fascinating fungi

Posted on November 18, 2015 by kathy

I love the variety and intricacy of fungi. Sadly, my fungi identification skills are severely lacking, so I won’t even try…..

lyrical luthier

Posted on November 14, 2015 by kathy

In September 2012, Michael realised a dream to make his own guitar. A Melbourne based luthier instructed his five students during an intensive two weeks at Highfield House in Stanley.

The course culminated with a dinner and musical evening at the local pub, a good excuse for me to join him for the weekend.

The finished instrument is a unique 7-string acoustic guitar with a celery top pine front, rare tiger myrtle sides & back, Queensland maple neck, Queensland gidgee fretboard & bridge and blackwood rosette & bindings.

At the dinner, we learned that the same course was run in Italy each year and so, in May 2014, we ventured to Benabbio in Tuscany. Michael created another masterpiece, labouring long days in the 16th century workshop of our villa residence.

The view from his workbench was quite tolerable.

This is how it happened. The sides were shaped, glued & clamped and given a light sand.

The back was glued & clamped, then the kerfing & scalloped bracing was added to create rigidity.

Meanwhile, work on the neck was underway.

The rosette was carefully inlaid into the soundboard, the struts on the underside were precision scalloped and the bridge was glued into place & clamped.

Michael had designed a Tasmanian Tiger for the headstock. The blackwood was inlaid into the musk here in Tasmania and travelled with us. This was glued in place and the soundboard was attached to the body.

Gluing & taping the bindings was fiddly.

A bit more work on the headstock and the neck was dovetail joined to the body.

The holes were drilled for the machine heads

and sanding & shaping continued

despite the momentary distraction of an exotic bird.

A few coats of oil and a final wax

and the strings were attached

The result is a magnificent instrument with huon pine soundboard, figured blackwood sides & back, Tasmanian oak neck, Queensland gidgee fretboard, bridge & bindings and Tasmanian musk rosette & headstock. The sound is beautiful and I have it on good authority she is a pleasure to play.

You can hear some of Michael’s music here http://michaelcannon.bandcamp.com/album/invisible

captivating canyon

Posted on November 10, 2015 by kathy

Leven Canyon is another favourite of ours to show off to visitors, an hours drive through some very picturesque countryside. An easy ten minute walk along a shady track

brings you to Cruikshanks Lookout, rewarding you with spectacular views of the Loongana Range and beyond.

275m below, the Leven River flows through the limestone cliffs on its way to Bass Strait.

Black Bluff, at 1340m, is usually the first peak in the area to have a covering of snow in winter and the remnants linger well into spring.

You can take the leisurely walk back to the car park or, for the more energetic, the circuitous Forest Stairs Track. 697 steps descend through magnificent rainforest.

Looking back, Cruikshanks is barely visible against the sky,

while looking down gives a closer view of the river

and the rock formations created by the turbulent water.

The track eventually leads back to the serene picnic grounds and car park.

I think this message carved in stone sums up Leven Canyon perfectly.

renovation ruminations: part 2

Posted on November 6, 2015 by kathy

Having completed the extension with the second bathroom, we were excited to start renovating the main bathroom and laundry. The bath and shower were made to accommodate vertically challenged individuals and the ugly window and lino had to go.

The tiles proved a bit difficult to remove

but perseverance paid off.

The more we demolished, the more shonky workmanship was revealed.

The laundry became a blank canvas once the lino was removed.

The new window and floor in the bathroom

were soon followed by internal walls and the bath.

The laundry was progressing at the same time

and the laying of tiles hinted that the end was nigh.

We inherited an old Blackwood vanity unit that had been abandoned in the garage of a house bought by a friend. We were sure we could use it somewhere.

A local joiner restored the timber, created a new top and replaced the cupboard inserts with reclaimed mini-orb. With a new ceramic sink and some knobs I found on the internet, the old vanity was given a new life. A floor to ceiling corner cupboard completed the picture.

We wanted a rustic solid timber vanity unit for the bathroom which we soon realised we weren’t going to find in a shop. We bought a sturdy Blackwood slab and our joiner created a unique masterpiece.

Our beautiful new bathroom was complete.

Spring splendour

Posted on November 4, 2015 by kathy

Spring is marching on and the bulbs are just a memory. Despite the driest and warmest October on record, there are many new faces in the garden. The crocuses (or croci) pop up in surprising places