Sometimes in designing furniture you use classical proportions and the golden ratio. And then sometimes the thing has to fit under a window whose sill is at 25”, and you have a 14”-wide board that determines the depth of the top, and you want to maximize storage, so 14x25x36 it is. No magic here.

According to Wikipedia, the genome of the loblolly pine is seven times as large as that of humans. Make of this what you will.

Five-lined skink. I tried highlighting the tail with blue paint but could not keep the edges clean, so I used the frame to (I hope) evoke the color.

Apparently I have bachelor buttons in my yard! The seed mixes I scattered last year included some perennials that will bloom for the first time this spring… so I really have no idea what a lot of this green stuff is until the blossoms open. Surprises every week.

Today, Haiku Day
The sun rises, the sun sets.
Who decides this stuff?

I was asked recently whether a stool like the one I just posted takes a long time to make. The answer is no and yes. If I have a piece of wood wide enough for a seat (or have already glued one up) I can go from boards to assembly in a fat half a day. But then the glue has to dry overnight before I can trim and level the stool, and there are 2 colors of milk paint with 1-3 coats each, plus 2-3 coats of oil/wax… so if I start work Monday morning I can have a stool-like object by early afternoon that I still may not be able to take to a market on Saturday.

Not to mention my inner sense of how long things take has more to do with effort than with actual time, so I am constantly fooled—in both directions.

Three-legged stool, green over gold layered milk paint.

A little distelfink for your day. I’ve been playing for awhile with carving designs for fraktur-inspired imagery, and also with options for carving and painting contrasting frames… I’m happy with this one.

Brown-headed cowbird at my window feeder. I didn’t take a picture, so you will just have to trust me.

Trying to describe and remember the eclipse of 2017, I wrote this poem but never published it, and today seems like a good time to take it out.