What to do when beavers threaten your conservation efforts?

Western North Carolina’s Kanuga Conference Center is home to a Southern Appalachian Mountain bog - one of North America’s rarest habitats. Bogs often home to rare plants and animals, provide important habitat for migratory birds and game species, improve water quality by filtering sediment and contaminants, and store floodwaters which helps decrease downstream flooding. They’re places we very much want to conserve.

Kanuga’s bog has seen the recent arrival of beavers. On one hand, they’re cutting down shrubs, which is a positive step as it allows more sunlight to fall on the plants managers want to thrive. On the other hand, their dams are making water levels so high they’re turning the bogs into ponds – eliminating habitat for the plants and animals that need the bog to live.

A solution? Install pond levelers –pipes through the beaver dams that help drain the pooled water down to a desired level and minimize the ability of beavers to detect stream flow – tricking them into thinking their dams are intact.

Recently staff from Kanuga Conferences, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy the N.C. Natural Heritage Program, The Nature Conservancy, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service joined a team of Haywood Community College students to install two pond levelers at the Kanuga Bog.

Cycle Chalao City Bachao - Installation By: - Rajesh N. Nakar.

Interior Designer, Visual merchandiser @ Artist.

Nikon D90 Nikon 50mm f/1.8 @ Nikon SB-600 hitting the sky

Life is a leveler and world as we all know it, is ROUND. "As you sow, so shall you reap" has been said and heard thousands of times. Yet, humans continue to do and act in a way that more than once could hamper its healthy existence.

Invention of wheel is considered man's finest discovery till date. Wheels just didn't help him move, it kept moving. However, there is no limitation to a man/s need and his urge for speed. So, the world moved from discovering a basic bi-cycle to scooters, cars and other modern luxuries that could help his need for speed!

"There is enough in this world for everybody's need, but not for everybody's greed" said Mahatma Gandhi. We have been warned and repeatedly told to save natural resources like Gold, Oil, Silver, Copper etc ...

but what about the environment we live in?

Time has come to adapt to more practical measures than resort to ones that we find it difficult to follow.

'Cycle Chalao City Bachao' should be one such weekly campaign that has to be followed and implemented by individuals.

Professionalism riding cycles should not be looked down upon.

Every individual should do their best to reduce pollution and help a greater cause. The first citizen of the city should initiate such campaigns for the betterment of the society. Perhaps, now is the right time when petrol and diesel prices are soaring high!

Health benefits of cycling are widely acknowledged. During cycling; most of the body's muscles are activated. Cycling tightens up the muscular system, making it stronger and able to function efficiently.

The last best time 'Ride the Change' was 20 years ago; the next best if Today!

Made of 2 old doors from the storage rooms of an old apartment complex that is being renovated. The wood is knotty grade white pine.... wood used for purely utilitarian uses...like basement locker doors. They date to about 1890-1900. and have lots of character including pencil marks from the builders, probably old German immigrants. The glass is a desk top from a desk that no longer exists but somehow we acquired it. The bracing pieces are from a 2x6 hemlock joist from a carriage house that was demolished a few months back. Its wood is a little newer, probably 19-teens.

For this piece I wanted to clearly demonstrate the material's provenance from old buildings, and incorporate some of the architectural elements such as the tongue and groove panels, the bent-over nails and the simple "Z" shaped bracing.

The "front" side of the door can make a nice table top but I wanted to show off the "Z" side. In the store we had a piece of desktop glass. I trimmed the door to slightly less than the glass dimensions, and finished the top with water-based, satin polyurethane.

A second door was used to make the legs. That door was cut in half and the first and last boards removed. The edges of the removed boards were ripped flat (no tongue or groove) and butted at 90 degrees to the edge of the remaining door panel and glued and screwed together with trim screws. The whole thing was braced internally with some scraps of poplar I had in the shop. The ends (top and bottom) were cut at 10 degrees with a circular saw and leveler feet were added to the bottom brace.

The legs were attached to a block that was through the top with trim screws. The legs were attached to the block with heavy, 2.5 inch Spax screws underneath.

The braces were made from resawn hemlock and attached through the top with trim screws and to the legs and center structure with longer SPax.

Everything was lightly sanded and varnished and small silicone bumpers were attached to the top to prevent the glass from sliding.

Eventually here I will get some nice picture in a better setting than the shop.

Made of 2 old doors from the storage rooms of an old apartment complex that is being renovated. The wood is knotty grade white pine.... wood used for purely utilitarian uses...like basement locker doors. They date to about 1890-1900. and have lots of character including pencil marks from the builders, probably old German immigrants. The glass is a desk top from a desk that no longer exists but somehow we acquired it. The bracing pieces are from a 2x6 hemlock joist from a carriage house that was demolished a few months back. Its wood is a little newer, probably 19-teens.

For this piece I wanted to clearly demonstrate the material's provenance from old buildings, and incorporate some of the architectural elements such as the tongue and groove panels, the bent-over nails and the simple "Z" shaped bracing.

The "front" side of the door can make a nice table top but I wanted to show off the "Z" side. In the store we had a piece of desktop glass. I trimmed the door to slightly less than the glass dimensions, and finished the top with water-based, satin polyurethane.

A second door was used to make the legs. That door was cut in half and the first and last boards removed. The edges of the removed boards were ripped flat (no tongue or groove) and butted at 90 degrees to the edge of the remaining door panel and glued and screwed together with trim screws. The whole thing was braced internally with some scraps of poplar I had in the shop. The ends (top and bottom) were cut at 10 degrees with a circular saw and leveler feet were added to the bottom brace.

The legs were attached to a block that was through the top with trim screws. The legs were attached to the block with heavy, 2.5 inch Spax screws underneath.

The braces were made from resawn hemlock and attached through the top with trim screws and to the legs and center structure with longer SPax.

Everything was lightly sanded and varnished and small silicone bumpers were attached to the top to prevent the glass from sliding.

Eventually here I will get some nice picture in a better setting than the shop.

Micromax 50B6000FHD 50 inches Full HD LED TV is now available online only for Rs 31990 at Amazon.in. Its Market Price is Rs 61990. It comes with 1920 x 1080 full HD resolution and 2 x HDMI, 2 x USB connectivity ports. It also have 5 Band Equalizer and Auto Volume Leveler Feature. It also comes...

Micromax 50B6000FHD 50 inches Full HD LED TV for Rs 31990 (Market Price Rs 61990)

This my Mercury after they removed the front section so they could move and steer it. It was perfectly driveable in this condition. The body shop used all orignal Mercury parts to do the repairs, they asked if I wanted aftermarket or recycled, meaning from the wrecking yard. I'll take original wrecking yard parts. I will say the body shop took very good care to put this back together with original parts. They even had me see the parts they were using. Needing new rear airbags, this car has load leveler suspension. Up until this accident it had all the original lights in the front.

paulmaddams.com/home</a</a

L'Anima - a gourmet Italian restaurant in the City of London, near Finnsbury Square and Liverpool Street.

Its passionate Chef Francesco is half-Calabrian and half Sicilian who keeps a tight grip on the proceedings of his kitchen ran by 40 staff - all Italians, except for a delightful German lady whose presence adds Anglo-Saxon elegance to an otherwise very Mediterranean environment: don't get me wrong L'Anima is no run-of-the-mill trattoria decorated with lamps made of Chianti bottles.

The interior decoration is restrained and minimalist that exudes refinement without ostentation.

Its kitchen, by far larger than the space of the bar and restaurant is a model of well-equipped modernity with no money spared for the best utensils: they bake their own bread on the premises.

And the food? What kind of food is it?

Francesco is uncompromising about his traditional family cuisine, taught by his 'mamma' and his nonna: he called it "traditional Italian family cuisine with a twist!" - that is HIS version of Southern Italy - Calabrese, Puglian, Sicilian with occasional concessions to Tuscany, Veneto or Roman...

The monthly Saturday cookery course is a mixture of demonstration, hands-on cooking, degustation, competition with the prize of a (black) truffle the size of a chicken egg and a three course meal for twenty with white wine from Aosta red wine from the the volcanic slopes of the Etna and a red desert wine.

Ah I forgot the "Italian breakfast" of coffee, bread, butter and four jams. Said an American lady registered for the course; "Francesco next time you do not give us this bullshit you give us instead coffee with a shot of grappa, like the Italian working classes have for breakfast".

Well, grappa is a great leveler, so we drank to that at the end of the lunch.

