I spent time last Sunday making this year's christmas card.

Yes, I know it's now after Christmas and I realise that, even if posted today, the chances of them arriving, now as a New Year greeting, are also remote.

But anyway, sent in time or not, this is it....

And I selected it from this sequence of pics of Spanish Chestnut boles, all taken on the one walk on the one path up from our house in Arguebanes, in the Picos de Europe, where Sue and I spent a (magic) week in early July.

I have a lurking memory - that I can't right now recall - of somebody, of seeming authority, explaining to me why Spanish Chestnut trunks are always 'twisted' in the distinctive manner that they always are!

......................

And, last week I recieved this card from my old (I mean long term) friend, Martin (also my blog mentor) in Thezan.

It couldn't be more apt - given all he had to say (in his blog) about my efforts on his behalf in Thezan - could it?

It put me in mind of another moment of friendship and pleasure that occured during the year............

Many, many years back Terry Bannon, an equally old (or long-term) friend, told me about the house his son, Kirk, had bought in Drimnagh, Dublin.

He told me that it had an outhouse, or workshop, full of old tools from a previous owner. - I don't remember how many times he encouraged me to go and have a look, but I never did.

Ultimately I heard that Kirk had sold his house and I rued my tardiness and stupidity

But one day, this autumn passed, Terry arrived in my workshop with a box.........

We opened it together and, slowly went through its contents.

(Looking into an old tool-box, especially one that belonged to someone who is now, most probably, not in a position to make further use of its contents, evokes a strange but special feeling in me - like looking into a woman's handbag or deciding to read somebody's diary).

As I write, 'the box' remains much where it was when Terry brouhgt it to me and, sometimes, as I pass it, I peek into it just for those sensations.

There are tools in it that are no longer used but that I remember using; there are broken tools that were not thrown away - we woodworkers become fond of certain tools: I can spend a day looking for a valueless tool that may also be worn and due for replacement!

From left: Rawlplug Holder. It, and its bit, was the only means of making holes in hard walls - now totally replaced by the power-drill amd masonary bits.
Two Pad-saws with a saw-sharpening file between. The saws have been replaced by the power jig-saw and it is now almost impossible to find a saw, without hardened teeth, that is capable of being sharpened.
Moulding Plane - now completely replaced by the router and spindle-moulder.
Spoke-shaves - now also largely replaced by the router, but still sometimes useful for shaping internal curves.
Putty-knife - now almost obsolete as glass today is fitted with 'slips' bedded in silicone rather than putty.
Oil-stone (carborundum) for sharpening chisels and plane blades - now replaced by embedded industrial diamonds.

Somehow I doubt that I will ever empty 'the box' and, if ever I were to use any of the tools in it, I am sure that I will return them to their own home rather than amalgamating them with my own.