Mini Clocks

Over the past few weeks I have been working on making mini clocks that are a 1/3 replica of a clock that once hung in my grade school classroom.  The grade school was converted to condominiums a number of years ago and at the time my dad managed to get hold of the clock but never did anything with it.  I found it in his attic when they sold his home.  The original clock was painted pea green and when I stripped the clock I found it was made of oak.  I refinished the original clock that is about 15 inches square and replaced the works with a quartz movement. The original clock remains in our kitchen now.


Last year I built two miniature clocks that my sister has hanging in the rest rooms of her art studio in Lowell.  Visitors spotted the clocks and asked if I would make copies for them.  When I learned she had orders for three of the clocks I decided to make additional clocks since once my tools were setup it would not take much longer to make additional ones.  I had plenty of small pieces of scrap wood and was able to use scraps to build the clocks which helped to keep the total cost of materials to a minimum.


When I started the clocks I built them with the intention of hanging them on a wall.  I later thought they might also go well on a table or shelf so decided to build a base for the clock to sit on.  The base is removable so they can either sit on a table or hang on the wall.  My guess is that they they will most likely sit on a table rather than hang on a wall.


I used several types of finish and wood to make the clocks.  I used quarter sawed oak and Cuban Mahogany.  One of the clocks was finished using an ebony process where the finish was almost black. The clocks shown above are from left to right natural oak, English Oak stained and Cuban mahogany.

Maine Coast - Kittery to Old Orchard Beach.

This is one of two trips I recently made along the Southern Maine Coast.  I needed a brake from doing routine  landscaping and the few rainy days we were having it gave me a good excuse to set that aside and relax.


This area of Maine can be very busy in the summer however it was early in the season and with the weather as it was I did not encounter much traffic.   


The beginning of my trip followed the Maine coast from Kittery to Old Orchard Beach where I explored some of the more popular villages along the cost and stopped at Ogunquit Beach to have my lunch which I packed with me.  The beach was unusually void of visitors as it was the middle of the week and the weather was cool with intermittent periods of rain.

Oqunquit Beach MAP

After having my lunch on the beach I moved on to the Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge located along State Route 9 just south west of Kennebunkport.  The wildlife refuge covers a forested area where a footpath is maintained for visitors and also borders a marshy estuary. 

Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge MAP

Leaving the wildlife refuge I traveled a little further along the coast to the Franciscan Monastery overlooking Kennebunkport Village Harbor.  I was curious abut the Monastery as I traveled through this area before but never noticed it so decided to stop and explore.  The facility consists of a guest house that accommodates visitors, an outdoor chapel a church around the early 60;s as well as housing for Lithuanian Monks and priests.   There was also a short trail that paralleled the shore overlooking the village which I explored.

Franciscan Monastery MAP

I traveled as far as Old Orchard Beach before calling it a day and traveled the Interstate home taking about an hour to complete the journey.

Maine - Portland to Old Orchard Beach

It was another rainy day in New England on Monday so I decided to drive to Portland and return along the coastal route to Old Orchard Beach.

Portland Head Light 

More Photos      MAP

My first stop was the Whole Foods Market located on Franklin Street in Portland.  This is a relatively large market that caters to new age groupies wearing Burkenstock sandals and driving huge 4 wheel drive SUV's.  The store specializes in a large variety of organic foods.  Unfortunately most of the foods were off limits to me.  Even though lots of foods were organic most were very high in sodium and would send my blood pressure off the scales if I did eat the stuff. I ended up purchasing a few boxes of cereal and a small tub of almond butter.  It was lunch time so I decided to have some veggies from the food bar that would fit into my new low salt diet.

My next stop was Hamilton Marine.  Hamilton Marine sells boating supplies for commercial and serious recreational boaters.  I was looking for a hasp to secure a patio door but when I learned it would cost me over $30.00 I began to think about making one myself.

Leaving Hamilton Marine I drove through the Old Port and along the waterfront.  The area has gone through a complete transformation since I last visited the area. It was bustling with activity as it is a popular stopping point for locals and tourists.  A Harvard college student went missing the night before so there was lots of activity with rescuers searching for him.  I later learned he apparently became intoxicated and it appeared he fell into the water and drowned. It was sort of sad as his graduation was the same week.