Francesco-s personality is larger than life: his staff are grateful and are kept on the straight and narrow; i asked him if he shouted in the kitchen he gave an unapologetic "yes". But do you swear? i asked looking at his staff whose faces were sheepish - a mixture of a smirk with an embarrasment - well this WAS my answer - I can't remember what he said...

Francesco's cuisine is prodigal: does he look forward to having a star in the Michelin? He denies it. He says that he is true to himself, regardless. He has somewhere posted a list of the 100 best restaurants in Britain: at the top of the list there is this rural eatery on the Thames Valley, somewhere, which was shut for several weeks by the food inspectors for having poisoned its hosts. L'Anima was amongst the top 20 on this list, more precisely at number 17. Maybe it should start poisoning its clients to gain the first place: "i do not make concession to my clients. Once one gets famous one could do what one likes.". Francesco is a likeable and diplomatic presence, but as most talented people go, he must be difficult to work for. But his staff is glad to work for l"Anima which they helped up the slippery ladder of the gourmet restaurants in London.

Thank you Francesco!

Thank you too to the friendly presence of Francesco's American financial backers and great gourmet connoisseurs who added colour, spontaneity and warmth to our course. (not forgetting the young and distinguished Oxonian-Finno_Brits who stimulated the conversation).

What to do when beavers threaten your conservation efforts?

Western North Carolina’s Kanuga Conference Center is home to a Southern Appalachian Mountain bog - one of North America’s rarest habitats. Bogs often home to rare plants and animals, provide important habitat for migratory birds and game species, improve water quality by filtering sediment and contaminants, and store floodwaters which helps decrease downstream flooding. They’re places we very much want to conserve.

Kanuga’s bog has seen the recent arrival of beavers. On one hand, they’re cutting down shrubs, which is a positive step as it allows more sunlight to fall on the plants managers want to thrive. On the other hand, their dams are making water levels so high they’re turning the bogs into ponds – eliminating habitat for the plants and animals that need the bog to live.

A solution? Install pond levelers –pipes through the beaver dams that help drain the pooled water down to a desired level and minimize the ability of beavers to detect stream flow – tricking them into thinking their dams are intact.

Recently staff from Kanuga Conferences, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy the N.C. Natural Heritage Program, The Nature Conservancy, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service joined a team of Haywood Community College students to install two pond levelers at the Kanuga Bog.

Made of 2 old doors from the storage rooms of an old apartment complex that is being renovated. The wood is knotty grade white pine.... wood used for purely utilitarian uses...like basement locker doors. They date to about 1890-1900. and have lots of character including pencil marks from the builders, probably old German immigrants. The glass is a desk top from a desk that no longer exists but somehow we acquired it. The bracing pieces are from a 2x6 hemlock joist from a carriage house that was demolished a few months back. Its wood is a little newer, probably 19-teens.

For this piece I wanted to clearly demonstrate the material's provenance from old buildings, and incorporate some of the architectural elements such as the tongue and groove panels, the bent-over nails and the simple "Z" shaped bracing.

The "front" side of the door can make a nice table top but I wanted to show off the "Z" side. In the store we had a piece of desktop glass. I trimmed the door to slightly less than the glass dimensions, and finished the top with water-based, satin polyurethane.

A second door was used to make the legs. That door was cut in half and the first and last boards removed. The edges of the removed boards were ripped flat (no tongue or groove) and butted at 90 degrees to the edge of the remaining door panel and glued and screwed together with trim screws. The whole thing was braced internally with some scraps of poplar I had in the shop. The ends (top and bottom) were cut at 10 degrees with a circular saw and leveler feet were added to the bottom brace.

The legs were attached to a block that was through the top with trim screws. The legs were attached to the block with heavy, 2.5 inch Spax screws underneath.

The braces were made from resawn hemlock and attached through the top with trim screws and to the legs and center structure with longer SPax.

Everything was lightly sanded and varnished and small silicone bumpers were attached to the top to prevent the glass from sliding.

Eventually here I will get some nice picture in a better setting than the shop.

Shown with the standard plastic tripod foot, and a 6 inch ruler for scale.

What to do when beavers threaten your conservation efforts?

Western North Carolina’s Kanuga Conference Center is home to a Southern Appalachian Mountain bog - one of North America’s rarest habitats. Bogs often home to rare plants and animals, provide important habitat for migratory birds and game species, improve water quality by filtering sediment and contaminants, and store floodwaters which helps decrease downstream flooding. They’re places we very much want to conserve.

Kanuga’s bog has seen the recent arrival of beavers. On one hand, they’re cutting down shrubs, which is a positive step as it allows more sunlight to fall on the plants managers want to thrive. On the other hand, their dams are making water levels so high they’re turning the bogs into ponds – eliminating habitat for the plants and animals that need the bog to live.

A solution? Install pond levelers –pipes through the beaver dams that help drain the pooled water down to a desired level and minimize the ability of beavers to detect stream flow – tricking them into thinking their dams are intact.

Recently staff from Kanuga Conferences, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy the N.C. Natural Heritage Program, The Nature Conservancy, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service joined a team of Haywood Community College students to install two pond levelers at the Kanuga Bog.

Made of 2 old doors from the storage rooms of an old apartment complex that is being renovated. The wood is knotty grade white pine.... wood used for purely utilitarian uses...like basement locker doors. They date to about 1890-1900. and have lots of character including pencil marks from the builders, probably old German immigrants. The glass is a desk top from a desk that no longer exists but somehow we acquired it. The bracing pieces are from a 2x6 hemlock joist from a carriage house that was demolished a few months back. Its wood is a little newer, probably 19-teens.

For this piece I wanted to clearly demonstrate the material's provenance from old buildings, and incorporate some of the architectural elements such as the tongue and groove panels, the bent-over nails and the simple "Z" shaped bracing.

The "front" side of the door can make a nice table top but I wanted to show off the "Z" side. In the store we had a piece of desktop glass. I trimmed the door to slightly less than the glass dimensions, and finished the top with water-based, satin polyurethane.

A second door was used to make the legs. That door was cut in half and the first and last boards removed. The edges of the removed boards were ripped flat (no tongue or groove) and butted at 90 degrees to the edge of the remaining door panel and glued and screwed together with trim screws. The whole thing was braced internally with some scraps of poplar I had in the shop. The ends (top and bottom) were cut at 10 degrees with a circular saw and leveler feet were added to the bottom brace.

The legs were attached to a block that was through the top with trim screws. The legs were attached to the block with heavy, 2.5 inch Spax screws underneath.

The braces were made from resawn hemlock and attached through the top with trim screws and to the legs and center structure with longer SPax.

Everything was lightly sanded and varnished and small silicone bumpers were attached to the top to prevent the glass from sliding.

Eventually here I will get some nice picture in a better setting than the shop.

The 50mm padded leveler.

L'Anima - a gourmet Italian restaurant in the City of London, near Finnsbury Square and Liverpool Street.

Its passionate Chef Francesco is half-Calabrian and half Sicilian who keeps a tight grip on the proceedings of his kitchen ran by 40 staff - all Italians, except for a delightful German lady whose presence adds Anglo-Saxon elegance to an otherwise very Mediterranean environment: don't get me wrong L'Anima is no run-of-the-mill trattoria decorated with lamps made of Chianti bottles.

The interior decoration is restrained and minimalist that exudes refinement without ostentation.

Its kitchen, by far larger than the space of the bar and restaurant is a model of well-equipped modernity with no money spared for the best utensils: they bake their own bread on the premises.

And the food? What kind of food is it?

Francesco is uncompromising about his traditional family cuisine, taught by his 'mamma' and his nonna: he called it "traditional Italian family cuisine with a twist!" - that is HIS version of Southern Italy - Calabrese, Puglian, Sicilian with occasional concessions to Tuscany, Veneto or Roman...

The monthly Saturday cookery course is a mixture of demonstration, hands-on cooking, degustation, competition with the prize of a (black) truffle the size of a chicken egg and a three course meal for twenty with white wine from Aosta red wine from the the volcanic slopes of the Etna and a red desert wine.

Ah I forgot the "Italian breakfast" of coffee, bread, butter and four jams. Said an American lady registered for the course; "Francesco next time you do not give us this bullshit you give us instead coffee with a shot of grappa, like the Italian working classes have for breakfast".

Well, grappa is a great leveler, so we drank to that at the end of the lunch.

Francesco-s personality is larger than life: his staff are grateful and are kept on the straight and narrow; i asked him if he shouted in the kitchen he gave an unapologetic "yes". But do you swear? i asked looking at his staff whose faces were sheepish - a mixture of a smirk with an embarrasment - well this WAS my answer - I can't remember what he said...

