WINDY & STICKS

Yesterday I wrote about looking forward to days ahead of rain, well today it did, but in disappointing drifts and drabs, but now as I sit didgiting this, hail is hitting the windows. 

Frozen rain!!

But earlier today as the clouds scudded across the sky, it was windy, and I mean gusty.

Enough to blow the bright blue corrugated roofing almost off this farmers sheep shed. The noise of the sections flapping in the tempestuous gusts could be heard for at least a mile.

I took the above photo as I was on a hunt ... for a certain straight length of ash sapling. I've had my eye on a particular one for some years now, watching it grow by the side of the road, I also know a fellow stick maker had his eye on it too. Well ... next time he looks all he will see is this freshly cut stump! At the moment my stick doesn't look that much ...

as you can see by the said cut length leaning against on of my favourite gates, but ... give it time, at least a year when the wood is slowly cured and then cut to size and it should make quite a nice stick, as will the hazel to the right, which is now no longer growing, as it added my second cut of the day and is currently amongst other woods curing at home.

A third addition to my collection today was a rather fine thick holly, just beyond the gate. So I added three new potential sticks to my collection today, thanks to no rain today.

Now ... I don't make standard sticks as seen winning at shows like the Royal Welsh, I like mine to be a bit quirky (no surprise there then!) Some of the sticks I use regularly have  little bends in them because I like the way they feel more comfortable in my hand whether I'm going up hill or down, they have different holds to suit the inclines. I also don't make standard horn headed, crook or thumb sticks. But I have collected odd "knobbles" of wood, usually beech because of the odd ways they grow. I'm quite proud of the fact that my Dad regularly uses one of my "Knobble sticks" as he finds it the most comfortable and secure. Dad is doing well since I've returned, doing more and more each day which is brille news! We catch up on each others news every day and he really has been doing amazingly well after the many tough months that he has been through. 

But I shall leave you with one final oddity seen today, which amused me a lot ... a farmer with a sense of humour put this find on top of a fence post and as the tin pot states ...

 it was indeed "Tea Time" I was tired and ready to head home to the warmth and comfort indoors from a hail and rainy night, my new sticks starting a long curing process.

I'm ready for a bath a bit of television about scandalous Romans and then bed!