Bought M a new cold-frame for Christmas but up until today it hadn't got unpacked. These days substantial items tend to come 'broken down' or even in complete kit form. When I ordered I knew that the latter was the case because I had already built a slightly larger version a couple of years back
But Spring is coming, it might be getting a bit drier and warmer, and this morning I plucked up courage to unpack and start assembling. The cold-frame was delivered in two packs - one contained all the metal parts, the second the safety glass. Starting on the parts package the components were checked against the instruction sheet list - everything present! An hour and a half later the frame was complete except for a final tightening of all the small bolts.
It wasn't very warm in the 'potting shed' and by this time I was cold and couldn't face the prospect of cutting and applying foam strip on which the glass lies in the frame. But I did tackle opening the glass box. This is a substantial item, wooden frame and clad with what I estimate as 6mm thick ply sheets - pretty heavy too but up on the bench top I could get at the screws holding down the opening side of the box - the other face is nailed down.
Nearly lunch time. I laid the sheet of ply back on top of the now open box, collected the screws together and put them on the top until I felt more like identifying a sensible place in the workshop so that I could hoard them away for a job that probably will never happen. Sometimes, just sometimes, items squirreled away like this do come in useful! I've even known it to happen!
By the time lunch was over and I was showing M how I had spent the morning, the sun had moved round to shine on the ply top, and those screws. Went and grabbed the camera and then had to wait until the sun came out again!
At least it's a different subject that I've captured - no cardboard box here!
Mid morning on an indifferent weather day isn't the most inspiring time to take photographs. But that is just what I was doing at Barton Waters up near Lincoln. It wasn't too warm either and restaurant that I was walking round had been closed and the interior was clearly being ripped out - all a bit depressing? Then this caught my eye!
If I didn't know what I was looking at I might now be wondering just what had been photographed. Is the surface vertical, horizontal, or even at an angle? A square light fitting has been inserted into narrow wood strip decking which encircled the restaurant. That building had been erected on piles out into a marina basin waters. For safety reasons a handrail had been built on the water edge of the decking and it's some of the supports for this that are casting the weak shadows across the wood strips. The wood is weathered, worn, split in parts, and acquired an uneven coating of green lichen to add some subtle colour. Small dried leaves have got caught between the slats - all to produce a rather odd and slightly unsettling photograph.
- but before I did I tried taking some photographs - here is one!
What I particularly liked here were the shapes and colours of the shadows cast by the box edge, and they happened by accident rather than by design. Well worth a photograph I thought, and another for the collection. Time soon to gather all my box photographs together and possibly there are enough for another book. The trouble is that I always seem to find yet another interesting box!