Francesco's cuisine is prodigal: does he look forward to having a star in the Michelin? He denies it. He says that he is true to himself, regardless. He has somewhere posted a list of the 100 best restaurants in Britain: at the top of the list there is this rural eatery on the Thames Valley, somewhere, which was shut for several weeks by the food inspectors for having poisoned its hosts. L'Anima was amongst the top 20 on this list, more precisely at number 17. Maybe it should start poisoning its clients to gain the first place: "i do not make concession to my clients. Once one gets famous one could do what one likes.". Francesco is a likeable and diplomatic presence, but as most talented people go, he must be difficult to work for. But his staff is glad to work for l"Anima which they helped up the slippery ladder of the gourmet restaurants in London.

Thank you Francesco!

Thank you too to the friendly presence of Francesco's American financial backers and great gourmet connoisseurs who added colour, spontaneity and warmth to our course. (not forgetting the young and distinguished Oxonian-Finno_Brits who stimulated the conversation).

Finally got around to making a adjustable leveler for the iEQ45 2" tripod. This would also fit any tripod with a 8mm x 1.25mm threaded hole.

I made this table today so i could have a cool desk to go with my new mac...made from 100% found objects..fan blade..half stainless ball..ceramic insulator..gears and all hardware came from the scrap yard, and i even found the glass top in the trash on the side of the road..just needs blade end glass levelers.

What to do when beavers threaten your conservation efforts?

Western North Carolina’s Kanuga Conference Center is home to a Southern Appalachian Mountain bog - one of North America’s rarest habitats. Bogs often home to rare plants and animals, provide important habitat for migratory birds and game species, improve water quality by filtering sediment and contaminants, and store floodwaters which helps decrease downstream flooding. They’re places we very much want to conserve.

Kanuga’s bog has seen the recent arrival of beavers. On one hand, they’re cutting down shrubs, which is a positive step as it allows more sunlight to fall on the plants managers want to thrive. On the other hand, their dams are making water levels so high they’re turning the bogs into ponds – eliminating habitat for the plants and animals that need the bog to live.

A solution? Install pond levelers –pipes through the beaver dams that help drain the pooled water down to a desired level and minimize the ability of beavers to detect stream flow – tricking them into thinking their dams are intact.

Recently staff from Kanuga Conferences, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy the N.C. Natural Heritage Program, The Nature Conservancy, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service joined a team of Haywood Community College students to install two pond levelers at the Kanuga Bog.

Made of 2 old doors from the storage rooms of an old apartment complex that is being renovated. The wood is knotty grade white pine.... wood used for purely utilitarian uses...like basement locker doors. They date to about 1890-1900. and have lots of character including pencil marks from the builders, probably old German immigrants. The glass is a desk top from a desk that no longer exists but somehow we acquired it. The bracing pieces are from a 2x6 hemlock joist from a carriage house that was demolished a few months back. Its wood is a little newer, probably 19-teens.

For this piece I wanted to clearly demonstrate the material's provenance from old buildings, and incorporate some of the architectural elements such as the tongue and groove panels, the bent-over nails and the simple "Z" shaped bracing.

The "front" side of the door can make a nice table top but I wanted to show off the "Z" side. In the store we had a piece of desktop glass. I trimmed the door to slightly less than the glass dimensions, and finished the top with water-based, satin polyurethane.

A second door was used to make the legs. That door was cut in half and the first and last boards removed. The edges of the removed boards were ripped flat (no tongue or groove) and butted at 90 degrees to the edge of the remaining door panel and glued and screwed together with trim screws. The whole thing was braced internally with some scraps of poplar I had in the shop. The ends (top and bottom) were cut at 10 degrees with a circular saw and leveler feet were added to the bottom brace.

The legs were attached to a block that was through the top with trim screws. The legs were attached to the block with heavy, 2.5 inch Spax screws underneath.

The braces were made from resawn hemlock and attached through the top with trim screws and to the legs and center structure with longer SPax.

Everything was lightly sanded and varnished and small silicone bumpers were attached to the top to prevent the glass from sliding.

Eventually here I will get some nice picture in a better setting than the shop.

My first attempt at the dry erase coffee table left me more than a little disappointed. I totally refinished the top of my old coffee table using wood putty (as surface leveler) and dry erase paint. It took days and elbow grease, this is what was left.

A member of the species known as the Nameless, these creatures appear in the High Republic era of Star Wars. I have been wanting to make one for a while, and I’m happy with how it turned out!

This picture shows the new antenna bracket with the mast inserted, along with my BAL leveler strapped to the backside of my spare tire, and my blue tanks strapped to my battery box. I'm trying to take the advice of keeping the outside stuff outside as much as possible.

What to do when beavers threaten your conservation efforts?

Western North Carolina’s Kanuga Conference Center is home to a Southern Appalachian Mountain bog - one of North America’s rarest habitats. Bogs often home to rare plants and animals, provide important habitat for migratory birds and game species, improve water quality by filtering sediment and contaminants, and store floodwaters which helps decrease downstream flooding. They’re places we very much want to conserve.

Kanuga’s bog has seen the recent arrival of beavers. On one hand, they’re cutting down shrubs, which is a positive step as it allows more sunlight to fall on the plants managers want to thrive. On the other hand, their dams are making water levels so high they’re turning the bogs into ponds – eliminating habitat for the plants and animals that need the bog to live.

A solution? Install pond levelers –pipes through the beaver dams that help drain the pooled water down to a desired level and minimize the ability of beavers to detect stream flow – tricking them into thinking their dams are intact.

Recently staff from Kanuga Conferences, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy the N.C. Natural Heritage Program, The Nature Conservancy, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service joined a team of Haywood Community College students to install two pond levelers at the Kanuga Bog.

Made of 2 old doors from the storage rooms of an old apartment complex that is being renovated. The wood is knotty grade white pine.... wood used for purely utilitarian uses...like basement locker doors. They date to about 1890-1900. and have lots of character including pencil marks from the builders, probably old German immigrants. The glass is a desk top from a desk that no longer exists but somehow we acquired it. The bracing pieces are from a 2x6 hemlock joist from a carriage house that was demolished a few months back. Its wood is a little newer, probably 19-teens.

For this piece I wanted to clearly demonstrate the material's provenance from old buildings, and incorporate some of the architectural elements such as the tongue and groove panels, the bent-over nails and the simple "Z" shaped bracing.

The "front" side of the door can make a nice table top but I wanted to show off the "Z" side. In the store we had a piece of desktop glass. I trimmed the door to slightly less than the glass dimensions, and finished the top with water-based, satin polyurethane.

A second door was used to make the legs. That door was cut in half and the first and last boards removed. The edges of the removed boards were ripped flat (no tongue or groove) and butted at 90 degrees to the edge of the remaining door panel and glued and screwed together with trim screws. The whole thing was braced internally with some scraps of poplar I had in the shop. The ends (top and bottom) were cut at 10 degrees with a circular saw and leveler feet were added to the bottom brace.

The legs were attached to a block that was through the top with trim screws. The legs were attached to the block with heavy, 2.5 inch Spax screws underneath.

The braces were made from resawn hemlock and attached through the top with trim screws and to the legs and center structure with longer SPax.

Everything was lightly sanded and varnished and small silicone bumpers were attached to the top to prevent the glass from sliding.

Eventually here I will get some nice picture in a better setting than the shop.

Made of 2 old doors from the storage rooms of an old apartment complex that is being renovated. The wood is knotty grade white pine.... wood used for purely utilitarian uses...like basement locker doors. They date to about 1890-1900. and have lots of character including pencil marks from the builders, probably old German immigrants. The glass is a desk top from a desk that no longer exists but somehow we acquired it. The bracing pieces are from a 2x6 hemlock joist from a carriage house that was demolished a few months back. Its wood is a little newer, probably 19-teens.

For this piece I wanted to clearly demonstrate the material's provenance from old buildings, and incorporate some of the architectural elements such as the tongue and groove panels, the bent-over nails and the simple "Z" shaped bracing.

The "front" side of the door can make a nice table top but I wanted to show off the "Z" side. In the store we had a piece of desktop glass. I trimmed the door to slightly less than the glass dimensions, and finished the top with water-based, satin polyurethane.

A second door was used to make the legs. That door was cut in half and the first and last boards removed. The edges of the removed boards were ripped flat (no tongue or groove) and butted at 90 degrees to the edge of the remaining door panel and glued and screwed together with trim screws. The whole thing was braced internally with some scraps of poplar I had in the shop. The ends (top and bottom) were cut at 10 degrees with a circular saw and leveler feet were added to the bottom brace.

