A great day off!

Published by Les on

One of the advantages of having a hobby that becomes a profession, is that you enjoy your work enough to not hanker after days off, and when the occasional day off does arrive, I tend to revert to my hobby, if that makes sense! Yesterday (Sunday 21st October) was one such day. Here’s how it went…

05:15…get up, make coffee and go back to bed to set up the Attendance Record for use at today’ meeting of the Mid Wales Woodturners at Carno (of which I am treasurer), about an hour’s drive away.

05:35…type up a spreadsheet to record the stock and sales of some timber that I’ll be taking to sell at the meeting

06:30…shower, dress and make a quick visit to the workshop to tidy up ready for a couple of students arriving tomorrow morning (I almost certainly won’t feel like doing this tonight!)

07:15 – 07:55…spending time with our wonderful grandson, Osian, who did a sleep-over with us last night, so catching a few minutes with him before I set off for the day. While Sal’s in the shower, one of our mains circuit breakers drops out, so it’s a quick trip to the garage to sort out why and to reset the circuit breaker, then take the dogs for a quick walk, pack the car and off to go – no breakfast; we’d run out of milk and bread the night before.

07:55…frantically unload a pile of timber from the back of the car, to make room for today’s little hoard.

08:00…set off for the village of Pontdolgoch (the Bridge of the Red Meadow) to meet up with Fiona, one of the members of the woodturning club, who kindly helped me out when I had collected a big pile of timber two days ago, then stored it in a horsebox at her house.

08:15…driving over Bwlch y Groes, the highest road in Wales. It doesn’t matter how many times that I drive along this road, I am in awe of the scenery and enjoy it every time.

Heading up Bwlch Y Groes

Looking back towards Bala

08:25…over the top of Bwlch y Groes and down the other side towards the A470 at Dinas Mawddwy

Over the top and down towards Dinas Mawddwy

08:30 (ish)…do an emergency stop to avoid mowing down a covey of pheasants which is strutting about in the road. They seem intent on committing mass suicide, but I do my best (and succeed) to thwart their intentions. Now, I know that they are destined to be shot anyway, but that saddens me; I just cannot understand the mentality of a group of grown men and women who kill animals for pleasure!

09:05…arrive at Fiona’s house for a very welcome cup of coffee, then select 30 or 40 pieces of timber from the horse box and stash it in the back of my car.

Fiona’s house

09:50…arrive at the Community Centre in Carno, where the woodturning club meets. Unload the car of the stash of timber, set it out on a couple of tables and enter the details of it onto the spreadsheet, ready for selling it to the club members. Also unload my paperwork for the club, petty cash, camera etc

10:00 – 11:00…booking all the members into the meeting, taking membership fees, selling raffle tickets and settling a few invoices from the club’s petty cash.

11:00 – 17:00…in between attending to the book-work, and balancing the takings for the day, I get a chance to watch the professional demonstrator for the day, Mark Sanger. Mark comes from Dorset and has made a rare trip this far north to provide us with a demo. It was an excellent day which was well attended by club members, so the club made a little profit today.

Mark Sanger RPT

A sample of Mark’s work

John, club chairman, sharpening tools

17:00…balance the books from my timber sales and re-load the car, then set off for home

17:30 (ish)…do an emergency stop again, but this time to avoid collision with a cattle wagon which has got stuck across the road with one wheel in a muddy rut. This is bad news, there’s stew and dumplings for tea and I’m going to be late!

18:00…drive over the top of Bwlch y Groes and stop to photograph the amazing sunset this evening.

18:30…finally get home. Eat/sleep/wine/sleep/TV/sleep….it’s another day tomorrow.

A GREAT DAY OFF!


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