to the bottom of the cage and lay down. I called the vet and when I picked him up to put him in the carrier he was still breathing. I talked softy to him, which I like to believe helped him stay calm, and by the time I got him to the vet's he was dead.

We will miss him. He was the one who kept up the running budgie commentary during the day and had the repertoire of strange little noises that made us laugh. The house is very quiet now. Perhaps Angus, the remaining budgie will start making some noises. Who knows. We find budgie chatter so cheerful and have enjoyed the way it has filled the house for the last 11 months.

I don't think we'll be getting another bird for a while. We'll concentrate on the flock of two we have. It's sad when a pet dies but they provide us with so much entertainment and laughter and really demand very little in return. I hope Manx had a good life with us albeit a short one.

Very Different This Year

Here we are in the second week of Advent and this year the Christmas Season will be different in many ways. It will be the first Christmas without Richard's mom and the second Christmas without my mum. Even though neither of them was able to come to Christmas dinner for the last couple of years, we set aside time to see them on Christmas Day. Usually we have planned Christmas well in advance but this year it will be very casual. We're having one friend over and perhaps David and perhaps Bill depending on when he is going out to the coast. It will be very quiet.

The lead up to Christmas has always been a time of great anticipation, probably because I've always been exhausted at this point in the year and have felt that if I could just hang on until the holidays, I could rejuvenate. I watch myself calmly living the days this year and I'm very grateful that I feel none of the desperation that usually accompanies the season. I'm not exhausted from teaching. I get enough sleep and my days are filled with interesting things to do.

I have one more coat of wax to put on the last of the Christmas commissions so I'm well ahead of the game there instead of putting finishing touches on boxes on Christmas Eve. I have no gifts bought for Richard yet but I have a couple of ideas. Christmas will be small this year since we have only 3 people besides each other with whom we exchange gifts.

The singing schedule is busy as it is every year and that is what makes the season fun. This year in our house, Christmas will be a quiet time to look back and enjoy all the gifts we have throughout the year. Mum used to say that she didn't like Christmas because all of her usual activities came to a halt. Perhaps I will feel that way one day but this year I'm grateful that so many of the days have been like Christmas Day, pleasant cozy and quiet. I know it's nearing Christmas because the Christmas cactus that refused to bloom for so many years has many blooms on it.

The bunny that frequents our yard has turned white even though there is very little snow. He (she?) nibbles at the bits of grass that are still green and sometimes snuggles up to the woodpile where it's more sheltered. I saw the cat from across the street in our yard today and wondered if it would scare the bunny off but the bunny remained in the yard for much of the afternoon. I always like to look out my window and see him there.

Another way I know Christmas is coming is that it's dark out at 5 pm, although this year I can go out in the sun every day if I want to and I don't have to drive to work in the dark and come home in the dark. So many changes. most of them good.

Crankin' out the boxes

I finally finished a box that has been on my mind for the better part of three years. I've attempted it before but none of the attempts suited me well enough to give it as a wedding gift. Now that the couple has been married for almost three years, I've finally finished the box. There are still things about it I don't like and I think they're things that most people wouldn't notice. I really enjoyed making it and the dovetails are almost as good as I'd like them.

I'm also working on a series of little boxes. One will, I hope, find a home next year in the charity auction for Foothills Academy and the others will be under Christmas trees. I'm in good shape with the ones I'm making for gifts. I have two left to do. The parts are all cut and the next step is to prepare the surfaces and glue them up.

We continue to make slow progress with the budgies. Today I took them to the vet's to get their wings and nails clipped. Of course, that meant I had to catch them first. They have been eating out of our hands for a while now and Manx doesn't hesitate now to come down from his perch and hop onto the hand when we have millet for him. I managed to catch both of them and neither tried to bite me. That is quite a milestone. They still don't like to be caught but they don't panic as much as they used to. While they were in their travelling box I took the opportunity to give their cage a good cleaning. We're hoping, now that they're clipped, that we can coax them out of the cage and begin to do some clicker training with them.

Life in the fast lane

Since my last post (rephrase that) Since I last posted to this blog I've been busy doing all sorts of things. The latest adventure was a trip to Victoria for a four-day intensive in graphic facilitation and graphic recording. Christina Merkley from whom Richard and I both took a workshop a couple of years ago, is moving out of the graphic recording and facilitation field and into graphic coaching. This was her last class so I decided I'd better get on it. It rained quite a bit but the views from the hotel were still gorgeous.

