Author Archives: stevetomlin

Apple Day 2011

Update 12/10/11: Unfortunately the National Trust today contacted me to say they have cancelled this year’s event due to the recent rain and condition of the fields. On Sunday 16th Oct I’ll be at Acorn Bank near Penrith for their … Continue reading

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Spooncarving course with Fritiof Runhall

Last week I spent 3 days in Edale as a student on a spooncarving course organised by Robin Wood and taught by Swedish carver Fritiof Runhall. I’ve been carving spoons from green wood for 8 years, so when I first … Continue reading

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Spooncarving and camping

Last week, during the hottest days of the year, Christiane and I met up and spent a few days camping near Salisbury. I took along a small lump of the damson wood I’ve been working with and a spooncarving kit … Continue reading

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Anna Karenina extras "scandal"

I got back last night from the second round of filming the mowing scenes for Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. While we were away somebody told us about that the filming had made the papers because of extras being supposedly underpaid. … Continue reading

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Recovery kayak launching

My skin-on-frame recovery kayak attracted a fair bit of attention as soon as I drove into the campsite at Ullswater with it on the roof of the car. I was suprised how many people remembered and recognised it from 2 … Continue reading

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Improve Your Peening workshop

I like peening for all sorts of reasons but one of my favourite aspects is the amazing rhythms which are created by several people peening scythes together. The hammering comes in and out of sync in a way I find … Continue reading

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Skin on frame kayak

Way back in 2008, the guy I was working with asked me to go to the library and look for a book on currachs, Irish fame boats. Instead I found ‘The Aleutian Kayak’ by Wolfgang Brinck and fell in love … Continue reading

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Damson spoons

The Lyth Valley, close to where I live is famous for it’s damsons which are out at the moment. It’s a good year in terms of the crop but difficult harvesting, I’m told because of the wet weather. I’ve used … Continue reading

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Mowing on Romanian TV

Our group of hay-tourists certainly drew plenty of attention from the local media. During the week we were photographed and interviewed by two newspapers and filmed by a local news station, an independent film-maker working with the festival organisers and … Continue reading

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Haymaking poem

I’ve been sent this poem by Neil Diment, community officer for the HayTime project in the North Pennines AONB. Neil was one of the participants on the Transylvania Haymaking Festival and writes, “Having, at long last, tried my hand at … Continue reading

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