Fighting With Nature

Cratch after second undercoat

I have long been a believer that fighting with nature is a task you are never going to win. Attempts to engage that power need to be considered carefully. 

It is one of the reasons we do not have any lawns at home – in fact we barely have any land. We acknowledged the nonsense of lawns at our last house, where the ratio of the time spent mowing it, to sitting in it, was about 20:1. 

Of course there are occasions when the fight is necessary; such as staying alive at our age! But clipping hedges, mowing lawns, and vacuuming, or is it blowing? the autumn leaves surely must be questionable.

One - Two -Three

Staying with the garden theme a bit, we realised, a while ago, that oiling or varnishing outside furniture is a battle you are going to lose. After a summer or two, you will have lost. I know this from experience and it has been added to my list of questionable activities.

Now the wooden cratch on our boat is rather tired: the varnish has gone and the wood is looking not so new. So armed with my garden furniture knowledge, I set about painting it. I am a big believer in paint. 

And whist I was painting it, First Mate and I thought we might add some diamonds or hearts: something to give it a bit more colour. So after much debate, including discussion of the rather difficult to prove 'Four Colour Theorem,' we came up with the picture here.

To save dragging the cratch home and having it on the living room table for a week or two, we decided to paint the cratch timber a single colour in situ, and make the decorated centre panel from sheet steel that could be screwed on when finished.

The plan is progressing well and I will post again when it is finished.