Festive preparations

Fell over on this morning's dog walk and bashed my knee quite hard on a granite boulder.  Seriously Ow.  STILL Ow.  Stupid boulders.

But at least it was sunny, so time to slaughter a tree and drag it into the house.  This involved some serious sawing (note to self, really need new blade for the bow saw!)   We chopped quite a lot off the bottom before we dragged it to the house, but once we'd got it there, it was clear that we had quite ludicrously overestimated.  But that was OK.  After all, it's easier to chop it off than stick it back on.   More sawing required...

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Tall Ships

I just randomly stumbled across the existence of the gaff-topsail schooner J.R. Tolkien  and the three masted schooner Loth Loriën

A little odd that the Loth Loriën, although pretty enough in her way, is nothing like as stunning a little ship as the  J.R. Tolkien, which I think just has THE most gorgeous lines.  Wow.

ETA Apparently the JR Tolkien was built in 1964 as a diesel electric tug called Dierkow, and it was only in 1995 that she was renamed and given sails. Can only applaud the transformation. http://www.classic-sailing.co.uk/vessels/j-r-tolkien