July 23, 2018
The Value of Going Camping.
I am not really an avid outdoors person, but I do value Nature in its many forms: the human contoured backyard gardens that my wife and I have created for our own daily enjoyment, the common spaces further afield such as Provincial Parks where we can all have access to places and geography that are not in our own backyards, and the great spaces set aside by Federal governments for the enjoyment and good of us all on grander scales preserved by visionaries who also appreciated what Nature can bring to the health and enjoyment of all of us.
Although we have daily access to the space we have in our own backyard, and it is a space of calm and beauty for our spirits and minds, there is something worthwhile in the process of planning and managing a camping excursion. Each summer we have planned and enjoyed several excursions to our Provincial Parks in Ontario. Our first forays were to pretty civilized campgrounds with a lot of amenities. It was a good start for us as we learned what we needed to manage a few days away from the comforts of home. We became a little bolder last year and went to a site that was a little more off the beaten path of mainstream campers. We even tried a trek into the wilderness, to see what it might be like to venture even farther into Nature. This year, we returned to a Park with more amenities ;)
July 23, 2018
The Value of Going Camping.
I am not really an avid outdoors person, but I do value Nature in its many forms: the human contoured backyard gardens that my wife and I have created for our own daily enjoyment, the common spaces further afield such as Provincial Parks where we can all have access to places and geography that are not in our own backyards, and the great spaces set aside by Federal governments for the enjoyment and good of us all on grander scales preserved by visionaries who also appreciated what Nature can bring to the health and enjoyment of all of us.
Although we have daily access to the space we have in our own backyard, and it is a space of calm and beauty for our spirits and minds, there is something worthwhile in the process of planning and managing a camping excursion. Each summer we have planned and enjoyed several excursions to our Provincial Parks in Ontario. Our first forays were to pretty civilized campgrounds with a lot of amenities. It was a good start for us as we learned what we needed to manage a few days away from the comforts of home. We became a little bolder last year and went to a site that was a little more off the beaten path of mainstream campers. We even tried a trek into the wilderness, to see what it might be like to venture even farther into Nature. This year, we returned to a Park with more amenities ;)
July 23, 2018
The Value of Going Camping.
I am not really an avid outdoors person, but I do value Nature in its many forms: the human contoured backyard gardens that my wife and I have created for our own daily enjoyment, the common spaces further afield such as Provincial Parks where we can all have access to places and geography that are not in our own backyards, and the great spaces set aside by Federal governments for the enjoyment and good of us all on grander scales preserved by visionaries who also appreciated what Nature can bring to the health and enjoyment of all of us.
Although we have daily access to the space we have in our own backyard, and it is a space of calm and beauty for our spirits and minds, there is something worthwhile in the process of planning and managing a camping excursion. Each summer we have planned and enjoyed several excursions to our Provincial Parks in Ontario. Our first forays were to pretty civilized campgrounds with a lot of amenities. It was a good start for us as we learned what we needed to manage a few days away from the comforts of home. We became a little bolder last year and went to a site that was a little more off the beaten path of mainstream campers. We even tried a trek into the wilderness, to see what it might be like to venture even farther into Nature. This year, we returned to a Park with more amenities ;)
"New Thinking
For A New Year" Audio Messages
Fig 1
Fig 2
Fig 3
Fig 5b
Fig 5a
Fig 4b
Fig 4a
I discovered a new purpose for the bag of kindling that I had purchased from a local gas station: it not only made for great fire starters for the fireplace in the family room at Christmas, it was also an inspiration for carving.
I grabbed a few of the kindling sticks (Maple, I think), noticed the bark was still attached to some of the rough twigs, and wondered how they might work for practicing with my new carving tools. To my delight, the kindling worked well enough as a base into which I could apply the wood-sprite motif - roughed in using hand-held blades, followed by a few finishing touches using a Dremel rotary tool.
My wife thought they would make interesting little features in her planters, so the photographs show an example placed in her Jade pot. The kindling is about 25cm x 3 cm x 2 cm. I am going to see if the wood will tolerate a drill hole at the base to insert a small dowel for inserting the twigman into the potting soil (to keep the figures standing). I will post an update when I check this out.
A friend of mine, let me borrow a dozen or so cans of remnants of various staining and wood preservative products to experiment with. The darker wood -sprite figure (Fig 1) is treated with a Min-Wax Red Mahogany stain, and the lighter is called Puritan Pine (Fig 2). The figure at the bottom (Fig 3) was stained with a darker stain and lightly sanded leaving an antique-like duo-tone finish. Shellac applied over top. I tried using Shellac only (Fig 4), and a combination of Pine Stain and Shellac (Fig 5)