“Oh, my aching back,” I said, like an aging miner who had spent a lifetime shovelling in cramped quarters, and shuffled toward a cedar Rietveld chair.
I wondered, am I getting too old for hockey? No way.
Is my back still stiff from hauling an old A/C unit up from the basement a month ago? Only partly.
Am I an aging miner? No, but I sure feel like one after unloading and moving six very heavy boxes of stone and four tonnes of sand bags (okay, it was only four big bags but I felt each weighed a tonne) out of my future reading alcove and to another spot.
Fortunately, to complete the alcove, I have all light work ahead. My back should be back to normal by next week. (I hope so. Big hockey game Wednesday).
Materials for a small table and two chairs, somewhat like the pine Rietveld chairs and accompanying table on the back deck, are now being assembled in the workshop, and the table top alone will be a treasure and has got my mind working overtime.
The table top will be made from one slab of 100-year-old pine or spruce that I rescued from my dad’s barn (in Norwich, Ontario) a few years ago. The slab is 42 in. long and 21 in. wide, very rare, and the natural colour is rich, and includes dozens of dark spots where square head nails were once driven.
["The rich, natural colour, still alive": photos by GH]
I’ll make a short skirt for the table, apply more clear coat or marine varnish to make it water-proof, and attach three legs so that it won’t wobble on the uneven surface of brick in the alcove.
I think I will soon have the perfect spot to read, and perhaps write the next great Canadian novel.
***
Please click here for another trip to The Workshop.
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