The legs were attached to a block that was through the top with trim screws. The legs were attached to the block with heavy, 2.5 inch Spax screws underneath.

The braces were made from resawn hemlock and attached through the top with trim screws and to the legs and center structure with longer SPax.

Everything was lightly sanded and varnished and small silicone bumpers were attached to the top to prevent the glass from sliding.

Eventually here I will get some nice picture in a better setting than the shop.

Made of 2 old doors from the storage rooms of an old apartment complex that is being renovated. The wood is knotty grade white pine.... wood used for purely utilitarian uses...like basement locker doors. They date to about 1890-1900. and have lots of character including pencil marks from the builders, probably old German immigrants. The glass is a desk top from a desk that no longer exists but somehow we acquired it. The bracing pieces are from a 2x6 hemlock joist from a carriage house that was demolished a few months back. Its wood is a little newer, probably 19-teens.

For this piece I wanted to clearly demonstrate the material's provenance from old buildings, and incorporate some of the architectural elements such as the tongue and groove panels, the bent-over nails and the simple "Z" shaped bracing.

The "front" side of the door can make a nice table top but I wanted to show off the "Z" side. In the store we had a piece of desktop glass. I trimmed the door to slightly less than the glass dimensions, and finished the top with water-based, satin polyurethane.

A second door was used to make the legs. That door was cut in half and the first and last boards removed. The edges of the removed boards were ripped flat (no tongue or groove) and butted at 90 degrees to the edge of the remaining door panel and glued and screwed together with trim screws. The whole thing was braced internally with some scraps of poplar I had in the shop. The ends (top and bottom) were cut at 10 degrees with a circular saw and leveler feet were added to the bottom brace.

The legs were attached to a block that was through the top with trim screws. The legs were attached to the block with heavy, 2.5 inch Spax screws underneath.

The braces were made from resawn hemlock and attached through the top with trim screws and to the legs and center structure with longer SPax.

Everything was lightly sanded and varnished and small silicone bumpers were attached to the top to prevent the glass from sliding.

Eventually here I will get some nice picture in a better setting than the shop.

Made of 2 old doors from the storage rooms of an old apartment complex that is being renovated. The wood is knotty grade white pine.... wood used for purely utilitarian uses...like basement locker doors. They date to about 1890-1900. and have lots of character including pencil marks from the builders, probably old German immigrants. The glass is a desk top from a desk that no longer exists but somehow we acquired it. The bracing pieces are from a 2x6 hemlock joist from a carriage house that was demolished a few months back. Its wood is a little newer, probably 19-teens.

For this piece I wanted to clearly demonstrate the material's provenance from old buildings, and incorporate some of the architectural elements such as the tongue and groove panels, the bent-over nails and the simple "Z" shaped bracing.

The "front" side of the door can make a nice table top but I wanted to show off the "Z" side. In the store we had a piece of desktop glass. I trimmed the door to slightly less than the glass dimensions, and finished the top with water-based, satin polyurethane.

A second door was used to make the legs. That door was cut in half and the first and last boards removed. The edges of the removed boards were ripped flat (no tongue or groove) and butted at 90 degrees to the edge of the remaining door panel and glued and screwed together with trim screws. The whole thing was braced internally with some scraps of poplar I had in the shop. The ends (top and bottom) were cut at 10 degrees with a circular saw and leveler feet were added to the bottom brace.

The legs were attached to a block that was through the top with trim screws. The legs were attached to the block with heavy, 2.5 inch Spax screws underneath.

The braces were made from resawn hemlock and attached through the top with trim screws and to the legs and center structure with longer SPax.

Everything was lightly sanded and varnished and small silicone bumpers were attached to the top to prevent the glass from sliding.

Eventually here I will get some nice picture in a better setting than the shop.

Laser land leveling at IRRI

Part of the image collection of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

Image showing 2mm rubber pad in base of leveler.

Made of 2 old doors from the storage rooms of an old apartment complex that is being renovated. The wood is knotty grade white pine.... wood used for purely utilitarian uses...like basement locker doors. They date to about 1890-1900. and have lots of character including pencil marks from the builders, probably old German immigrants. The glass is a desk top from a desk that no longer exists but somehow we acquired it. The bracing pieces are from a 2x6 hemlock joist from a carriage house that was demolished a few months back. Its wood is a little newer, probably 19-teens.

For this piece I wanted to clearly demonstrate the material's provenance from old buildings, and incorporate some of the architectural elements such as the tongue and groove panels, the bent-over nails and the simple "Z" shaped bracing.

The "front" side of the door can make a nice table top but I wanted to show off the "Z" side. In the store we had a piece of desktop glass. I trimmed the door to slightly less than the glass dimensions, and finished the top with water-based, satin polyurethane.

A second door was used to make the legs. That door was cut in half and the first and last boards removed. The edges of the removed boards were ripped flat (no tongue or groove) and butted at 90 degrees to the edge of the remaining door panel and glued and screwed together with trim screws. The whole thing was braced internally with some scraps of poplar I had in the shop. The ends (top and bottom) were cut at 10 degrees with a circular saw and leveler feet were added to the bottom brace.

The legs were attached to a block that was through the top with trim screws. The legs were attached to the block with heavy, 2.5 inch Spax screws underneath.

The braces were made from resawn hemlock and attached through the top with trim screws and to the legs and center structure with longer SPax.

Everything was lightly sanded and varnished and small silicone bumpers were attached to the top to prevent the glass from sliding.

Eventually here I will get some nice picture in a better setting than the shop.

Made of 2 old doors from the storage rooms of an old apartment complex that is being renovated. The wood is knotty grade white pine.... wood used for purely utilitarian uses...like basement locker doors. They date to about 1890-1900. and have lots of character including pencil marks from the builders, probably old German immigrants. The glass is a desk top from a desk that no longer exists but somehow we acquired it. The bracing pieces are from a 2x6 hemlock joist from a carriage house that was demolished a few months back. Its wood is a little newer, probably 19-teens.

For this piece I wanted to clearly demonstrate the material's provenance from old buildings, and incorporate some of the architectural elements such as the tongue and groove panels, the bent-over nails and the simple "Z" shaped bracing.

The "front" side of the door can make a nice table top but I wanted to show off the "Z" side. In the store we had a piece of desktop glass. I trimmed the door to slightly less than the glass dimensions, and finished the top with water-based, satin polyurethane.

A second door was used to make the legs. That door was cut in half and the first and last boards removed. The edges of the removed boards were ripped flat (no tongue or groove) and butted at 90 degrees to the edge of the remaining door panel and glued and screwed together with trim screws. The whole thing was braced internally with some scraps of poplar I had in the shop. The ends (top and bottom) were cut at 10 degrees with a circular saw and leveler feet were added to the bottom brace.

The legs were attached to a block that was through the top with trim screws. The legs were attached to the block with heavy, 2.5 inch Spax screws underneath.

The braces were made from resawn hemlock and attached through the top with trim screws and to the legs and center structure with longer SPax.

Everything was lightly sanded and varnished and small silicone bumpers were attached to the top to prevent the glass from sliding.

Eventually here I will get some nice picture in a better setting than the shop.

Made of 2 old doors from the storage rooms of an old apartment complex that is being renovated. The wood is knotty grade white pine.... wood used for purely utilitarian uses...like basement locker doors. They date to about 1890-1900. and have lots of character including pencil marks from the builders, probably old German immigrants. The glass is a desk top from a desk that no longer exists but somehow we acquired it. The bracing pieces are from a 2x6 hemlock joist from a carriage house that was demolished a few months back. Its wood is a little newer, probably 19-teens.

For this piece I wanted to clearly demonstrate the material's provenance from old buildings, and incorporate some of the architectural elements such as the tongue and groove panels, the bent-over nails and the simple "Z" shaped bracing.

The "front" side of the door can make a nice table top but I wanted to show off the "Z" side. In the store we had a piece of desktop glass. I trimmed the door to slightly less than the glass dimensions, and finished the top with water-based, satin polyurethane.

A second door was used to make the legs. That door was cut in half and the first and last boards removed. The edges of the removed boards were ripped flat (no tongue or groove) and butted at 90 degrees to the edge of the remaining door panel and glued and screwed together with trim screws. The whole thing was braced internally with some scraps of poplar I had in the shop. The ends (top and bottom) were cut at 10 degrees with a circular saw and leveler feet were added to the bottom brace.

