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

As regular readers will know, this newsletter is the place where we release new dates, new courses and special offers. In between newsletters, don't forget that you can also keep up to date with what we're up to via: Facebook, Twitter and our blog.

Protesting The Axe

The BBC - despite some initial development work - has now decided to axe Series Two of Mastercrafts. I have to say I was very disappointed by this move. I say that not because I was a mentor on Series One but because I really do believe in craftsmanship, and Series One was a big step forward in showing to the public at large the pleasures to be had in all the crafts featured - not just green woodworking.

There is a Facebook Group set up specifically to protest this move by the BBC and if you, like me, feel passionate about craftsmanship then I hope you'll do your bit to make your views known. You can also read more about the decision, and join a petition against it (no Facebook participation required!), here.

Apologies if you have already become aware of this issue by other channels - there's already a fair amount of I think genuine disappointment about this.

Fathers' Day

On to cheerier topics. With Fathers' Day looming fast can I suggest that if you are stuck for a present, don't forget our Instant Gift Certificates. They can be downloaded 24/7 and make an ideal gift - last minute or not as the case may be. And in case you're wondering, we've had guests here of all ages so no matter how old your father might be, I'm sure he'll have a great time. Just follow this link and select "Gift Certificates" from the menu. It couldn't be easier.

Dorset Art Weeks

It has been great fun to be open to the public over the last two weeks as part of Dorset Art Weeks. We had many more visitors than expected and our pizzas (from our home made clay oven) and cider went down extremely well - more than 400 pizzas and five barrels of cider were consumed over the fortnight. Good food and drink in a woodland setting - perfect. This blog by fellow furniture maker Simon Pirie helps give some of the flavour of the overall Dorset Art Weeks event.

Tom from Mastercrafts came and helped me which made it all the more enjoyable, and he's also been brushing up on his pole lathe turning and chair making in preparation to coming to help run courses here next month and again later in the year. Charlie also made a star appearance but sadly I missed the opportunity to get a photo of his (ahem) lovely colourful shirt.

My wife Boo's painting exhibition also went down very well and she almost sold out of paintings by the end. When you come down on a course, I recommend a visit to her studio up at the farm where you can have first choice of what she has been doing.

New Course News

Obviously enough, every course has to be run for a first time and no matter how much we try and prepare and plan well, there's no getting away from the fact that inaugural courses are always a bit of a nervous time for me. So, it is both with pleasure and relief that I can say that:

a) our first "Make A Chestnut Garden Gate" course went really well, with a full set of individual gates being designed and made in just two days. I worked with Guy Furner on this one (a natural teacher if ever there was one) and the results were fantastically varied and beautiful.

b) our first "Primitive Pottery" course (unusually, a ladies-only affair) turned out to be very enjoyable for all concerned with Adam Hendley an excellent teacher with a very gentle and laid-back style.

b) our first Masterclass, "Make A Pole Lathe & Shaving Horse", also went well and at the end of it everyone went home with their own pole lathe and horse - including one set just fitting in to a Micra. (It was a bit of a squeeze.) I don't think I'd realised quite how many shavings we'd all create in a week though!

c) our second Masterclass, "Make A Chair From A Tree" also proved a hit, with 10 chairs produced and 10 happy and proud chair-makers at the end of the week. We did have to work on into the evening to keep on schedule which, although not ideal, was great for the group as a whole and everybody rose to the challenge. Having said that, I am currently revising some details and processes so that on future courses everybody goes home on time! (As I said, we can plan as much as we like ...!)

There are more photos from all four courses up on the blog.

Tool Of The Month

OK, a brazier isn't really a tool but they have proven very popular now that the sun is shining, with a major restock necessary half way through Dorset Art Weeks. The ones we sell are the same as the central braziers that we use in the Woodland Workshop and can also be used as a BBQ. They are great for just sitting around once the sun has set too. Being rather large they are best collected but we can arrange shipping at extra cost if you won't be in the area in the foreseeable future.

As always, you can buy tools - including braziers - from our online shop by credit/debit card or you can order by post and pay by cheque. More details are on the 'tools' page.

*****

And there goes another month. I'm quite enjoying being 'back to normal' in the woods preparing for our Bowl Carving course next week and the Pole Lathe course the week after. Both of these are now fully booked but the subsequent Totem Pole and Gate Making courses both have a couple of spaces left. Do book up soon if you're fancy either (or both!) - totem poles are a long established favourite with guests and the first gate-making course earlier this year proved a real success too. Don't miss out.