I've been interested in visual mapping, cognitive mapping, mind mapping whatever you'd like to call the animal since the early '80's. I've used visual maps to prepare for workshops I was giving, summarize content for students and give unit outlines as well as to make my own 'to do' lists.

This was the practice facilitation map that a group of four of us produced. There is software to whiten the background but my photos weren't good enough to really make that effective.

About four years ago I came across a book called Mapping Inner Space: Learning and Teaching Visual Mapping by Nancy Margulies with Nusa Maal. The book is well used and well loved as evidenced by the dog-eared corners, sticky tabs and paper clips to mark various pages. What I particularly like about the book is the format: it used one page of written text and on the opposite page is a visual map. When I got the book I started looking around on the web for information and discovered Christina Merkley in Victoria.

Working with Christina was a great experience. She wanted a volunteer to work with to produce a career map so I volunteered. I have the map which, unfortunately, doesn't fit anywhere in the house. I can unfold it between the living room and the kitchen to get a look at it but it will have to stay folded up for the most part. I'll take some pictures of it. Also, Christina had our conversation and the mapping process as we talked videoed for You Tube. I haven't checked to see if the back of my head is a movie star yet but it will be up eventually. I'm not sure how I'll use my developing skills in the graphic recording and facilitation area. I'm not that keen on facilitation, too much like teaching but I have volunteered to do some recording of meetings. I'll see what turns up.

I had a couple of minor adventures going through security at the airport both in Calgary and Victoria but that's a story for another day.

The other thing I've been enjoying since I got back is my box-making. I've made a box with curly maple and some of the walnut out of Mum and Dad's bedstead. It got water damage when it was stored in the atic so none of the auction places wanted it. I figured that a series of boxes would be a good way to use the wood and there's quite a bit of it there. I won't post a picture until I get it finished but it's the best dovetailed box I've ever made. It's still not where I'd like it to be but the four years of cursing and swearing and bloody-mindedness are finally starting to pay off. Rob Cosman has a new saw coming out which I think will also help my accuracy.

I'm back to using mineral oil on the boxes. I used a spray laquer on one of the last ones I did but it is so stinky I had to use it outside and even then the fumes got into the garage. It's too cold out now to do the work outside so I plan to do some more experimenting with mineral oil and wax. I'd like a semi-gloss finish and I'm trying a number of coats of oil over several days before I wax it. I'm going to do the same thing with the wax: several (many?) coats over time. It won't be as fast as the spray finish but at least I'll be able to do it in the house in the winter.

Why the grass is green

I couldn't believe how long it's been since I posted. We were in Britain for a couple of weeks visiting Frances, Mike and Sophia and then hiking the Cumbria Way. We attended a choral workshop and a rehearsal of Amabile, the girls choir Frances accompanies. We had a great time with FMS and enjoyed the choral events too.

The Cumbria Way was actually quite well marked. Some of the information we read suggested otherwise. We did take a few scenic detours but they were of very short duration. We had quite a bit of rain, but hey, this is England and the Lake District so what else do you expect? The scenery was wonderful, so different in colour than what we're used to. I had no idea how remote some of the places on the walk are. When I think of Britain I think of big cities and we saw very little of those.

We hopped on a bus and then a couple of trains immediately after we got off the plane deciding that we'd rather just stay up and travel than book a night in London. We did spend a night in London on the way back but since the train was late getting in we only saw the bit from the train station to the hotel. We walked to supper and back that night which doesn't count as seeing London. If we want to do that we'll have to plan a trip and stay in London.

As Richard says, perhaps we're just country mice at heart. We found the people in the small towns very friendly and some of the people we encountered in London were too. The cab driver who took us to the hotel was very cordial. Some of the other folks in the hotel and the restaurant gave us the feeling that they were in a big hurry and just wanted us to get out of their faces. People in general seemed to be in more of a hurry in London.

We may speak the same language in Canada as they do in Britain but the two cultures are entirely different from what we could tell. For instance, there is nothing at all in North America like the English pubs. Based on our limited experience we've decided that pubs are always nice and warm. There always seems to be a fireplace going. We were very grateful for the warmth of the Red Lion the first day when we were wet and had been tromping through farm yards. The publican told us there was an outside tap where we could rinse off our boots and, boy, did they need it!

