A seat in the country

The thing about our new place is that it's beautiful. Not beautiful in the pretentious overly crammed with fancy flowers sort of way, nor in the "yes, we have rare flowers in OUR garden, and aren't they the biggest you have ever seen" sort of way either.
Our place has a tranquility about it that has come from years of love and proper use of the land. The vegetable garden in nicely laid out, with a greenhouse and a big poly tunnel, the large lawn is expansive and lush, and the paddock is an area full of interesting little plants, flowers and trees. The paddock has one section almost hidden from the rest, it has a large fir tree and a willow separating it from the rest of that area, and that is where Jo mentioned she would like a bench.

After the success of my gates and the mini extension to the chicken coop (meant as a dust bath for the chickens - basically a lean-to) I decided to try to make a garden bench.

Having never made one wasn't really a problem, and I was excited as I thought how to make it.

I decided to try to use old fashioned methods to make it, and to make it sturdy enough to last at least a few years. So I set about buying some round and half round timbers to build it with. The first thing I did was to mortice out the front legs for the rails that would hold the thing together, remembering how in the old days they used to use wooden dowels instead of nails or screws.



The rest of the bench was pretty easy to do, although I was getting frustrated with the time involved as I had other jobs I was trying to do at the same time (post on fencing coming later).

I found a way to utilise the nice big front legs as a hand and mug rest which pleased me no end, as I had spent some time wondering how I was going to do it, without it looking rubbish.



So, once the handrail had been sorted out, it was plain sailing through the rest of the build, and at last it was finished! All that remained was to treat the timber with an extra coat of wood preserver (the timber was already vacuum treated with preserver), let it dry, and to move it into the paddock!

So here we have a couple of pictures before and after the treatment.




And hopefully this week, the bench will finally give Jo the peaceful spot she's wanted for years.