A very brief trip to Portsmouth and an ever briefer trip to Gosport to have a look at the tower murals.  I'd seen them from a distance on the Isle of Wight ferry and then found they get a mention on The Twentieth Century Society's mural campaign.

They really are fantastic and seem to be well cared for.  A quick nose round the web shows the towers themselves were recently overhauled and at least partially re-clad, the new colour schemes coming from the murals themselves.  By one of the towers there's a cheery opening in a raised walkway with a tree growing from the level below.  The other tower has the same opening, the same lovely punctured concrete screen but no tree.  Where the tree has gone the flower bed has been concreted over and the space become an odd meaningless hole.  I guess what annoys and confuses me, is surely it would have been easier and cheaper to plonk in a replacement tree rather than dig out the old earth, remove it from site, bring in, mix and lay some concrete.  

There's a whole lot more on post war murals on Lynn Pearson's site, I've only just dipped my toe in so far.  And will certainly send off for her field guide.

The first solid timber version of the Fold cabinet, in English cherry.  I'm pretty sure the timber came from two separate trees,  some is pale and dull, the rest full of knots, spalting and worm holes.  The way the doors were constructed meant I could distribute the timber with more character evenly across the unit's front face.  Well that was the aim anyway.

The bar top ended up as this little cabinet.  I'm pleased with the red colour and I do like that flash of sapwood.  

Here's some of my Andaman Padauk, part of an old bar top sourced from Brighton & Hove Wood Recycling Project.  The right-hand piece is looking a little worse for wear, the scars and grime from the years spent down the pub.  I ran the left-hand section over the planer revealing the lovely rich red that lurks underneath.  

Oh.... K.  Here's a place for thoughts, snaps, sketches and sketchy thoughts.  It might be interesting to record the things that come together as well as the things that don't.  So here goes...