Dogs are allowed in the pubs as are children. In the small village pubs where we ate there was always at least one dog tucked under a table and more often than not, there were two or three. You tend to forget they are there until one of them takes it into it's mind to bark at another one.

We watched one family group with a dog and were amused by the mother of the young people who seemed to own the dog. When none of the family was looking at her, she was feeding the dog 'chips' under the table. Labs seemed to be the popular breed. We certainly didn't see any small dogs.

We saw lots and lots of sheep. At first whenever we saw a black animal in the distance we both went on the alert, being used to hiking in bear country. We told one of the people at the B&B where we stayed about it and he had a good laugh. Some things are just automatic, such as looking the wrong way when crossing streets.

Frances told us that pedestrians in Britain don't have a lot of rights but that they can cross the street anywhere if there's no traffic. We never did get the hang of it. By the end of our stay we were utterly paranoid and would dash across the street as quickly as we could. Although the language is different in Europe we felt less anxiety about getting around because they drive on the same side of the road as we do. Many times when someone was going to drive us somewhere we went round to the wrong side of the car. It gives one pause about cycling in Britain.

Our rain gear got a good work out and we stayed fairly comfortable. The main problem was that we couldn't dry our boots. Mine especially are really gross. They got mildew in them and they've been banished to the garage until I can take some rubbing alcohol to them. I've tried other remedies that I found on the net and they still stink. Today at Costco I bought a four pack of rubbing alcohol and I'm hoping that I'll be able to get them back into wearable condition again. They were brand new for this trip and they performed wonderfully, not a single blister.

We have many pictures and had many adventures but I'll leave it at this for now.

Slow progress

The budgies are coming around. We've had them for nine months now and lately they have both started climbing onto our hands when we feed them millet. Manx is the braver of the two when it comes to fingers. Tonight he stood with both feet on my finger while he ate his millet and then after he'd had enough he stood with one foot on my finger for so long that I had to move my hand so I could put them to bed.

They are a long way from stepping up on command the way Bailey does, but they are also a long way from flying everywhere in a panic whenever we put our hands into the cage.

There is another change too. If a bird is frightened it won't close its eyes while you're looking at it. One of the first games we started to play with them is what we call 'Blink.' Richard or I will look at the bird and then close our eyes briefly and then look the bird in the eye again. When the bird closes his eyes even briefly we tell him what a good bird he is. Now either of the budgies will initiate the game and they keep their eyes closed for longer and longer periods. Manx had his eyes closed for so long tonight that I wondered if he was going to go to sleep with his foot on my finger.

Sometimes it's hard to be patient because I want very much to be able to have them out of the cage and sitting on my shoulder. They can't be rushed. Because they are small and their main defense it to flee when they're scared we just have to take it slowly and keep building up their trust. We haven't gone about the taming process in exactly the way the experts suggest. Maybe once they are comfortable out of the cage we can start doing some other training with them. As the old proverb says, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." We're definitely on the taming journey.

Just another day in paradise

I used to say that at school and mean it ironically. Today I'm being perfectly serious. I had a wonderful day, rode my bike downtown and, having kicked myself for not taking a camera on Monday when I rode, I took a camera today. Even though the purpose of the excursion was other than photographic, I enjoyed being able to take my time on the way home and shoot some pics. I've also decided that when you have a camera it gives you a great excuse to stop half way up nasty little hills. I took full advantage of that today.

On a random note, I think Angus the budgie has a wonderful way of cleaning his cage. When there are too many feathers in it he simply sits on the perch and flaps his wings as hard as he can causing all the feathers on the bottom of the cage to lift off and fly to the outside where they become the staff's problem to clean up. It's not only cats that have staff. I'm convinced that birds do too.

I played around with some cartooning last night and had quite a bit of fun. (no pictures of that) It's easy when someone shows you step-by-step how to do it. Also the skill of looking for shapes will carry over into other kinds of drawing.

Today I used my Blackberry to send a message that I enjoyed very much. A former colleague emailed me and, among other things, asked how I was enjoying retirement. I was able to tell him that I was sitting on a bench in the sunshine with my bike beside me overlooking the city. When I got the email I was taking a picture of some thistles that had gone to seed. It's a tough life.

Another day in the shop

I'm beginning to understand the comment (accusation?) from some spouses (not mine) that all woodworkers ever do is build things for their shops. It's one of those journey things. You don't know exactly where you're going until you get to the top of a rise and then you can see the next rise.

