The List

The realisation that one day we will have to move prompted an audit of unfinished projects round the workshop this morning. Actually it may just be the realisation that the time is nigh when one may have to get stuck in and actually finish a few things that prompted it, but undaunted by that prospect and with pencil over my ear I began a quick inventory of the bench.  That, I thought, should take my mind off the important things, like having a car that needs to be sold.

There, the trio of footstool parts sits patiently at one end, one of them Sue's Christmas present from last year, the other two first birthday presents for the new babies, so I have some time up my sleeve. There's Mr Four's pull along duck to be repaired too, since it met an untimely demise when he was Mr Two, he's probably not so into ducks just now so that can wait.

The busker organ pipes need something, perhaps completely rebuilding, and then the rest of the workings need to be built for it, and I'm not allowed to even mention the canoe, nor it's half finished paddles stored neatly in the ceiling. The rowboat parts store neatly enough flat against the wall.

Somewhere there are some pictures awaiting framing, and now a new one thanks to Gerry's wonderful generosity a week or two ago.

There's the doll's high chair that needs repair, built by my father for his grand daughter who naturally now would like it fixed for my grand daughter, and the pond-sailer which just needs a mast.

It's not as though I have a particularly minute attention span, but it is not difficult to be distracted in my cave, and so it was that I decided a nice drive in the country to my favourite sawmill to find some timber for next year's hives would fill in the morning nicely.

Sufficiently distracted on my return, I added a pile of timber to be milled to my list, then discovered that the planer blades needed what could only be described as "attention" before that could begin. A few hours of chat, a coffee and a milo bar later, I left Mat's shed with sharp blades and a machine to reassemble in the morning.

Then I remembered I have some canvas round here somewhere and it might be time to build a stretcher or two.

I don't really need any hives for a month or two after all.