Mallinson Ltd - woodwork courses in Dorset. Perfect short breaks for everyone.

We all do it: men and women, young and old ... a date such as a birthday creeps up and ooops, you've forgotten to get a present. And I can speak from experience - ever since we started offering them I've had people calling to ask how they can give someone a gift certificate "tomorrow" or "this weekend" or something similarly short notice.

So, recognising human nature is what it is, we've now added 'instant gift certificates' on the web site. In a nutshell, you fill in the order form and email it to us and then, straight-away, you can download the certificate as a .pdf. You can then either email that .pdf on to your intended recipient or, more likely, print it out. As long as you have access to a colour printer it'll look good. (And, dare I say it, it will look like you thought long and hard about it too!)

We're In The News Again

I'm pleased to say the our one-day 'parent and child' course is the subject of a three-page feature in the current edition of 'Dorset Magazine'. As with other press coverage, there's a .pdf of the article on the web site if you want to see what they said.

Ash and Cherry - In Stock Now!

Recently we've been sorting and storing the Ash and Cherry logs that we'll be using on future courses. These are the logs we extracted with the aid of Charlie the horse (see our April newsletter), and we now should have enough to last until next winter and the next cutting season.

These logs are now being stored in perfect conditions - they have had their end grain painted with wax to reduce splitting and drying out, and the stacks of logs are stored on pallets off the ground to prevent rot on the undersides. The stacks themselves are under the canopy of the Hornbeam trees at the edge of the woodland workshop, which will save them from the drying effect of direct sunlight.

Some may find it strange and even I'll admit it's slightly surprising just how much satisfaction there is to be gained from sitting back and admiring what the untrained eye might think is just a neatly stacked pile of firewood, but we know are prime quality selected logs. And I confess I still get a real buzz from that wonderful moment when we first split each unique log apart to see what's inside.

(And if you'd like to share our contemplations, there's a photo of the logs in store to illustrate this newsleter on the web site. Perhaps I ought to make it into a screen saver!)

Are You Alone?

Well, we can't speak about extra-terrestrials but if you've ever come away from one of the courses thinking "I enjoyed that" (which, of course, we hope you have), then no, you're not alone. Over the past year we've received many emails and letters about good times experienced and we've now put a selection of them on the web site. Thank you to everyone who wrote in. I think it is really nice to hear that people had a good time ... and it's nice to be able to have some independent voices saying that on the web site too.

With that, I'm going back down to the woods to look at my log stacks. As ever, thanks for reading.

Guy and the team

Tree Of The Month: Elder

Suddenly summer is fully here; the countryside is swathed in full leaf, flowers are flourishing, and crops are ripening. It is midsummer; a great turning point in the solar year, the summer solstice. At this time, at the height of the season of abundance, it was traditional to celebrate the growth, life force and activity that had taken place throughout the lengthening days of spring and summer. The summer solstice, which fell this year on June 21, marks the point from which the days become shorter and the nights longer, heralding the return of winter, and a renewed focus on the inner world, a time to explore and develop what has been learned in the actions of the last few months. Many different celebrations mark this time, often fire celebrations. Bonfires of oak were lit in high places where people gathered on Midsummer's Eve to wait for the sunrise on the longest day. Cattle, and the sick, were cleansed by being passed through the smoke, and people leapt the fires to shed bad luck and to ensure a good harvest.

Among the many woodland and hedgerow blossoms flowering in abundance at this time, elder, Sambucus nigra, with its massed heads of delicate creamy white flowers stands out. Elder is a tree with a mixed press. A small tree or large shrub, it is now commonly seen as a weed tree, rarely planted, but springing up rapidly on any waste ground. Like nettles, it thrives on the rich soil generated in waste areas of human occupation, and was historically found near middens, privies and animal pens. In times past, however, elder was valued for its wood, leaves, flowers and fruit, as well as for its magical properties, although the usage and folklore surrounding it are full of contradictions.