I resisted using power tools for a long time mainly because they were scary. I can now see the value in them. They allow me to do things faster and, in some cases, more accurately than I can do them by hand. It's a bit like using computers though. It's tempting once you start to think that the computer or the power tool can do everything when, in reality, there are some things that can be better done with a pencil or with a hand tool. Rob Cosman is right when he says that woodworkers do what they do because they enjoy the process; however there are times when I don't really care about the process: I just want the thing built.

That's how it was with the dolly I built for the cabinet in which I'm going to keep my tools. I inherited the cabinet from Mum's house when she moved out and it must be just about as old as I am. There are actually two cabinets. I'm not crazy about the colours but they are made of steel; the drawers work well, and they're very sturdy. Richard will get one for his turning supplies and I'll get one for my hand tools. That's fitting because they spent most of their lives that I know about in the hobby room holding material for Mum's sewing and silver and tools for her silversmithing and lapidary.

Anyway, back to the dolly. I used a pocket hole jig to put the frame together. It was much quicker than doing the dovetails. Just about anything is and sometimes I just don't feel like practicing. Now the tools have a home that I can push rather than lug. Neither the cabinet nor the dolly is elegant and sometimes that's okay. If I had waited to make an elegant tool board I probably wouldn't have done as much woodworking as I have in the last four years. Now I'm thinking about how I can attend to the look of my galley shop (like a galley kitchen where you can stand in one place and reach just about everything.)

I'm listening to a very interesting audio book called A Whole New Mind. In it the author maintains that we are moving from a knowledge age to a conceptual age where we will need to use our right brains to bring ideas together. He urges people to keep design notebooks and to record the design of experiences and not just things. My little shop is functional for the most part. Now I want to make it more attractive. There are many problems of space to be solved and they will certainly call for all my creativity.

Tomorrow I'm going to buy some plywood so I can put a new top on the cabinet. The one that came with it keeps falling off. I want to make a holder for my screwdrivers and think about a base for the mini-bench. There are a few boxes that need to get done. I've got blanks in clamps right now and I surfaced another board so I can cut it in half and glue up another blank tomorrow.

Another of the great things about retirement is that I hardly ever watch the clock unless it's because I want the glue to dry faster. When I was teaching I often watched the clock just waiting for the end of the period. There weren't many times when the end of a class came and I was so absored that I wasn't sure where the time had gone. This is a whole new way of life.

Big honkin' dovetails

Actually, that title may be a bit misleading. I have been working on big honkin' dovetails in 2X4's but I've also been thinking a lot about learning. Learning to cut dovetails has to be one of the hardest things I've ever done. I took the same course three times and didn't get all the projects done once. I was very glad there were no grades involved or I would have failed it three times.

Sometimes I wonder why I didn't give up on this process long ago, especially when I saw others in the classes turn out nearly perfect dovetails the first or second time. There are a couple of reasons. In the first place I'm just bloody stubborn. I don't want to leave something before I've developed a certain amount of facility with it. I remember when I was learning to swim, as an adult, that I had a lot of difficulty learning to do a stride jump. I just kept at it and eventually I got good enough at it to pass the level. Fundamentally I believe that I can learn. I used to feel for the kids who didn't think they could learn. My job as a teacher was to show them they were wrong about that. Sometimes I succeeded and sometimes I didn't.

The other reason I keep at the dovetails is because they are beautiful and I have seen that it's possible to learn how to cut them. I can make other kinds of boxes that are much quicker and people like them just as well but I want to be able to master this skill. I want the satisfaction of having the joint go together just right more times than not. Now I've narrowed the problem areas down to two and I'll take them on one at a time.

The dovetails I was working on today are part of a base for my scroll saw. Of course, anyone in their right mind probably would have used screws and glue or a biscuit joiner to put the thing together. To me, it's all practice and I need plenty of it. I'm still at the stage where good tight-fitting dovetails are the exception rather than the rule; however I now know enough to be able to see where the problems are. When I first started I didn't even know how to identify the problems. I know I have learned, not only because some parts of the joints are getting better, but also because I'm much more aware of the details than I was when I started. Part of learning is being able to do and part of learning is an altered awareness process.