The legs were attached to a block that was through the top with trim screws. The legs were attached to the block with heavy, 2.5 inch Spax screws underneath.

The braces were made from resawn hemlock and attached through the top with trim screws and to the legs and center structure with longer SPax.

Everything was lightly sanded and varnished and small silicone bumpers were attached to the top to prevent the glass from sliding.

Eventually here I will get some nice picture in a better setting than the shop.

Made of 2 old doors from the storage rooms of an old apartment complex that is being renovated. The wood is knotty grade white pine.... wood used for purely utilitarian uses...like basement locker doors. They date to about 1890-1900. and have lots of character including pencil marks from the builders, probably old German immigrants. The glass is a desk top from a desk that no longer exists but somehow we acquired it. The bracing pieces are from a 2x6 hemlock joist from a carriage house that was demolished a few months back. Its wood is a little newer, probably 19-teens.

For this piece I wanted to clearly demonstrate the material's provenance from old buildings, and incorporate some of the architectural elements such as the tongue and groove panels, the bent-over nails and the simple "Z" shaped bracing.

The "front" side of the door can make a nice table top but I wanted to show off the "Z" side. In the store we had a piece of desktop glass. I trimmed the door to slightly less than the glass dimensions, and finished the top with water-based, satin polyurethane.

A second door was used to make the legs. That door was cut in half and the first and last boards removed. The edges of the removed boards were ripped flat (no tongue or groove) and butted at 90 degrees to the edge of the remaining door panel and glued and screwed together with trim screws. The whole thing was braced internally with some scraps of poplar I had in the shop. The ends (top and bottom) were cut at 10 degrees with a circular saw and leveler feet were added to the bottom brace.

The legs were attached to a block that was through the top with trim screws. The legs were attached to the block with heavy, 2.5 inch Spax screws underneath.

The braces were made from resawn hemlock and attached through the top with trim screws and to the legs and center structure with longer SPax.

Everything was lightly sanded and varnished and small silicone bumpers were attached to the top to prevent the glass from sliding.

Eventually here I will get some nice picture in a better setting than the shop.

Some cheap photography equipment I ordered from Dealextreme finally arrived.

80cm (31") Shoot through umbrella: ~5€ (7.94$)

Big 15cm (6") air blower: ~2€ (3.51$)

Nikon lens and body cap: ~1.6€ (2.56$)

Fluid based leveler to help with panorama photography: 3.5€ (5.39$)

Shipping costs: Zip, zero, nada! (Free shipping worldwide, wonderful!)

The build quality in all of the products is actually quite good even they were so cheap.

Made of 2 old doors from the storage rooms of an old apartment complex that is being renovated. The wood is knotty grade white pine.... wood used for purely utilitarian uses...like basement locker doors. They date to about 1890-1900. and have lots of character including pencil marks from the builders, probably old German immigrants. The glass is a desk top from a desk that no longer exists but somehow we acquired it. The bracing pieces are from a 2x6 hemlock joist from a carriage house that was demolished a few months back. Its wood is a little newer, probably 19-teens.

For this piece I wanted to clearly demonstrate the material's provenance from old buildings, and incorporate some of the architectural elements such as the tongue and groove panels, the bent-over nails and the simple "Z" shaped bracing.

The "front" side of the door can make a nice table top but I wanted to show off the "Z" side. In the store we had a piece of desktop glass. I trimmed the door to slightly less than the glass dimensions, and finished the top with water-based, satin polyurethane.

A second door was used to make the legs. That door was cut in half and the first and last boards removed. The edges of the removed boards were ripped flat (no tongue or groove) and butted at 90 degrees to the edge of the remaining door panel and glued and screwed together with trim screws. The whole thing was braced internally with some scraps of poplar I had in the shop. The ends (top and bottom) were cut at 10 degrees with a circular saw and leveler feet were added to the bottom brace.

The legs were attached to a block that was through the top with trim screws. The legs were attached to the block with heavy, 2.5 inch Spax screws underneath.

The braces were made from resawn hemlock and attached through the top with trim screws and to the legs and center structure with longer SPax.

Everything was lightly sanded and varnished and small silicone bumpers were attached to the top to prevent the glass from sliding.

Eventually here I will get some nice picture in a better setting than the shop.

Made of 2 old doors from the storage rooms of an old apartment complex that is being renovated. The wood is knotty grade white pine.... wood used for purely utilitarian uses...like basement locker doors. They date to about 1890-1900. and have lots of character including pencil marks from the builders, probably old German immigrants. The glass is a desk top from a desk that no longer exists but somehow we acquired it. The bracing pieces are from a 2x6 hemlock joist from a carriage house that was demolished a few months back. Its wood is a little newer, probably 19-teens.

For this piece I wanted to clearly demonstrate the material's provenance from old buildings, and incorporate some of the architectural elements such as the tongue and groove panels, the bent-over nails and the simple "Z" shaped bracing.

The "front" side of the door can make a nice table top but I wanted to show off the "Z" side. In the store we had a piece of desktop glass. I trimmed the door to slightly less than the glass dimensions, and finished the top with water-based, satin polyurethane.

A second door was used to make the legs. That door was cut in half and the first and last boards removed. The edges of the removed boards were ripped flat (no tongue or groove) and butted at 90 degrees to the edge of the remaining door panel and glued and screwed together with trim screws. The whole thing was braced internally with some scraps of poplar I had in the shop. The ends (top and bottom) were cut at 10 degrees with a circular saw and leveler feet were added to the bottom brace.

The legs were attached to a block that was through the top with trim screws. The legs were attached to the block with heavy, 2.5 inch Spax screws underneath.

The braces were made from resawn hemlock and attached through the top with trim screws and to the legs and center structure with longer SPax.

Everything was lightly sanded and varnished and small silicone bumpers were attached to the top to prevent the glass from sliding.

Eventually here I will get some nice picture in a better setting than the shop.

Made of 2 old doors from the storage rooms of an old apartment complex that is being renovated. The wood is knotty grade white pine.... wood used for purely utilitarian uses...like basement locker doors. They date to about 1890-1900. and have lots of character including pencil marks from the builders, probably old German immigrants. The glass is a desk top from a desk that no longer exists but somehow we acquired it. The bracing pieces are from a 2x6 hemlock joist from a carriage house that was demolished a few months back. Its wood is a little newer, probably 19-teens.

For this piece I wanted to clearly demonstrate the material's provenance from old buildings, and incorporate some of the architectural elements such as the tongue and groove panels, the bent-over nails and the simple "Z" shaped bracing.

The "front" side of the door can make a nice table top but I wanted to show off the "Z" side. In the store we had a piece of desktop glass. I trimmed the door to slightly less than the glass dimensions, and finished the top with water-based, satin polyurethane.

A second door was used to make the legs. That door was cut in half and the first and last boards removed. The edges of the removed boards were ripped flat (no tongue or groove) and butted at 90 degrees to the edge of the remaining door panel and glued and screwed together with trim screws. The whole thing was braced internally with some scraps of poplar I had in the shop. The ends (top and bottom) were cut at 10 degrees with a circular saw and leveler feet were added to the bottom brace.

The legs were attached to a block that was through the top with trim screws. The legs were attached to the block with heavy, 2.5 inch Spax screws underneath.

The braces were made from resawn hemlock and attached through the top with trim screws and to the legs and center structure with longer SPax.

Everything was lightly sanded and varnished and small silicone bumpers were attached to the top to prevent the glass from sliding.

Eventually here I will get some nice picture in a better setting than the shop.

Made of 2 old doors from the storage rooms of an old apartment complex that is being renovated. The wood is knotty grade white pine.... wood used for purely utilitarian uses...like basement locker doors. They date to about 1890-1900. and have lots of character including pencil marks from the builders, probably old German immigrants. The glass is a desk top from a desk that no longer exists but somehow we acquired it. The bracing pieces are from a 2x6 hemlock joist from a carriage house that was demolished a few months back. Its wood is a little newer, probably 19-teens.

For this piece I wanted to clearly demonstrate the material's provenance from old buildings, and incorporate some of the architectural elements such as the tongue and groove panels, the bent-over nails and the simple "Z" shaped bracing.

The "front" side of the door can make a nice table top but I wanted to show off the "Z" side. In the store we had a piece of desktop glass. I trimmed the door to slightly less than the glass dimensions, and finished the top with water-based, satin polyurethane.

