Bits and pieces

I put these flowers into a jug and put them on the windowsill to have a good soak while I went to do more gardening, inadvertently creating a nice little vignette.

Having gardened myself to a stand-still ( or rather, a sit-still) over the last three days. I've had a rest-day today, and read a lot of this book, The lost carving by David Esterley. Esterley is a virtuoso wood-carver, who was called in to help repair the fire-damaged Grinling Gibbons carvings at Hampton Court after the fire there in 1986. He documents his journey of getting to know Gibbons' work and working methods as a fellow-carver, and his own career up until that time. "Carvers are starvers" he was told when he decided to take up the art, meaning that this is not a career that one undertakes to make money. His carving is very fine indeed, well matching the work of his teacher and nemesis, Grinling Gibbons. What amazes me is the depth of knowledge that a carver of this standard has to have. How to correctly sharpen tools is a work in itself, to say nothing of knowledge of woods and their properties, a skill in design and drawing, and the physical co-ordination to execute these fabulous art-works. Thankfully there are still people like Esterley who keep these skills and knowledge alive.