The dovetails in the scroll saw base are not as tight as I'd like them but the base will be sturdy and, perhaps I'm a tiny step closer to being able to reliably produce the kind of joints I want, at least that is my hope. I'll put a picture of the finished base in another blog but there won't be any close-ups of the finished joints, at least not yet.

Autumn on the mountain trails

We changed our hiking plans today. We were going to head for the Highwood Pass in the West Kananaskis but we decided to take the quicker option and go to the East Kananaskis instead. We didn't find any larches on the eastern slopes but that didn't hamper the enjoyment we got from walking in the mountains on an unusually warm and still fall day. We didn't meet a lot of people once we were on the trail. The parking lot was so full that we had to park on the opposite side to where the actual spaces were marked. We met a couple on horses and the guy's horse was particularly skittish. We were having lunch the first time we saw them and then as we came down the trail after them he asked us to please stay put for a while because he was having trouble with his 'city horse.' I guess the poor beast wasn't used to going up and down on steep trails where there were a lot of trees on either side and not much visibility.

As we picked our way around the innumerable piles of horse poop, we began to wonder what the wilderness would be like if horse riders had to pick up after their animals the way dog owners do in the city. Either there were a lot of horses on the trail that we didn't see or horses have digestive systems with an even more rapid through-put than the birds have. The birds are good for about 20 minutes between dumps. It seemed that there were fresh steamies about every 3 meters. We did spend a fair amount of time watching the trail ahead so as not to step in any little surprises. If I had my choice though, I'd certainly rather fresh horse droppings than bear droppings and I'm thankful that we didn't see any of the latter.

The air was quite hazy today so the photos aren't as clear as they might be. I tried out the white balance on my camera designed for out-of-doors shots. It does exactly what it's supposed to do by giving more saturated greens and blues. Our total route was just over 6 km. When we got back to the car I remarked how unusual it was not to have to wear a sweater at 5 pm in the middle of September in the mountains. It was a truly enjoyable day and we even found a geocache. We took a red caribiner and left a Lee Valley universal screw driver. Bonus!

Trying on roles

Since he often works weekends and far into the night, Richard booked a day off yesterday and we decided to stay home and putter around. He did a bit of work, watched a movie and learned some new information about cascading style sheets. We both slopped around in comfy clothes, had coffee in Richard's case, tea in mine, and grazed when we got hungry. It was an idyllic day. We've decided that we're both homebodies at heart although we do like to get out and see the world whether it be the fall colours in the city, a hike in the mountains or travel to other parts of the world.

I spent the day glued to the computer, not something I want to do often, but I've been wondering for a while about the possibilities of creating slide shows with the software I have. Yesterday I actually got to sit down and play with it. I created two slide shows which took me hours and hours but that didn't matter. I was learning about software, not because I needed to do something for a class or to make it part of an assignment, but simply because it interested me. I could spend as much or as little time at it as I liked. It was time well spent. Now I have a basic working knowledge and I'll be able to use it whenever I want to create a slide show. I can see doing one for the cycling club or just putting together various photos because I like to look at them. The only feature I haven't played with is narration and that will come up eventually.

One of the huge perks of being retired is that I can learn what I want to learn when I want to learn it. Everyday I'm grateful for the internet and all of the information I have at my fingertips. I could never go back to having to wait for libraries to be open to have a question answered. My parents always valued learning and, even though they didn't have a lot of money, they bought an Encyclopedia Britanica because they thought it had the best information. It wasn't the easiest for a kid to read and when I had trouble they helped me. I learned that you can make headway on most questions if you're willing to put in the time and do the problem-solving. It's not always possible to get the answers you want but it is almost always possible to go on a satisfying exploration.

In education we talk about life-long learning and the basis of that is curiosity. We are so fortunate to live in an information-rich society so that at any time of the day or night we can take steps to have our curiosity satisfied. Of course, we must be very careful about which sources of information we trust and which we don't but that is no different than it was in the print age. The information does come at us much faster and it's often wrapped in much shinier packages.

And so, part of what I do now is to play and that is part of reinventing myself as something other than a teacher. In doing this I'm moving back to my roots in the visual arts and going from a world where people are paramount to a world where things are paramount: cameras, pencils, hand tools, wood, and of course, the objects I can create using my tools. I'm coming to know what Joseph Campbell means when he instructs, "Follow your bliss." What I do now is still very much connected to people in a different way. I hope the the objects and images I create will bring pleasure to those who view and hold them. That thought takes me into another post about artists I admire for their work and for their thoughts about the role of artists in the world. That subject is for another day.

