Woodturning - The Woodworkers Institute

Report from the Yandles Show

Mark Baker

23 April 2012

It was lovely meeting many of you at Yandles show the other week. Sorry it is always a rush. The show is always fun and as always, I was, like many of you, rummaging around in the timber area to see what goodies could be found. I found some and those will be used in the magazine over the coming months. I have included in this blog a few pictures that give you a taste of what is on offer at the show.

Lat week, as with the next two weeks sees me out and about again visit various manufacturers. I had a toad of a journey last week trying to get to the Birmingham area. The motorway was sealed off and this meant a diversion and on that diversion we encountered road accidents and traffic snarl ups aplenty. What should have taken 3.5 hours took 5. I hate being late for meetings. I factor plenty of time typically, but 1.5 hours extra was stupid and so frustrating. Road travel is getting so much worse lately. Road travel is a necessary evil, but so annoying at times. My tolerance for delays is getting worse and worse as I get older.

I was at home this weekend and looking at many of the trees coming to life. I have mentioned before that I love Acers and here are a couple just as the leaves are unfurling. I love the vibrancy of colours at this time of year. I have 17 different Acers of various sizes in my garden and love them. The green one in the background is Acer palmatum var. dissectum ‘Seiryu’. The pinkish one in the foreground is Acer negundo Flamingo – a box elder. You can see the rain clouds in the background, too. Good job I was inside for the last part of yesterday afternoon. The heavens opened for what was an impressive deluge. I use a lot of Acers in my turnings – sycamore and maple of various kinds. None that are in my garden are destined for the turning shop, though. I bought a load of sycamore from Yandles for use in the GMC workshop.