Bzzzzt!

Western Power have written to say that our electricity will be off 9am-4pm on Monday, how exciting. Could this be an excuse for a day off?

If you are dependent on electricity for medical reasons, you must inform them of this in writing. No email address is given. Given that it's Tuesday now, I think I'd be a bit worried by the idea of writing them a letter, popping it in the Wednesday morning post, and hoping that it got to them in time to prevent instant death at 9am on Mon...

Across the grain 2

Carving across the grain is now going better. I have remembered that the art is in making sure the design is all shallowly shelving cuts, not trying to force the chisel directly down. Also:

- make sure the chisel is very, very sharp.
- sort of pull it away as it moves sideways, so you get a slicing motion sideways as well as forewards
- keep an eye on the grain, and if the wood starts to tear even the least little bit, turn it round and slice at it the other way.
- don't use any force, work with the sharpness of the blade only.

Design was originally intended as a snowflake, but it appears there is no snowflake in this particular tree. It morphed in the direction of a star, and now seems to have turned into a sort of stylised angel. All seem like reasonable designs for a tree decoration, so that's all good.

I'm planning to use some of my Grandad's gold leaf to decorate it. The leaf has been sitting in a cupboard since approximately 1963 (or maybe earlier, I don't know!), but I think it probably keeps.