I followed the shore road out of Portland to the Portland Head Light which is the entry into Portland Harbor.  I spent about an hour here walking on the footpaths along the shore taking time to stop along the way to photograph the area.

Leaving the Lighthouse I headed south towards Boston and before too long it started to rain fairly heavy and it was getting late in the day. As I did not look forward to driving in the dark with the driving rain I decided to push on home arriving back in Groveland at about 7:30 pm.

Stonington Connecticut

While visiting relatives in Rhode Island this weekend I spent Saturday afternoon walking around Old Stonington.  It was a fairly mild day however it was also a foggy day which made for some interesting photographs.

Stonington is located along the south eastern shore of Connecticut and only a few miles from my home town of Westerly, Rhode Island.  Stonington was established during the mid 1600's and today has over 18,000 residents.  The first lighthouse established by the US Federal Government in 1823 and was located in Stonington.  The area supported a small fishing, whaling and sealing fleet.  It was also a way station for travelers between Boston and New York. Trains brought travelers from Boston to Stonington who then took a steamship to New York.

My British friends might find it interesting to note that Stonington was successfully defended against  HMS Naval bombardments in1775 and again in 1814.  During the bombardment of 1814 Stonington casualties included a mauled cow, a killed a goose, one hen, 3 hogs and an elderly lady who was on her dying bed. 

Site Maintenance at the Boat Museum

This past winter I worked with the Site Maintenance group at the Ellesmere Port Boat Museum. This article was written for the Museum Times and talks a little about some of the work we completed this winter.

The Site Maintenance team under the direction of Ronnie McEwin have been hard at work performing many of the routine maintenance tasks such as repairing walkways, clearing the locks of debris, clearing walkways of moss, cutting lawns, and moving equipment. The team has also been hard at work doing exterior restoration work on the historic museum buildings repairing doors and windows.

An example of some of the work done by the team is the restoration of the window sills on the engine room.  Frank Perra and  Jim Donaldson took on the challenge to restore the sills this past winter. The images below illustrate the restoration work performed on two of the engine room windows. Once warmer weather sets in the glazing on the window grills will also be replaced by the team which will complete the restoration of the windows.

Engine Room windows to be repaired showing decayed sills		A before and after view of the window sill. The top shows the condition of the sills after they were repaired and the bottom shows the decayed sill before restoration.
The decayed area of the sill was removed before the new sill cap was applied to restore the sill to it’s original appearance.		This is an end view of the cap that was applied to finish the sill.  The intent was to retain as much of the original sill as possible and restore it in a way that it looked like the original as well as retain as much of the original window sill as possible.

Isoletta, Arce Italy

View of the Isoletta Area from an near by hill

Joan and I traveled to Isoletta Italy where my grandfather (my mother's dad) was born.  It is a rural area that is very scenic and is located about 45 miles south of Rome.  While there we met families that have relatives in Providence, RI and one of them was kind enough to give us a tour of the area.

Main Street in the old part of Isoletta

 

 One of the things that I often wanted to know was who was my grandfather's real mother as his dad (my great grandfather) re-married when he immigrated to the states and my grandfather's real mother has never been mentioned.  The families we met have promised to do some research to find out who my Great Grandfather's first wife was.  They believe the information would be recorded in the administrative offices for Isoletta which they are planning to research for us.

I also learned that my grandfather's surname was a very common name in the area of Isoletta which is not surprising  to be honest.

 There appears to be strong family ties between Isoletta and Providence, RI where my grandfather lived as many families are connected and travel back and forth.

We had lunch at the restaurant shown above where we met Gino who is the owner.  Gino has other brothers who live in Providence, RI and he gave me contact information for one of his brothers who I hope to contact when I get back to the states.  His wife had a sister who lived in Chelmsford but has since passed away.

What was surprising to me was how connected to Isoletta Providence has been as many families from Isoletta have immigrated to Providence and some have actually moved back to isoletta. 

 I went to Isoletta with the plan to only see what the area was like but never expected to meet such warm and friendly people and never really expected to learn anything about the Boffi family background.  I am now optimistic that I may finally learn something about my real grandmother.

Some of my Co-Workers at the Boat Museum

Here I am with two of my coworkers.  Jim standing to the left is a retired Civil Engineer and worked for what we would call the Highway Department. Jim and I have been working jointly on some of the building restoration work at the museum.  In the middle is Ronnie who is retired from the Vauxhall factory in Ellsemere port and is in charge of site maintenance at the museum.