Next on the agenda - a trip to Herefordshire to spend some time making coracles with hide skins. It should be very interesting - more about how I get on next time. That's it for this month. Thanks for reading.

Guy and the team

Tree of the Month: Elder - Sambucus nigra

Every year I am caught out by the arrival of midsummer; there seems to be a sudden great leap forward from hesitant spring into full summer, and we are there now, eventually, after the years' cold start. After what seems like weeks of nurturing along tender, emergent greenery against the threat of frosts, suddenly June is upon us and, on the 21st of this month comes midsummer and the summer solstice.

This month's tree, the elder, spends most of the year as a scrubby, bit-part player in hedges, field boundaries and urban rough spaces. Then, in June, it comes into its own, standing out from its neighbours with its covering of fragrant, heavy panicles of flowers, the colour of clotted cream. The pollen-rich flowers, soon covered in pollinating insects, deliver the heady scent and buzz of summer in one punch.

The elder tree springs up like a weed. Left to its own devices it establishes quickly and grows vigorously from seeds spread far and wide in the droppings of birds, who love to eat the flavoursome berries. A coloniser of neglected pockets of land, it springs up in churchyards, around houses, by farmyards on river edges and wherever rabbits are found, thriving on the disturbed soil with high nitrogen content left by the workings of humans and animals. Although rather unappreciated now, in times past the elder was valued for its wood, leaves, flowers and fruit, and had magical, as well as practical, applications.

In earlier times elder was rightly valued as a hedging plant. Quick growing, it will make a hedge more rapidly than any other tree, and rapidly bear flowers, fruit and leaves with a multitude of purposes in the home and on the farm: the leaves of elder, for instance, were widely used on the harnesses of working horses, and planted around cowsheds, homes and privies, where the smell of the leaves helped to deter flies. I tried this, in desperation, when we lived near a dirty farmyard in Shopshire, and the flies were terrible. It was an unscientific experiment, soon abandoned for the wonders of modern insect warfare, as the desiccating elder boughs dangling from the kitchen ceiling were at least as annoying as the flies. Elder wood, although hollow and weak in the fast-growing new shoots, is as hard as ebony in the roots and the trunk, and these parts of the tree were valued for wood-turning. The young, hollow shoots could be used to blow a fire into life, and are still used today by children for making blowpipes and beads.

The solstice, marking the height of summer, is a time when it was traditional to celebrate the growth, life force and activity that had taken place throughout the lengthening days of spring and summer. Different historic celebrations mark this time, often fire celebrations. In earlier times, solstice bonfires were lit on high land, 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. As it marks the point from which the days become shorter and the nights longer, the solstice also signals the season to begin gathering and preparing foodstuffs in earnest, for the returning winter. Elder flowers, and later the berries, are still widely collected for many different preparations and purposes; elder flower water, still produced commercially, was made as a toner for the skin, and medically, as a lotion for the eyes. In the kitchen, the flowers can be whole cooked as fritters, dipped in a light batter, or preserved as a cordial, a slightly sparkling 'champagne', or a wine. Commercially produced versions still use wild-harvested flowers, picked from the hedgerows by an army of seasonal pickers. When you go out a-gathering, be sure to leave some of the flowers to develop into bunches of berries, which can be eaten, or made into jam, or a rich country wine. Elder was also used, as it is today, to make a soothing and vitamin-rich syrup, used to treat coughs and colds.

Happily, all these lovely uses of elder won't cost you much more than a pleasant afternoon's picking, and just to speed you on your way, basket in hand, here is the historic Brightwater family recipe for elderflower cordial, handed down from grandma to son - tried, tested and delicious.

Grandma's elderflower cordial recipe:

2 pints boiling water
2oz citric acid (available from Boots or homebrew suppliers)
2 lemons, sliced
1 bag of sugar
25 large elderflower heads

Pick flowers when the sun is out, the flowers are dry and the pollen is fluffy. Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, and pour the boiling water over. Stir well, then cover and leave to stand for 5 days, stirring morning and evening. Strain through muslin and bottle in sterilised, screw-topped bottles. I have also stored it successfully in the freezer, in plastic milk cartons. Unscrew/thaw in the dark depths of winter, and the scent of summer will surround you.

Carolyn Brightwater