Essential Jobs for Christmas

[french frank]

Have just surprised myself by shelling out an extortionate sum (£25 in crisp notes from the ATM) for a tatty wooden stool, worth all of a tenner. The pleasure will be in cleaning it and finishing until it glows - it is solid elm :-). It will then be worth all of £15, though it will have provided me with some happy hours ... can't wait to start.

But, it wasn't on the list of Jobs for Christmas (I haven't even bought my cards yet). Is it A Displacement Activity?

[LeMartinPecheur]

But did you remember to get a pigeon to sit on it?

[french frank]

But did you remember to get a pigeon to sit on it?

It looks like one already has!

[vinteuil]

it is solid elm

... am reminded of the ancient verse -

"Ellum hateth
Man, and waiteth."


Some think this was because elm branches could drop off unexpectedly and hit you on the bonce - some think it's because coffins were oftentimes made of elm...

[Dave2002]

... am reminded of the ancient verse -

"Ellum hateth
Man, and waiteth."

Some think this was because elm branches could drop off unexpectedly and hit you on the bonce - some think it's because coffins were oftentimes made of elm...

Is elm one of the trees that tree surgeons are very wary of? Some trees have the characteristic that branches can give way without warning, which is not good news for anyone standing on one, or for anyone below. Are there any others?

[french frank]

I know nothing of these characteristics, just that elm was once commonly used for chair seats (I have a 'carver' with such a seat). The stool also has turned legs in elm, which is nice: often they would be in beech.

But! I have found this on a French forum ...

"Ellum she hateth mankind, and waiteth
Till every gust be laid,
To drop a limb on the head of him
That anyway trusts her shade:
~ Rudyard Kipling, "A Tree Song" from Puck of Pook's Hill (1906)

which shows how much I remember of my English classes, since Puck of Pook's Hill was the first literary text we studied at school, aged 11.

[Serial_Apologist]

One essential job before Xmas, for me, is getting all the food in before checkout queues get so long one's ice cream is no longer such by the time it is paid for. Then one always discovers something which one has forgotten. Dried milk, in my case, right now.

[mercia]

did no haggling take place ? sounds like a nightmare on elm seat

[Serial_Apologist]

did no haggling take place ? sounds like a nightmare on elm seat

[amateur51]

I know nothing of these characteristics, just that elm was once commonly used for chair seats (I have a 'carver' with such a seat). The stool also has turned legs in elm, which is nice: often they would be in beech.

Shades of another West Country furniture devotee, french frank - Arthur Negus

[french frank]

Shades of another West Country furniture devotee, french frank - Arthur Negus

And here you can just make out the lovely grain, on the top and front rail. A real corker! :-) It's been very roughly cleaned (still with signs of the pigeon...):

[jean]

...elm was once commonly used for chair seats (I have a 'carver' with such a seat)...

I have some large chairs with elm seats. It's an attractive grain - it tends to split, but not in such a way that you could fall through.

I like to think my banister rail is elm, but I'm not sure.

But no-one needs to worry now, since all the English elms died of Dutch Elm Disease forty years ago.

[vinteuil]

all the English elms died of Dutch Elm Disease forty years ago.

... not quite all, I think - isn't there an enclave around Brighton which still has unaffected English Elms?

I see wiki has :

"The largest concentration of mature elm trees remaining in England is in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, where 15,000 elms still stand (2005 figures), several of which are estimated to be over 400 years old. Their survival is owing to the isolation of the area, between the English Channel and the South Downs, and the assiduous efforts of local authorities to identify and remove infected sections of trees immediately when they show symptoms of the disease. Empowered by the Dutch Elm Disease (Local Authorities) (Amendment) Order 1988, local authorities may order the destruction of any infected trees or timber, although in practice they usually do it themselves, successfully reducing the numbers of elm bark beetle Scolytus spp., the vector of elm disease. The largest concentration of mature elms in Scotland is in Edinburgh, where over 5000 mature elms still stand (2009 figures) out of some 35,000 in 1976. Edinburgh's Leith Links has the highest concentration of mature elms of any U.K. park (2012). A policy of sanitary felling has kept losses in the city to an average of 1000 a year."

[amateur51]

.. you can just make out the lovely grain (still with signs of the pigeon...):

Sign of the Pigeon?! Conan Doyle?

That pigeon was after the lovely grain, no doubt

[Stillhomewardbound]

I can entirely see the attraction of this stool, FF. It will come up a treat and prove to be a poignant and organic rebuke of our MFI Formica Ikea inc. mass produced world.

It's the kindly contours in the seat, particularly, that speak to its hand hewn simplicity.