It's amazing how dependent I get on technology I know and how reluctant I am to change. I haven't been blogging lately because I haven't been using my regular laptop a lot and that's where I have my photos stored. To surf the net and read email I use my netbook which boots up much more quickly and doesn't have issues when I leave it on and let it go to sleep. Until now, I haven't put any photos on it. So big learning experience since the operating system is linux rather than Windows. I have a picture of the Christmas tree. I don't think that the quality is all that good but it's a start. I was in a hurry and didn't pay attention to the camera settings. I'll experiment but at least this is a start.
Yee haw. That worked. Okay on to other things.
It was a very different Christmas this year. It's the first Christmas without Richard's mom and the second one without my mum. The biggest change is that I'm not teaching so the rhythm of the year is turning out to be entirely different. Christmas was always such a highlight because it was a time when I knew I could rest, catch up on my sleep and do pretty much what I wanted. Well, I can do those things all the time now so Christmas wasn't as special. I still enjoyed it but it was very different. We didn't have the usual number of parties to go to and that's when I felt a wee bit isolated rather than being part of a group. That didn't really bother me although I did note the difference.
Richard made a very good point when he observed that now my life is more uniform so there isn't nearly as much contrast in the highs and lows. He suspects, and I think he's right, that I'm living much closer to the top of the highs than I did when I was teaching. A good thing that I need to get used to.
We've spent a lot of time reading, watching movies, surfing the web and woodworking in Duncan's shop. The other day I made my first mitered corner box. One of my goals for the new year is to make friends with the table saw. I'm beginning to understand that these machines do make life easier for the woodworker in that they save time and the operations are repeatable. I'll still use the hand tools a great deal and I want to expand my repertoire so that I can make many different kinds of boxes, some of which will be quicker and some of which will take longer. I've always wanted to make a box with mitered keys in the corners and the first attempt turned out quite well, with a lot of help and patient instruction from Duncan.
The boxes that Richard and I sold for Christmas presents were very well received which made both of us feel good. I'm going to have to resist the temptation to immediately give away each box I make. I want a selection so I can put them in the Retired Teachers Art Show in the spring.
Now that Angus is an 'only budgie' he is more interested in becoming a member of the larger flock. He has come out of his cage several times and has stepped up onto our fingers and sat there for several minutes. The last time he was out I was able to carry him back to his cage on my finger and get him to step onto the door of the cage which was propped open. Before he has flown to the top of the cage and I've had to catch him to put him back. He will now give wing stretches in the morning and he vocalizes a bit more than he used to although Manx certainly was the more talkative of the two.
Just because I can, here are some of the other boxes that are currently under construction. The curvy one with the two drawers is of cherry. The smaller one with the different coloured drawer pulls is ash and purple heart and the other two small ones are purple heart. The box with the keyed corners (above)is cherry and the keys are walnut. I haven't decided whether to make a walnut top or a cherry top for this one. I'm still in the process of shaping the three drawer box and goofed on the middle drawer so I need to do a bit of work on it before it will fit properly.
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