The three of us typically work at the museum three days a week. Jim and I were paired up on a number of tasks and projects.  The two of us worked together to repair sills on the engine room and doors on the Steam Accumulator building. Jim has been helpful with familiarizing me with the procedures at the museum which has helped to keep me from getting myself into trouble on a number of occasions.

Centaur returning from a trip

Peter in a black coat and hat is the Captain of the Centaur which is the tour boat that takes visitors for trips on the canal.  Peter was a captain on the world famous Mersey Ferry before he retired and has some interesting stories about his work on the Mersey as a Captain.

Steven being trained by Mike on the Radiant

Steven is another co-worker who I have grown to know and is the youngest on the Maintenance team.  Steven has an enormous amount of energy and pulls more than his share of the work load.  It's encouraging to know that there are actually some young people who are not afraid to work.  Steve among other things is into BMX bikes and from what I have been able to gather pushes his sport to the limits.  He recently destroyed one bike doing his bike stunts. He now uses his sister's bike and I have a feeling her bike is next on the destruction list.

MartYn moving a narrow boat into dry dock

MartYn with the bright yellow coat and black hat is moving one of the narrow boats.  The boat is being moved into position where the lock will be used as a dry dock to allow the boat to be inspected.  The lock the boat is being moved into is frequently used as a dry dock when it is necessary to work on the hull of a boat.  

MartYn and his partner Sue were the first persons I met at the museum.  Martyn and Sue spent an entire morning with me introducing me to the museum by explaining the volunteer program then gave me a tour of the facilities.  Both Sue and MartYn are dedicated to the museum and spend a great deal of their personal time working at the museum.  I cannot recall being at the museum when I did not see one of them working there.  

The Boat Museum hosted a Model Boat Meet this past weekend.  It was amazing to see the detail put into the model boats. Most of the boats were radio controlled so they not only looked realistic they also operated much like the actual full size boats.  There were tug boats that moved tankers into model docks set up on the canal.  Lifeboats raced around and at one point several tugboats simulated moving one of the larger canal boats into dock. It was estimated they had in the order of 1,200 visitors during the two day event.

On Saturday I visited the museum with two of our grandchildren and our son Bernard.  I showed them some of the restoration work I was doing on the buildings at the museum and gave them a short tour.  I arranged a trip on a canal boat for them which traveled on the canal towards Chester.  It was not a very long trip but the they had a chance to see what it was like to travel by boat on the canal and learn a bit of the canal history.


I worked at the museum Sunday morning helping to park cars.  We had well over 500 visitors and by noon had filled three parking lots. 

Boat Museum Project - Accumulator Doors

The main project I worked on this week at the boat museum was to build two doors for the Accumulator Room.  The accumulator is a large vessel that would store the steam from the steam engine that supplied power to the equipment that was operated  when the museum was a working facility.  


Shown below are the original doors that were badly rotten and below that a photograph of the new doors that were built.

This will likely be the last project I see to completion before returning to the states.  Our next project is scheduled to be the repair of windows on the tour boat.  This project will likely extend beyond my return to the states as there are 8 or 10 windows that will need repairing.

Spring In Liverpool

It appears that spring has arrived here in Liverpool as we are seeing many flowers and fruit trees blooming. I noticed the first fruit trees blooming last week on my way to the Boat Museum. I love this time of year and what is especially great is that I get two springs. I get a spring here in Liverpool and when I get back to the States I experience a 2nd spring since the weather in New England is normally about a month behind. I'm not sure about this year as the winter in New England has been milder than normal however England has had milder weather also so it may balance out so I still get a 2nd spring.

A Beatles Celebration

Last evening we attended a Beatles music performance at the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton.  The performance lasted for two hours and was divided into two parts.  The first part was packed with early Beatles music with only four performers.  The 2nd half of the performance focused on later music recorded by the Beatles and the four Beatles were accompanied by a background group consisting of two trumpets, sax, cello, violin and piano.

Karl Lornie as Paul McCartney

Karl Lornie acted the part of Paul McCartney and did a fantastic job of capturing Paul's accent and expressions.

