carpentry

In the morning I went for a run in the rain.  I didn't feel like it but I forced it.  Keaton Henson again.  It rained quite hard and it didn't start to feel fun, so I made do with satisfaction in burning thighs.  When I first started running it was another weight-loss campaign.  Now I do it so I don't have to bully myself so badly when I put anything to my lips.  Just a little bit.

Afterwards I came home, bathed, had wine and rocket leaves and went to M's to begin the project.  When I got there I was drenched from hailstones that had hit me in the eyes and puddles up to my ankles.  I borrowed some clothes, holding the trousers up with a shoelace.  The actual carving was really good. M showed me a piece he had done.  It was made from a wooden table but it didn't look like one.  It looked like a wooden bed-head with holes and figures carved into it.  It was in night time shades, purplish red and bluish purple.  He pointed out a dragon on top and, whether they were meant to be there or not, my eyes picked out sprites and stars and other ragged myths.  It had wings on hinges.  It was weird and beautiful and reminded me of a fairlytale- original version, darkness included. It was like something I'd picture Briar Rose under: punctured with bad dreams but hinged with protective wings. I went a bit quiet because something about it caught in my throat and "cool" wasn't quite enough.

M told me that the mahogany I was going to use had come from Honduras in 1945.  I looked up Honduran myths and found one about the cadejo, a dog that appears in both white and black.  The white comes to protect travellers, while the black comes to kill them.  In some traditions, the colours are reversed.  They have varying forms of power.  In its strongest incarnation, the evil cadejo is likened to the devil.  So, I sketched and began to carve out two heads on one neck, the good and the bad face pointing in different directions.  On one, I cut a diamond shape, later to be filled red like blood.  M showed me to use a chisel and I began chiselling away the background so that the dual head will eventually stand in the foreground.  I also used a drill!  I had been pretty nervous about that side of things, as I'm stupid-clumsy, but it was fine.  I drank cider and beer while I worked.  Absolute radio blasted.  I should have eaten, probably, but beer sat better.  Always.

I can't be bothered with mood stabilisers any more.  Why not go for gold, stick with the a-ds and hope for sunshine?