A second door was used to make the legs. That door was cut in half and the first and last boards removed. The edges of the removed boards were ripped flat (no tongue or groove) and butted at 90 degrees to the edge of the remaining door panel and glued and screwed together with trim screws. The whole thing was braced internally with some scraps of poplar I had in the shop. The ends (top and bottom) were cut at 10 degrees with a circular saw and leveler feet were added to the bottom brace.

The legs were attached to a block that was through the top with trim screws. The legs were attached to the block with heavy, 2.5 inch Spax screws underneath.

The braces were made from resawn hemlock and attached through the top with trim screws and to the legs and center structure with longer SPax.

Everything was lightly sanded and varnished and small silicone bumpers were attached to the top to prevent the glass from sliding.

Eventually here I will get some nice picture in a better setting than the shop.

L'Anima - a gourmet Italian restaurant in the City of London, near Finnsbury Square and Liverpool Street.

Its passionate Chef Francesco is half-Calabrian and half Sicilian who keeps a tight grip on the proceedings of his kitchen ran by 40 staff - all Italians, except for a delightful German lady whose presence adds Anglo-Saxon elegance to an otherwise very Mediterranean environment: don't get me wrong L'Anima is no run-of-the-mill trattoria decorated with lamps made of Chianti bottles.

The interior decoration is restrained and minimalist that exudes refinement without ostentation.

Its kitchen, by far larger than the space of the bar and restaurant is a model of well-equipped modernity with no money spared for the best utensils: they bake their own bread on the premises.

And the food? What kind of food is it?

Francesco is uncompromising about his traditional family cuisine, taught by his 'mamma' and his nonna: he called it "traditional Italian family cuisine with a twist!" - that is HIS version of Southern Italy - Calabrese, Puglian, Sicilian with occasional concessions to Tuscany, Veneto or Roman...

The monthly Saturday cookery course is a mixture of demonstration, hands-on cooking, degustation, competition with the prize of a (black) truffle the size of a chicken egg and a three course meal for twenty with white wine from Aosta red wine from the the volcanic slopes of the Etna and a red desert wine.

Ah I forgot the "Italian breakfast" of coffee, bread, butter and four jams. Said an American lady registered for the course; "Francesco next time you do not give us this bullshit you give us instead coffee with a shot of grappa, like the Italian working classes have for breakfast".

Well, grappa is a great leveler, so we drank to that at the end of the lunch.

Francesco-s personality is larger than life: his staff are grateful and are kept on the straight and narrow; i asked him if he shouted in the kitchen he gave an unapologetic "yes". But do you swear? i asked looking at his staff whose faces were sheepish - a mixture of a smirk with an embarrasment - well this WAS my answer - I can't remember what he said...

Francesco's cuisine is prodigal: does he look forward to having a star in the Michelin? He denies it. He says that he is true to himself, regardless. He has somewhere posted a list of the 100 best restaurants in Britain: at the top of the list there is this rural eatery on the Thames Valley, somewhere, which was shut for several weeks by the food inspectors for having poisoned its hosts. L'Anima was amongst the top 20 on this list, more precisely at number 17. Maybe it should start poisoning its clients to gain the first place: "i do not make concession to my clients. Once one gets famous one could do what one likes.". Francesco is a likeable and diplomatic presence, but as most talented people go, he must be difficult to work for. But his staff is glad to work for l"Anima which they helped up the slippery ladder of the gourmet restaurants in London.

Thank you Francesco!

Thank you too to the friendly presence of Francesco's American financial backers and great gourmet connoisseurs who added colour, spontaneity and warmth to our course. (not forgetting the young and distinguished Oxonian-Finno_Brits who stimulated the conversation).

Some of my modern cameras have built-in electronic spirit levelers. Some have LCD grid lines. Some of my older cameras have view screens with grid lines. For my cameras that have no built-in leveling features, I use a shoe-mounted spirit leveler.

To make sure that all my levelers are in agreement, I periodically take my equipment to the edge of a large body of water (such as Lake Michigan) and use the sky/water horizon to test them.

The Fuji X-Pro1 digital cameras shown is this image only has a horizontal electronic leveler. One of my other digital cameras (Canon G15 compact) not only has a horizontal electronic leveler but also has a vertical electronic leveler.

I tend to use levelers when shooting architectural and landscape subjects and when shooting tripod mounted video productions.

I made this table today so i could have a cool desk to go with my new mac...made from 100% found objects..fan blade..half stainless ball..ceramic insulator..gears and all hardware came from the scrap yard, and i even found the glass top in the trash on the side of the road..just needs blade end glass levelers.

L'Anima - a gourmet Italian restaurant in the City of London, near Finnsbury Square and Liverpool Street.

Its passionate Chef Francesco is half-Calabrian and half Sicilian who keeps a tight grip on the proceedings of his kitchen ran by 40 staff - all Italians, except for a delightful German lady whose presence adds Anglo-Saxon elegance to an otherwise very Mediterranean environment: don't get me wrong L'Anima is no run-of-the-mill trattoria decorated with lamps made of Chianti bottles.

The interior decoration is restrained and minimalist that exudes refinement without ostentation.

Its kitchen, by far larger than the space of the bar and restaurant is a model of well-equipped modernity with no money spared for the best utensils: they bake their own bread on the premises.

And the food? What kind of food is it?

Francesco is uncompromising about his traditional family cuisine, taught by his 'mamma' and his nonna: he called it "traditional Italian family cuisine with a twist!" - that is HIS version of Southern Italy - Calabrese, Puglian, Sicilian with occasional concessions to Tuscany, Veneto or Roman...

The monthly Saturday cookery course is a mixture of demonstration, hands-on cooking, degustation, competition with the prize of a (black) truffle the size of a chicken egg and a three course meal for twenty with white wine from Aosta red wine from the the volcanic slopes of the Etna and a red desert wine.

Ah I forgot the "Italian breakfast" of coffee, bread, butter and four jams. Said an American lady registered for the course; "Francesco next time you do not give us this bullshit you give us instead coffee with a shot of grappa, like the Italian working classes have for breakfast".

Well, grappa is a great leveler, so we drank to that at the end of the lunch.

Francesco-s personality is larger than life: his staff are grateful and are kept on the straight and narrow; i asked him if he shouted in the kitchen he gave an unapologetic "yes". But do you swear? i asked looking at his staff whose faces were sheepish - a mixture of a smirk with an embarrasment - well this WAS my answer - I can't remember what he said...

Francesco's cuisine is prodigal: does he look forward to having a star in the Michelin? He denies it. He says that he is true to himself, regardless. He has somewhere posted a list of the 100 best restaurants in Britain: at the top of the list there is this rural eatery on the Thames Valley, somewhere, which was shut for several weeks by the food inspectors for having poisoned its hosts. L'Anima was amongst the top 20 on this list, more precisely at number 17. Maybe it should start poisoning its clients to gain the first place: "i do not make concession to my clients. Once one gets famous one could do what one likes.". Francesco is a likeable and diplomatic presence, but as most talented people go, he must be difficult to work for. But his staff is glad to work for l"Anima which they helped up the slippery ladder of the gourmet restaurants in London.

Thank you Francesco!

Thank you too to the friendly presence of Francesco's American financial backers and great gourmet connoisseurs who added colour, spontaneity and warmth to our course. (not forgetting the young and distinguished Oxonian-Finno_Brits who stimulated the conversation).

L'Anima - a gourmet Italian restaurant in the City of London, near Finnsbury Square and Liverpool Street.

Its passionate Chef Francesco is half-Calabrian and half Sicilian who keeps a tight grip on the proceedings of his kitchen ran by 40 staff - all Italians, except for a delightful German lady whose presence adds Anglo-Saxon elegance to an otherwise very Mediterranean environment: don't get me wrong L'Anima is no run-of-the-mill trattoria decorated with lamps made of Chianti bottles.

The interior decoration is restrained and minimalist that exudes refinement without ostentation.

Its kitchen, by far larger than the space of the bar and restaurant is a model of well-equipped modernity with no money spared for the best utensils: they bake their own bread on the premises.

And the food? What kind of food is it?

Francesco is uncompromising about his traditional family cuisine, taught by his 'mamma' and his nonna: he called it "traditional Italian family cuisine with a twist!" - that is HIS version of Southern Italy - Calabrese, Puglian, Sicilian with occasional concessions to Tuscany, Veneto or Roman...

The monthly Saturday cookery course is a mixture of demonstration, hands-on cooking, degustation, competition with the prize of a (black) truffle the size of a chicken egg and a three course meal for twenty with white wine from Aosta red wine from the the volcanic slopes of the Etna and a red desert wine.