This is a quote from the Floral Pavillion brochure: Undoubtedly the most genuine live recapturing  of the music of The Beatles, this two-hour  theatrically staged concert recreates The  Beatles’ musical journey from 1962 to 1970.  The performance, starring Karl Lornie, includes  original instruments and costume changes to reflect the period of the songs, whilst the show takes the audience right from the early rock ‘n’ roll hits to the later classics such as Let It Be

Day trip to Llandudno Wales

Since our rental car was not due back until Monday we decided to take a short day trip to Llandudno Wales which was an easy day trip for us. Llandudno is a picturesque Victorian seaside resort located on the north coast of Wales about 45 miles west of Liverpool.  It was close to 10 years since we last visited Llandudno but the seaside had not changed much however we did notice that as we got away from the seafront there had been significant changes.  A new shopping center developed with major UK stores like Asda, B&Q and Boots occupying space.

We walked about Llandudno and Joan purchased some linens for one of our grandaughters,  We took a short break for a Cupa before heading back to Liverpool.  On our return to Liverpool we took the coastal road as far as Rhyl.  By the time we reached Rhyl it was getting dark and the temperature dropped to almost freezing so we switched to the A56 which is the primary 4 lane road that took us back toward Liverpool.

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Cambridge England

St John's College

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This week we traveled to Cambridge England to Visit Joan's brother who recently move there to be close to his daughter and recently born grandson.  He actually lives just west of Cambridge in a village called Hardwick where his daughter, grandson and daughter's partner live. His daughter Kathryn who is a primary school teacher also visited us during our stay.

Cambridge is  about 200 miles from Liverpool and the drive to Hardwick was a 4 hour journey. Since Joan's back has troubled her recently we made several stops so she could have a chance to stretch.  

Although we were there for 4 days we only had time to visit Cambridge one day.  On Tuesday we visited with John's family and on Wednesday I helped John with fitting a storage shelf in his entry way.  

Cambridge University made up of 31 colleges and is one of the oldest universities in the world with it's origins going back to the 1200's. Cambridge is on the par with Harvard and MIT in terms of academic standing.  


While touring the city we were able to enter the college grounds to St John's college and found time for Lunch at the Fitzwilliam Museum.  I had my GPS as usual which indicated we walked about 4.5 miles.

Bicycles Everywhere

I was taken back by the number of bicycles in the city.  I do believe that Cambridge has more bicycles per square foot than any other city in England or the United States.  Bikes were everywhere. We passed one of the Cambridge Colleges where I would swear they had 500 bicycles parked. 

Mathematical Bridge

I found the mathematical bridge to be interesting.  Legend has it that the bridge was built without nails or bolts but I later found that was not true.  The original bridge was built with spikes that were hidden and when the bridge was rebuilt years later it was was bolted together.  

We returned to Hardwick by bus rested a bit after our long day in Cambridge then had a gourmet meal at a local pub close to John's home.  We decided to drive to the pub since we were exhausted from our day in the city.  I think John about had a heart attack from the ride because as I entered the roadway from his home I ended up driving on the on the right lane.  I was confused for a moment as it was very dark and there were no cars on the road.  I thought the lane to my left was a bus lane but quickly realized I was driving in the right lane used by oncoming traffic.  I do not think John will ever ride with me again.

Sea Shanty Night at the Baltic Pub

Saturday we enjoyed an evening of Sea Shanty music at the Baltic Pub in Liverpool.  The Baltic is a historic pub that is a Grade II listed building.  Listed buildings cannot be demolished and must be kept original .  The pub was frequented by the seamen who worked on the docks when the many miles of working docks were active.  The pub brews their own ales in their cellar which has a tunnel connected to the building we live in but unfortunately the tunnel is blocked off. The pub looks much like it did during the period time when working dockers frequented it.

Prior to visiting the pub Joan and I were invited to a traditional Scottish dinner with friends.  They served haggis, neap, tatties and a lovely pudding which was topped up with a fine Single Malt Scotch.

It was the first time I tried haggis and I was a little skeptical about trying it but I absolutely loved it.
According to Wikipedia:

Haggis is a kind of savoury pudding containing sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion,oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach and simmered for approximately three hours. Most modern commercial haggis is prepared in a casing rather than an actual stomach.  

