FACETS OF A DAY

Did you have one of these in your traditions?  It is a birch log adorned with hand rolled beeswax candles with sprigs of pine branch tips in the drilled holes in the log.  

The agave flower stalk has grown another foot now

 but mostly, it has been growing flower buds..

See what I mean? 

 I can't wait to see what it will look like!  

I reworked the Tunisian block with no probles this time.

  I am ready to lay them out and crochet all twelve blocks

 into a lap blanket!  

Another hat is off the machine-it needs a label but I lost my oomph to sew it on last night!  I will make another hat and put labels on both of them today!

The cats all take turns laying under the tree-they pace around the one who's turn it is--there hasn't been any ornaments knocked down but the tree skirt does get skidded about!

 

PLANT LIFE

The female Sago Palms look like this around here-the top know looks like a brain!  It is the size of a basketball on top of this 3' high plant while the branches cover a 6' diameter;  the fronds are not soft, on the contrary-each tip is needle sharp!  But you have to admire this plant-it is very prehistoric looking!

I spotted this knot on a tree-it is called a burl--

it's a thrill to turn on a lathe!  

I have plans for this burl and it will end up on my lathe soon! 

This is a century plant-a member of the agave ( Asparagaceae) family.  This plant is 6" tall and just as wide. 

 This, too, has a needle tip on each of its leaves!

This is a grapefruit bowl--it has striping and orange from the molding and spalting that grows in a dying tree.

Wood turners appreciate the color 

and design this brings to the finished results!

 This bowl is 5 1/2" across and 4" high. 

 I love the ease of making this kind of bowl; 

 it is pleasing on every level!