Ah I forgot the "Italian breakfast" of coffee, bread, butter and four jams. Said an American lady registered for the course; "Francesco next time you do not give us this bullshit you give us instead coffee with a shot of grappa, like the Italian working classes have for breakfast".

Well, grappa is a great leveler, so we drank to that at the end of the lunch.

Francesco-s personality is larger than life: his staff are grateful and are kept on the straight and narrow; i asked him if he shouted in the kitchen he gave an unapologetic "yes". But do you swear? i asked looking at his staff whose faces were sheepish - a mixture of a smirk with an embarrasment - well this WAS my answer - I can't remember what he said...

Francesco's cuisine is prodigal: does he look forward to having a star in the Michelin? He denies it. He says that he is true to himself, regardless. He has somewhere posted a list of the 100 best restaurants in Britain: at the top of the list there is this rural eatery on the Thames Valley, somewhere, which was shut for several weeks by the food inspectors for having poisoned its hosts. L'Anima was amongst the top 20 on this list, more precisely at number 17. Maybe it should start poisoning its clients to gain the first place: "i do not make concession to my clients. Once one gets famous one could do what one likes.". Francesco is a likeable and diplomatic presence, but as most talented people go, he must be difficult to work for. But his staff is glad to work for l"Anima which they helped up the slippery ladder of the gourmet restaurants in London.

Thank you Francesco!

Thank you too to the friendly presence of Francesco's American financial backers and great gourmet connoisseurs who added colour, spontaneity and warmth to our course. (not forgetting the young and distinguished Oxonian-Finno_Brits who stimulated the conversation).

Made of 2 old doors from the storage rooms of an old apartment complex that is being renovated. The wood is knotty grade white pine.... wood used for purely utilitarian uses...like basement locker doors. They date to about 1890-1900. and have lots of character including pencil marks from the builders, probably old German immigrants. The glass is a desk top from a desk that no longer exists but somehow we acquired it. The bracing pieces are from a 2x6 hemlock joist from a carriage house that was demolished a few months back. Its wood is a little newer, probably 19-teens.

For this piece I wanted to clearly demonstrate the material's provenance from old buildings, and incorporate some of the architectural elements such as the tongue and groove panels, the bent-over nails and the simple "Z" shaped bracing.

The "front" side of the door can make a nice table top but I wanted to show off the "Z" side. In the store we had a piece of desktop glass. I trimmed the door to slightly less than the glass dimensions, and finished the top with water-based, satin polyurethane.

A second door was used to make the legs. That door was cut in half and the first and last boards removed. The edges of the removed boards were ripped flat (no tongue or groove) and butted at 90 degrees to the edge of the remaining door panel and glued and screwed together with trim screws. The whole thing was braced internally with some scraps of poplar I had in the shop. The ends (top and bottom) were cut at 10 degrees with a circular saw and leveler feet were added to the bottom brace.

The legs were attached to a block that was through the top with trim screws. The legs were attached to the block with heavy, 2.5 inch Spax screws underneath.

The braces were made from resawn hemlock and attached through the top with trim screws and to the legs and center structure with longer SPax.

Everything was lightly sanded and varnished and small silicone bumpers were attached to the top to prevent the glass from sliding.

Eventually here I will get some nice picture in a better setting than the shop.

L'Anima - a gourmet Italian restaurant in the City of London, near Finnsbury Square and Liverpool Street.

Its passionate Chef Francesco is half-Calabrian and half Sicilian who keeps a tight grip on the proceedings of his kitchen ran by 40 staff - all Italians, except for a delightful German lady whose presence adds Anglo-Saxon elegance to an otherwise very Mediterranean environment: don't get me wrong L'Anima is no run-of-the-mill trattoria decorated with lamps made of Chianti bottles.

The interior decoration is restrained and minimalist that exudes refinement without ostentation.

Its kitchen, by far larger than the space of the bar and restaurant is a model of well-equipped modernity with no money spared for the best utensils: they bake their own bread on the premises.

And the food? What kind of food is it?

Francesco is uncompromising about his traditional family cuisine, taught by his 'mamma' and his nonna: he called it "traditional Italian family cuisine with a twist!" - that is HIS version of Southern Italy - Calabrese, Puglian, Sicilian with occasional concessions to Tuscany, Veneto or Roman...

The monthly Saturday cookery course is a mixture of demonstration, hands-on cooking, degustation, competition with the prize of a (black) truffle the size of a chicken egg and a three course meal for twenty with white wine from Aosta red wine from the the volcanic slopes of the Etna and a red desert wine.

Ah I forgot the "Italian breakfast" of coffee, bread, butter and four jams. Said an American lady registered for the course; "Francesco next time you do not give us this bullshit you give us instead coffee with a shot of grappa, like the Italian working classes have for breakfast".

Well, grappa is a great leveler, so we drank to that at the end of the lunch.

Francesco-s personality is larger than life: his staff are grateful and are kept on the straight and narrow; i asked him if he shouted in the kitchen he gave an unapologetic "yes". But do you swear? i asked looking at his staff whose faces were sheepish - a mixture of a smirk with an embarrasment - well this WAS my answer - I can't remember what he said...

Francesco's cuisine is prodigal: does he look forward to having a star in the Michelin? He denies it. He says that he is true to himself, regardless. He has somewhere posted a list of the 100 best restaurants in Britain: at the top of the list there is this rural eatery on the Thames Valley, somewhere, which was shut for several weeks by the food inspectors for having poisoned its hosts. L'Anima was amongst the top 20 on this list, more precisely at number 17. Maybe it should start poisoning its clients to gain the first place: "i do not make concession to my clients. Once one gets famous one could do what one likes.". Francesco is a likeable and diplomatic presence, but as most talented people go, he must be difficult to work for. But his staff is glad to work for l"Anima which they helped up the slippery ladder of the gourmet restaurants in London.

Thank you Francesco!

Thank you too to the friendly presence of Francesco's American financial backers and great gourmet connoisseurs who added colour, spontaneity and warmth to our course. (not forgetting the young and distinguished Oxonian-Finno_Brits who stimulated the conversation).

Made of 2 old doors from the storage rooms of an old apartment complex that is being renovated. The wood is knotty grade white pine.... wood used for purely utilitarian uses...like basement locker doors. They date to about 1890-1900. and have lots of character including pencil marks from the builders, probably old German immigrants. The glass is a desk top from a desk that no longer exists but somehow we acquired it. The bracing pieces are from a 2x6 hemlock joist from a carriage house that was demolished a few months back. Its wood is a little newer, probably 19-teens.

For this piece I wanted to clearly demonstrate the material's provenance from old buildings, and incorporate some of the architectural elements such as the tongue and groove panels, the bent-over nails and the simple "Z" shaped bracing.

The "front" side of the door can make a nice table top but I wanted to show off the "Z" side. In the store we had a piece of desktop glass. I trimmed the door to slightly less than the glass dimensions, and finished the top with water-based, satin polyurethane.

A second door was used to make the legs. That door was cut in half and the first and last boards removed. The edges of the removed boards were ripped flat (no tongue or groove) and butted at 90 degrees to the edge of the remaining door panel and glued and screwed together with trim screws. The whole thing was braced internally with some scraps of poplar I had in the shop. The ends (top and bottom) were cut at 10 degrees with a circular saw and leveler feet were added to the bottom brace.

The legs were attached to a block that was through the top with trim screws. The legs were attached to the block with heavy, 2.5 inch Spax screws underneath.

The braces were made from resawn hemlock and attached through the top with trim screws and to the legs and center structure with longer SPax.

Everything was lightly sanded and varnished and small silicone bumpers were attached to the top to prevent the glass from sliding.

Eventually here I will get some nice picture in a better setting than the shop.

Made of 2 old doors from the storage rooms of an old apartment complex that is being renovated. The wood is knotty grade white pine.... wood used for purely utilitarian uses...like basement locker doors. They date to about 1890-1900. and have lots of character including pencil marks from the builders, probably old German immigrants. The glass is a desk top from a desk that no longer exists but somehow we acquired it. The bracing pieces are from a 2x6 hemlock joist from a carriage house that was demolished a few months back. Its wood is a little newer, probably 19-teens.

For this piece I wanted to clearly demonstrate the material's provenance from old buildings, and incorporate some of the architectural elements such as the tongue and groove panels, the bent-over nails and the simple "Z" shaped bracing.

The "front" side of the door can make a nice table top but I wanted to show off the "Z" side. In the store we had a piece of desktop glass. I trimmed the door to slightly less than the glass dimensions, and finished the top with water-based, satin polyurethane.

