An early start for Luna this morning by necessity, but it was by no means consensual. Left to her own devices she's a 10am kinda gal.

I wonder if we're emotionally mature enough yet to start calling kiwifruit 猕猴桃/míhóutáo?

Such a successful brand, but it's like breeding an apple cultivar and saying: "this is a new fruit I invented called a golden delicious" 🤔

Annoyingly common. I wish they made their STMS bike through the roadwork design after setting up.

Who's identity exactly? Some of us are old enough to remember a team simply called "Canterbury" before the super-rugby franchise and a desperate marketer confecting an alliterative name that starts with C.

Two white fluffy dogs called Fonzie and Graeme sitting in the crate of a stationary cargo bike on a picturesque cycle trail in Ōtautahi Christchurch,New Zealand.

ALMOST as good as bikes and dogs.

Yep it takes a little training. Most dogs quickly realise the benefits of staying put.

Yes, I'm really interested in what the upper limit is. Our greyhound is less than that (too much negative space) but my bakfiets will take 100 so that sounds like a challenge 🤔. Depends on how mobile they are while moving...

Will never forget the friend who drove her borzoi round in a Daihatsu charade. It looked like an origami pony getting out.

I should add that electric is definitely better for getting up a hill though!

Jeremy riding a 3-wheel cargo bike with his Bernese Mountain Dog Ruby sitting in the box.

I think the big dog/SUV thing is often overstated. If you're not travelling huge distances then most dogs love being on a bike cause it's open air and people talk to and pat them when you stop at intersections. Here's a friend with his 50kg Bernese:

I've seen a light and a dark one but they're the same size really. We buy ours from Piko too.

Probably cold. It's so efficient at sucking up moisture you can end up with hard dry spots if there's insufficient liquid or not enough stirring.

Interesting. What was their name? My wife's uncle knows a bit of bay history.

It's really special over in those bays. Okains Museum has some wonderful objects too. Well worth a visit.

It's a little wonky - you can see why looking at the log- but I do love it. I have a big roll of dried bark and some more wood waiting for me to get some free time for the next one.

*clones

It's both, in a sense. The tree is part of a colony of suckers from original old plantings circa 1880s. Not sure if those original trees are still there but their vegetative xlones live on. If you know the bay it was at Peppercorn Cottage (aka the haunted house) on the right hand side.

Thanks! 😊

Douglas Horrell on Instagram: "I finished something really special on Sunday. This post and rung stool started life two years ago when I cut a small tree from a grove of suckering elms in Le Bons Ba... 188 likes, 43 comments - cleftcraft on January 24, 2022: "I finished something really special on Sunday. This post and rung stool started life two years ago when I cut a small tree from a grove of s...

It was, from Le Bons Bay as it happens. The rough shaping was all done while green and I assembled later. You can see the process here: www.instagram.com/p/CZG2nraLty...

So much. What I see us struggling with the most is allocating as a society where the priority use is for fossil fuel, and which things need major investment to electrify. NZ has let the private sector make those decisions for so long our sense of autonomy has withered away to almost nothing.

Cartoon. Title “The Art of the Deal” Two people looking at a huge baby Trump, who has covered himself and the walls in faeces. His head is back and he’s screaming, “WAAAAH!” And there’s a deflating ball of the world, also daubed with faeces. The woman is saying, “What’s he doing?” The man says, “SHHHH! He’s doing a deal with Iran”

What a shit show.
My Stuff #cartoon today #Iran #USA #Trump #Israel

The thing with larger trees is often timing - you need to have the conversation when they're ready to remove them but before the arborist starts the work. Would be great if trees were viewed as a resource with multiple uses and not just as firewood.

Yes, Rekindle weavers have been in communication with Smith St as it happens.

Interesting...

Of course! Enjoyed your post. Lots to think about.

That goes for all of us right now. If not for furniture clothing and food, then for things like medicines. @jdtonkin.bsky.social's point about robust systems needing some redundancy is a really important one.

I've done an amount of tool-making, and it's amazing how the particular shapes of tools are determined by the process of how they're made. So many "Aha!" moments when you realise it's obvious why something is how it is.

Great I'll have to have a look. I also love all his archaeological stuff. Working out how people made furniture hundreds of years ago from depictions and traces. The roman workbenches book is fascinating, and I see it's now a free download too.

Thanks 🙂. Yes it can be really variable. This was a young tree that was quite fast grown and it cleft nicely, almost as well as ash.

Post and rung stool made from elm wood with a woven seat of elm bark. Made by Douglas Horrell in Ōtautahi Christchurch, NZ.

Sidenote: here's a stool I made from a single elm tree here in Ōtautahi. The wonderful thing about these skills is that there's a deep familiarity to doing something that people have done throughout our collective history - it's like learning to breathe again.