When Life Gives You Lemons...

That's right.

You've got it.

Make lemonade.

Lets not get into all the lemony details... if you really feel you must know, you can write to me and I'll fill you in, but this post will be long enough as it is!

Suffice to say, I had a big, figurative, pile of lemons and it did not really take me long to figure out what to do with them.

I sent a few emails and things fell into place quite quickly for me to come back to England.

I left on Thanksgiving day and arrived in England the next day, Friday, November 29th.

Lets not get into all the details of being detained at Gatwick Airport for a very long, tiring and at times frightening 6 hours before they decided I was who I said I was and was here to do what I said I was here to do... and let me into the country.

That was a 'Welcome to England' like none other. Take my word for it.

A couple days of rest over the weekend, hanging out with Duncan and Tina. Monday morning bright and early my volunteer time with John Waller began. Here's a quick run down of my first few weeks!

Mon-December 2
Living willow structures at a school... somewhere in Kent.
I was still suffering major jet lag and so barely managed to actually get some willow in the ground...taking pictures was last thing on my mind... hopefully I'll be able to contact the school and get a photo or two. The installation consisted of a dome, short section of fence and an arch leading to their 'Forest School'. And in a separate area, a stand alone arch leading to their sensory garden

Tues-December 3
Taking cuttings and planting a willow bed in 'the cage'... replacing an entire block of willow that had succumbed to some sort of disease and died...since I was last here.

This is Johns apprentice Jake, taking cuttings from a bundle of willow-

The willow cuttings, bundled and ready to plant. John, Jake and Mike had prepared the bed some time earlier... removing the brambles and laying down the gridded plastic mulch. 

Jake (foreground) John and Arthur the dog planting the cuttings. It's important to insert the cuttings in the ground so the top is up! But, I have seen the cuttings actually take root and grow even if they are put in upside down! The wonders of willow!

After lunch I did a delivery with John and we also stopped to look at a couple potential jobs, one of which was at the Otford school to look at a repair needed on the bower we installed last time I was here. This was really, really exciting!! The growth on the structures was amazing!

This bower consists of 3 bays, or arches at the front. If you look closely, you can see the arch furthest right is missing its right side. Apparently some utility work was done where the removal of that piece was necessary.

Wed-December 4
We installed a gate, replacing an old stile -that had become rather precarious- along the public footpath that goes thru the Bore Place property.

The old stile... (yes, the idea is that the walker actually climbs up and over a stile).

The new gate! Looks nice doesn't it? Makes for much safer and easier passage too.

Thurs-December 5
Coppicing hazel in Bushy Wood! Betty (remember Betty... my billhook?) and I did quite well. That alone was pretty exciting, since it's been awhile since we have worked up hazel. Really appreciate my new Silky Gomtaro saw too! Lunchtime included boiling water for tea in the Kelley Kettle... there is nothing like a steaming hot cup of tea sitting on a log in Bushy Wood. Jake, John and Mike enjoy their lunch.

Friday-December 6
No work on the schedule with JW so I spent the day with Basil and we went for a nice long walk around Rusthall. Me getting my bearings a bit.

Sat-December 7
Tina and I got a tiny little Christmas tree!

Sun-December 8
Willow Christmas decorations workshop with John which included a lovely lunch of giraffe bread and cream of broccoli and Stilton soup. Yum. On the agenda, wreaths, stars, Christmas trees, snowmen and angels.

A star, a star, shining in the night, with a tail as big as a kite...

Arthur, first in queue for lunch.

Mon-December 9
 Coppice hazel in Bushy Wood. John, Jake and me (& Betty). Kelley Kettle tea. Lovely.

Tues-December 10
It was a very early start in the morning to a house in London. On the agenda, a continuous weave edging for the planting beds and continuous weave panels separating the car park area from the garden. We drove past the O2 - and many of the now re purposed Olympic buildings. It was pretty dark at both ends of the day, and we were of course traveling quite fast so the pictures aren't great from that.

Part of the job was continuous weave edging along two planting beds. The curved one you see at the left below JW did. Jake and I worked on the one that ran parallel to the white brick building straight ahead... 

I did this short curved section below. All by myself. I was having a time with it shall we say. John came along and asked me why I had done it the way I had done it and halfway thru my explanation I happened to look up at him. I stopped my explanation and said "I should take it all apart and start over shouldn't I?"

"Yes."

So glad I did though because it really turned out so much better than if I had carried on the way I was going. Turned out quite good actually, if I do say so myself.

John was right. 

Of course.

The next part of the job was originally designed to be a continuous weave fence that separated the car park and the garden, but the designer visited us on site and decided instead to do panels in between the columns of the arbor. This turned out beautifully. Jake...

and me, looking just the slightest bit goofy and disheveled, yes.

The finished project!

The ride home... in the picture below you'll notice way off in the distance (centrally located in the pic) a curvy buildingy/sculpturey thing... that is one of the 2012 Olympic buildings. Also including this picture because I thought you might have an idea why that little phone symbol is showing up in the middle of it? Any thoughts?

Wed-December 11
Westwood to collect hazel then back to Bore Place where Jake and I processed it while John and David worked on Johns kitchen cabinets. Romain came to borrow Johns trailer.