Of the wood, although the small growth is weak and hollow, the root and trunk is as hard as ebony, and much valued for wood turning. The wood must not be burned as the smoke is smelly and toxic; traditionally, the devil was said to appear in the smoke; the hollow stems, however, were used to blow a fire to get it going, and the name of the tree is thought to derive from the Anglo-Saxon eldrun, meaning fire. Although associated with the devil, an elder tree planted outside a house or cowshed was said to keep evil at bay. Now often seen as useless scrub, in earlier times it was rightly valued as a hedging plant; being quick growing, it will make a hedge more rapidly than any other tree, and bear useful flowers, fruit and leaves, the leaves of elder being widely used on the harnesses of working horses, around cowsheds, in kitchens and in privies, where the smell of the leaves helped to deter flies.

The solstice marks the height of summer, historically a time to begin to gather and preserve the hedgerow fruits and herbs in preparation for the returning winter. Elder had many uses in the home; elder flower water, still produced commercially, was used as a toner for the skin, and medically, as a lotion for the eyes. In the kitchen, the flowers can be cooked as fritters in a light batter, or made into a cordial, a slightly sparkling 'champagne', or a wine. Commercially produced versions use wild-harvested flowers, picked from the hedgerows by an army of seasonal pickers. Be sure to leave some of the flowers to develop into bunches of berries, which can be eaten, made into jam, or made into wine. The Romans allegedly used elder berries to make a hair dye (I wonder if purple was a popular colour?) and also a syrup, used to treat coughs and colds as it still is today. Happily, all these lovely uses of elder won't cost you much more than a pleasant afternoon's picking. The flowers are going over now, but if you have not yet made elderflower cordial, there may still be time to get out there with a basket!

Carolyn Brightwater

In The Woods This Month

Well, not a lot happening in the woods apart from nature getting on with her stuff. We extracted Guy's new stock of greenwood materials and moved them to their new home; I have a large amount (200-ish hoppus ft. - the timber volume equivalent of a bakers dozen) of milling Ash on it's way to the local sawmill, which ultimately I'll be transforming into a batch of yurts (more about yurts next month); firewood cords are already being collected. All in all, not overly exciting stuff, so this month I'll be enlarging upon ...

Why pole lathes are utterly brilliant.

The first recorded examples of reciprocal (turns both ways) lathes are of Ancient Egyptian origin, around 2500 B.C.; a simple bow with a twist around the piece of wood or bone to be turned, with one person bowing and another using a sharp scribe to shape the work. How do we know this? Good old hieroglyphs. In more recent times the pole or treadle lathe that we are familiar with today consists of a framework upon which the work-piece (or 'billet') is mounted. The operator (or 'bodger') depresses the treadle, which in turn has a cord attached and wrapped around the billet thus providing forwards spin, upon which the bodger makes a cutting stroke with a chisel or gouge. The other end of the string would traditionally be attached to an 18' pole under tension, which in turn would return the treadle to its raised position and the process is then repeated. So far, so simple. Now for the good bit.

The pole lathing process is so much more than just operating a device in order to make an object, though. Pole lathe turning engages the senses. Auditory stimulation through the rhythmic cutting of the tool; visual through intent focus on tool handling and the developing contours of your work piece; touch stimulated through the delicate feedback that you get from working greenwood and the highly tactile nature of your finished piece.

But more than this, the process of powering the lathe whilst controlling the tool is in itself highly rhythmical (a bit like patting your head and rubbing your tummy until you get the hang of it) and a fantastic means of improving motor co-ordination. And then there's controlling the various gouges and chisels whilst watching the effect that it has on your billet - utilizing both the rational mechanical left hand side of your brain and the creative aesthetic right hand side of your brain at the same time!

Roll all this sensory activity together, as you do naturally and subconsciously once your technique 'clicks', and the result is a highly focussed, almost semi-hypnotic state of mind whilst engaging all of these skills and intelligences. This in itself makes the pole lathe a fantastically therapeutic tool to use, proven to help create and stimulate neural pathways and engender 'whole brain' awareness and thinking. All this, and safe too; no dust, no noise (the quieter the better as a rule of thumb), a pace of work of your own choosing, and it gets you fit. Fantastic!

These are just some of the reasons why pole lathes are utterly utterly brilliant. Don't just take my word for it, try it; it's not just about dibbers, you know ...

Mace Brightwater