Also according to Wikipedia: 


A Burns supper is a celebration of the life and poetry of the poet Robert Burns, author of many Scotspoems. The suppers are normally held on or near the poet's birthday, 25 January, sometimes also known asRobert Burns Day or Burns Night (Burns Nicht), although they may in principle be held at any time of the year.

I am getting carried away as this blog was actually about our evening of Sea Shanty music so back to the pub.

Sea Shanty night at the Baltic is held the last Saturday of the month and various performers get together to sing traditional sea shanty's. In total there were 6 who sang during the evening.  A video with with photos and excerpts of some of the music is posted above.

Volunteerring at the National Waterways Museum

I made the decision to get involved in volunteer activities this winter as there has not been much to keep me busy while wintering in Liverpool. Just prior to Christmas I contacted the National Waterways Museum in Ellesmere port to see if they had any need for volunteers.  I thought that since I like boats, like working with wood and have been interested in the history of the canal system in England that this would offer me something I would enjoy doing.

Last week I was contacted by the museum and invited to join the volunteer staff at the museum.  

On Tuesday I traveled to Ellesmereport for a meeting with two of the volunteers.  I traveled from Liverpool to Ellesmere Port which is a 30 minute train ride for me.  I have a 10 minute walk at each end of my train journey so getting to the museum is easy.

On Tuesday I was given an introduction to the museum and an overview of the various volunteer help that was going on there.  

The volunteer group is divided into various areas such as archives, training, guiding, maintenance of boats, restoration of boats etc.  After spending several hours touring the museum and meeting various members of different volunteer groups it seemed to me that the groups that were of most interest to me would be the boat maintenance and restoration groups.  Since I was new to the museum and knew nothing about traditional boat restoration I thought it would be best for me to start by helping with the boat maintenance and boat movement group and eventually once I become more familiar with the museum try to get involved with boat restoration.

On Thursday I spent the day with the maintenance group.   The head of the group met me and gave me a more in depth tour of the museum where I was shown the various restoration shops and given an overview of the restoration projects taking place.  He also explained some of the maintenance projects that were on his to-do list.  I had a chance to meet some of the volunteers who have been helping on a regular basis.  Most of them are retired like myself.  

On Sunday I am scheduled to work at the museum with what is called the Boat Activities Group.  This team has the responsibility for operating the boats and keeping the restored boats maintained.  I was told I would be receiving training on boat operation and safety on Sunday.  

Marton Mere Wildlife Reservation

I traveled to the Marton Mere Wildlife Reservation today where thousands of migrant wild ducks, geese, waders and swans winter over at the marshland.


The swans that winter at Marton Mere migrate from Iceland where they spend the summer and have their young.













Getting to the reservation was a bit of a challenge as I do not have a car this winter so need to use public transport to get around.  Public transport here is very good which makes getting to most places possible with a little planning.  In order for me to get to the preserve I traveled by train to Southport which is about a 45 minute ride by rail.  I then changed trains where I was able to travel to the New Lane Rail station near the town of Burscough which took another 10 minutes.  

I had to walk on foot for about a mile partly on a country road and a footpath through open farmland leading to the reservation. The footpath was clearly marked although I did have my GPS to back me up. The path was well marked but there were several muddy areas I had to cross caused by the recent rains we have been having.








Shortly before I arrived in the early afternoon it began to sprinkle and as the afternoon went on the rain increased.  Since I arrived about 2 pm I did not get a chance to explore the preserve but plan to return another day to do that now that I am more familiar with travel and the setup at the preserve and realize I need to leave earlier.  The days are short this time of year as we are fairly far north at about the same lattitude as Newfoundland it it is dark by 4 pm.

The primary purpose for visiting the preserve was to observe the thousands of swans that winter there.  Small buildings are constructed along the shore where the swans congregate to allow visitors to view them without disturbing the birds.  there is a long roofed building only about 10 ft wide and maybe s 200 or 300 ft long with small narrow windows.  the windows can be opened for viewing and photography.




I spent some time in the visitor center to warm up and have a cup of coffee and a scone.  It was fairly late by the time I was ready to return to Liverpool and it was starting to get dark.  My return trip to the rail station was along a foot path that traversed several farms and a country road which would have been very dark.  It was also raining fairly heavy by now so I decided to call for a taxi to take me to the rail station for my return trip.  I arrived at the rail station just in time to make the return trip to Southport and then on to Liverpool.