Thurs-December 12
Lady Boswells School in Sevenoaks, to do maintenance on 3 living willow structures. This was extremely exciting for me because it is the very first job I went on with John 2 years ago to do maintenance. The tunnel below was just a year old then, 3 years now and the change is remarkable. The first picture is from November 15, 2011... you can see (if you try real hard) that the growth on the top is rather sparse and whats there is perhaps 18-24 inches tall.

Now look at it! This structure is growing vigorously! Some of the growth on top was 6 feet long!

And the next picture below... 'after', all neat and tidy. You can see several good sized bundles of willow on the ground, all that came from this one structure.

Jake, alongside the big dome. Again, there has been a tremendous amount of growth on this structure!!

And of course, what blog post would be complete without a picture of John Waller waving?!

Fri-December 13
Southborough Preschool with John and Mike to do a small living willow installation. A fence and small arch in the children's play area.

All the willow in the ground and Mike 'heeling in'.

Instead of cutting off the stakes and using binders, John decided to use the same method he uses to finish a basket.

A little difficult to see, but, the finished product!

Then on to Hunton to do maintenance on a structure at the school there. The structure is a big circle, the back is continuous weave using poplar (you can just about make that out in the following picture) and the front is living willow. Off to the right side is a curved entrance tunnel about 3 feet wide and 6 feet tall, also living willow. You can see the willow growing from the tops of all the upright stakes and it ranges in size from 3 feet to 5 or 6 feet long. Most of this gets harvested. Any willow growing in the fence itself will get woven in.
'before'

and 'after'...

the entrance tunnel 'before'...

and 'after'. If there's a gap, the new growth willow gets woven in to fill the opening, otherwise, the goal is to harvest all that is extraneous.

Sat-December 14
A day spent getting myself organized, my clothes out of my suitcase and away in the closet, laundry done, vacuuming (a.k.a."hoovering") and lending a hand for the last load of wood stacked on the woodpile. Supper (a.k.a "tea") at a local pub for fish 'n chips! Yum!

Sun-December 15
Friends over for dinner... roast leg of lamb, brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes. Yum again!

Mon-December 16 thru Wed-December 18
I caught a ride to the Edenbridge train station with Duncan on his way to work and then the train to Tunbridge Wells. Spent these three days wandering around Tunbridge Wells and Rusthall with Basil (Tina's dog).

Thurs-December 19
John collected me bright and early... or should I say dimly dark and early?! He was teaching a pole lathe demo class at Ranscombe Farm Nature Reserve in Cuxton - about 45 minutes northeast of here.

John demos turning with the pole lathe...

While he was doing that, Jake and I were hauling Sweet Chestnut out of the woods and loading it into the trailer.

One of the course participants making a spatula with the shave horse and draw-knife.

and two others using the pole lathe - making a "dibber"

Fri-December 20
I awoke to discover the world was covered with a thin sheet of ice- so I opted to spend a few hours sending emails to other English contacts and eventually walked over to Johns workshop at Bore Place, getting there just in time for tea. Sometimes my timing is impeccable!
After tea I opted to do the washing up - mugs had been sitting in the sink for who knows how long!? I'd aspired to do a thorough clean last time I was here and never did, so, this was my chance to have a start! I washed every mug I could find, cleaned out a drawer, laid paper towels in the bottom and put all the clean mugs inside! Voila. Next... tackled the washing up bin, the sink and drain board and the hot water heater which was 'furry' with dust and cobwebs.

I felt better.

The workshop and yard was a busy place... lots of activity going on. Jake was working on various projects. Mike was there working on a chair with a friend; another fellow, Andrew was also working on finishing a chair from Johns last chair-making workshop (I think) and John was working on several things as well, including making 3 woven willow hurdles-see pictures below.

Sat-December 21

Laundry.

Sun-December 22
Jack and the Beanstalk Pantomime in Tunbridge Wells and pizza with Tina. It was fun! My first Panto ever!!

Mon-December 23
Another "do what you want day" for me. John and Jake were both making baskets and I decided to finish the spatula I had started at Ranscombe Farm and then made another one!

"How to Make a Spatula" coming soon!

A big storm blew in as the afternoon arrived... lots of rain and high winds. By the time we were leaving the drive way out of Bore Place was flooded! We made it out and I made it back to the cottage. Got the chickens in, fire stoked, candles on, torch located and settled in for the evening.

Tues-December 24
Morning arrived and it was the calm after the storm. I was grateful to still have power as many did not.

Wed-December 25 
Christmas day.
Tina and I volunteered at Tonbridge Baptist Church -along with a multitude of others- serving a wonderful Christmas dinner to many local elderly. Basil went too and was a big, big hit among the guests and volunteers alike!

Christmas evening we watched a popular British animated holiday show, "Snowman and Snowdog"

Thur-December 26
Boxing Day. We headed north to Cambridge to visit T's family for a few days.
Basil was ready to go!

Sat-December 28
Back to the cottage at Bore Place. Got a roaring fire going and then went for a nice long walk. Pizza and movie night.

Sun-December 29
Into Sevenoaks for a bit of shopping and, finally, finally finishing this update!!


Until the next time-
love to all.

susie