Handmade

I've had a good couple of hours at the end of the afternoon after struggling for hours with a broken website which I finally fixed and escaped from the on-line world into the real world.

I've a workshop - set up in the past few months for green woodworking - bodging chairs and woodcarving. Making real physical objects is such a tonic after years of working in the virtual world of computer programs. I feel so much more alive after an hour or two working with my hands and there's a satisfaction in making something solid and beautiful and long lasting.

I can recommend the book with the very long title - "The Case for Working with Your Hands: or Why Office Work is Bad for Us and Fixing Things Feels Good" and totally agree with the sentiment.

The picture shows a couple of roughed out spoons ready for final carving. They're from a branch I pruned from a damson tree in the garden. They came out very nicely - some of the best I've carved - and I'm looking forward to eating my porridge with one of them in a couple of days when it's dried out and been sealed with walnut oil.