Photos with the bike

A bicycle is a truly amazing vehicle. It will take you almost anywhere particularly if you have the time to ride it. So often we need to get somewhere in a hurry and so we take the car. Yesterday I took my bike downtown for an appointment and then rode over to have lunch with Katharine. Perhaps I looked a bit out of place in the food court with all the business people but there were a few folks in blue jeans and, I didn't go full out cycling gear. I wore a rather conservative tshirt and had an ordinary pair of shorts over my roadie shorts. Besides I'm really not too concerned about it because I'm such a fashion plate anyway. :-)

It was a gorgeous day and I decided to try to find my way along the Elbow River pathway to the reservoir so I could take some pictures. I really wanted my camera the last time I was around there and didn't have it. I had no map so it was interesting to find my way following bike path and bike route signs. I ended up where I wanted to be but certainly not by the route I intended to take. Note to self: put a bike path map in the rack trunk.

After comparing the pictures I took when walking around Glenmore to the ones I took yesterday, the ones I took on foot are more interesting than the ones I took when I was riding the bike. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe I had more time when walking to consider the possible compositions whereas when I'm riding I have to make the decisions about whether to stop or where to stop more quickly. It's an interesting theory and one which I will be checking out.

Many of the deciduous trees had lost their leaves even since Monday so I suspect if I want to do much more fall photography I'd better get after it in the next couple of days.

Last night was the first meeting of the Southern Alberta Woodworkers Society and joined up. I rode my bike to that too. All in all I clocked 50 km yesterday. Fifty km is harder on a single than on the tandem. File that information away for future reference. Today I've been a bit of a slug. I appreciate so much the luxury of taking it easy on days when I feel like doing it. I can run around again tomorrow.

Small but important events

I see it's been a while since I posted to this blog. One reason is that I didn't have any photos and I find I'm unwilling to put anything up without some sort of visual accompaniment

Back to Sunday which has been a very grumpy day for me for years. I was in the habit of doing the laundry, the grocery shopping and the marking that had been sitting on my desk since Friday night as well as any planning for classes that I had neglected. Around 2 in the afternoon I was looking around for something to do. The laundry was in and there was enough food in the house until Monday. It suddenly struck me that I could actually sit down on the couch and read a book and that's exactly what I did.

Yesterday I rode my bike to meet Judy for coffee at Glenmore Landing and then it was such a nice day I decided to continue around the reservoir the long way. It was the temperature of a summer day although not quite as hot as it was when we were cycling in Europe. Thank goodness for that! I was kicking myself that I didn't take a camera with me. There would have been some beautiful shots of the water and the trees turning. I'm hoping I can get back there before the week is out with my camera.

Today I stuck pretty close to home. I got some calls made and some things arranged and then I christened my new sharpening system and got the dovetails laid out for the latest box. I haven't cut any since July and I'm a bit nervous about starting them. The last set I made was the best one I've ever done and I'd hate to think that I'd peaked. I'll do some sawing practice before I start in on the actual joinery. I'm very pleased with how quickly I can now sharpen plane irons and how much less mess there is. I never was much for playing in the mud and with the regular water stones each sharpening session was very like playing in the mud. I'd never make a potter. Give me nice dry wood shavings any time.

An autumn walk

We took a walk up on Nose Hill today. It was a perfect temperature, blue sky and great fall colours. I have a new pair of hiking boots and decided to give them a try. I did some city walking in them last week but it was time to get them out on some rougher terrain. We weren't exactly scrambling up mountains, but we were off the path and there were hummocks and muddy bits and rocks to contend with.

My other boots still have a lot of wear left in them but I bought them before I started to run and my feet have expanded a full size since I took up the sport. Even though I haven't run much in the last year my feet didn't magically go back to their former size. Funny thing about that. Also I think I've become accustomed to a certain amount of room in footwear and I'm unwilling to put anything on my feet that doesn't feel roomy enough.

Anyway, here are some of the pictures I shot. It was fun to be out in the fresh air and the sunshine. I can quite happily putter away in my workshop day after day but it doesn't get me outside.

Ta da!

So here's the finished sharpening station. I unwrapped the plates this morning. It may not look like much but it's very satisfying to have taken another step toward the perfect workshop.