A second door was used to make the legs. That door was cut in half and the first and last boards removed. The edges of the removed boards were ripped flat (no tongue or groove) and butted at 90 degrees to the edge of the remaining door panel and glued and screwed together with trim screws. The whole thing was braced internally with some scraps of poplar I had in the shop. The ends (top and bottom) were cut at 10 degrees with a circular saw and leveler feet were added to the bottom brace.

The legs were attached to a block that was through the top with trim screws. The legs were attached to the block with heavy, 2.5 inch Spax screws underneath.

The braces were made from resawn hemlock and attached through the top with trim screws and to the legs and center structure with longer SPax.

Everything was lightly sanded and varnished and small silicone bumpers were attached to the top to prevent the glass from sliding.

Eventually here I will get some nice picture in a better setting than the shop.

L'Anima - a gourmet Italian restaurant in the City of London, near Finnsbury Square and Liverpool Street.

Its passionate Chef Francesco is half-Calabrian and half Sicilian who keeps a tight grip on the proceedings of his kitchen ran by 40 staff - all Italians, except for a delightful German lady whose presence adds Anglo-Saxon elegance to an otherwise very Mediterranean environment: don't get me wrong L'Anima is no run-of-the-mill trattoria decorated with lamps made of Chianti bottles.

The interior decoration is restrained and minimalist that exudes refinement without ostentation.

Its kitchen, by far larger than the space of the bar and restaurant is a model of well-equipped modernity with no money spared for the best utensils: they bake their own bread on the premises.

And the food? What kind of food is it?

Francesco is uncompromising about his traditional family cuisine, taught by his 'mamma' and his nonna: he called it "traditional Italian family cuisine with a twist!" - that is HIS version of Southern Italy - Calabrese, Puglian, Sicilian with occasional concessions to Tuscany, Veneto or Roman...

The monthly Saturday cookery course is a mixture of demonstration, hands-on cooking, degustation, competition with the prize of a (black) truffle the size of a chicken egg and a three course meal for twenty with white wine from Aosta red wine from the the volcanic slopes of the Etna and a red desert wine.

Ah I forgot the "Italian breakfast" of coffee, bread, butter and four jams. Said an American lady registered for the course; "Francesco next time you do not give us this bullshit you give us instead coffee with a shot of grappa, like the Italian working classes have for breakfast".

Well, grappa is a great leveler, so we drank to that at the end of the lunch.

Francesco-s personality is larger than life: his staff are grateful and are kept on the straight and narrow; i asked him if he shouted in the kitchen he gave an unapologetic "yes". But do you swear? i asked looking at his staff whose faces were sheepish - a mixture of a smirk with an embarrasment - well this WAS my answer - I can't remember what he said...

Francesco's cuisine is prodigal: does he look forward to having a star in the Michelin? He denies it. He says that he is true to himself, regardless. He has somewhere posted a list of the 100 best restaurants in Britain: at the top of the list there is this rural eatery on the Thames Valley, somewhere, which was shut for several weeks by the food inspectors for having poisoned its hosts. L'Anima was amongst the top 20 on this list, more precisely at number 17. Maybe it should start poisoning its clients to gain the first place: "i do not make concession to my clients. Once one gets famous one could do what one likes.". Francesco is a likeable and diplomatic presence, but as most talented people go, he must be difficult to work for. But his staff is glad to work for l"Anima which they helped up the slippery ladder of the gourmet restaurants in London.

Thank you Francesco!

Thank you too to the friendly presence of Francesco's American financial backers and great gourmet connoisseurs who added colour, spontaneity and warmth to our course. (not forgetting the young and distinguished Oxonian-Finno_Britswho stimulated the conversation).

L'Anima - a gourmet Italian restaurant in the City of London, near Finnsbury Square and Liverpool Street.

Its passionate Chef Francesco is half-Calabrian and half Sicilian who keeps a tight grip on the proceedings of his kitchen ran by 40 staff - all Italians, except for a delightful German lady whose presence adds Anglo-Saxon elegance to an otherwise very Mediterranean environment: don't get me wrong L'Anima is no run-of-the-mill trattoria decorated with lamps made of Chianti bottles.

The interior decoration is restrained and minimalist that exudes refinement without ostentation.

Its kitchen, by far larger than the space of the bar and restaurant is a model of well-equipped modernity with no money spared for the best utensils: they bake their own bread on the premises.

And the food? What kind of food is it?

Francesco is uncompromising about his traditional family cuisine, taught by his 'mamma' and his nonna: he called it "traditional Italian family cuisine with a twist!" - that is HIS version of Southern Italy - Calabrese, Puglian, Sicilian with occasional concessions to Tuscany, Veneto or Roman...

The monthly Saturday cookery course is a mixture of demonstration, hands-on cooking, degustation, competition with the prize of a (black) truffle the size of a chicken egg and a three course meal for twenty with white wine from Aosta red wine from the the volcanic slopes of the Etna and a red desert wine.

Ah I forgot the "Italian breakfast" of coffee, bread, butter and four jams. Said an American lady registered for the course; "Francesco next time you do not give us this bullshit you give us instead coffee with a shot of grappa, like the Italian working classes have for breakfast".

Well, grappa is a great leveler, so we drank to that at the end of the lunch.

Francesco-s personality is larger than life: his staff are grateful and are kept on the straight and narrow; i asked him if he shouted in the kitchen he gave an unapologetic "yes". But do you swear? i asked looking at his staff whose faces were sheepish - a mixture of a smirk with an embarrasment - well this WAS my answer - I can't remember what he said...

Francesco's cuisine is prodigal: does he look forward to having a star in the Michelin? He denies it. He says that he is true to himself, regardless. He has somewhere posted a list of the 100 best restaurants in Britain: at the top of the list there is this rural eatery on the Thames Valley, somewhere, which was shut for several weeks by the food inspectors for having poisoned its hosts. L'Anima was amongst the top 20 on this list, more precisely at number 17. Maybe it should start poisoning its clients to gain the first place: "i do not make concession to my clients. Once one gets famous one could do what one likes.". Francesco is a likeable and diplomatic presence, but as most talented people go, he must be difficult to work for. But his staff is glad to work for l"Anima which they helped up the slippery ladder of the gourmet restaurants in London.

Thank you Francesco!

Thank you too to the friendly presence of Francesco's American financial backers and great gourmet connoisseurs who added colour, spontaneity and warmth to our course. (not forgetting the young and distinguished Oxonian-Finno_Brits who stimulated the conversation).

L'Anima - a gourmet Italian restaurant in the City of London, near Finnsbury Square and Liverpool Street.

Its passionate Chef Francesco is half-Calabrian and half Sicilian who keeps a tight grip on the proceedings of his kitchen ran by 40 staff - all Italians, except for a delightful German lady whose presence adds Anglo-Saxon elegance to an otherwise very Mediterranean environment: don't get me wrong L'Anima is no run-of-the-mill trattoria decorated with lamps made of Chianti bottles.

The interior decoration is restrained and minimalist that exudes refinement without ostentation.

Its kitchen, by far larger than the space of the bar and restaurant is a model of well-equipped modernity with no money spared for the best utensils: they bake their own bread on the premises.

And the food? What kind of food is it?

Francesco is uncompromising about his traditional family cuisine, taught by his 'mamma' and his nonna: he called it "traditional Italian family cuisine with a twist!" - that is HIS version of Southern Italy - Calabrese, Puglian, Sicilian with occasional concessions to Tuscany, Veneto or Roman...

The monthly Saturday cookery course is a mixture of demonstration, hands-on cooking, degustation, competition with the prize of a (black) truffle the size of a chicken egg and a three course meal for twenty with white wine from Aosta red wine from the the volcanic slopes of the Etna and a red desert wine.

Ah I forgot the "Italian breakfast" of coffee, bread, butter and four jams. Said an American lady registered for the course; "Francesco next time you do not give us this bullshit you give us instead coffee with a shot of grappa, like the Italian working classes have for breakfast".

Well, grappa is a great leveler, so we drank to that at the end of the lunch.

Francesco-s personality is larger than life: his staff are grateful and are kept on the straight and narrow; i asked him if he shouted in the kitchen he gave an unapologetic "yes". But do you swear? i asked looking at his staff whose faces were sheepish - a mixture of a smirk with an embarrasment - well this WAS my answer - I can't remember what he said...

Francesco's cuisine is prodigal: does he look forward to having a star in the Michelin? He denies it. He says that he is true to himself, regardless. He has somewhere posted a list of the 100 best restaurants in Britain: at the top of the list there is this rural eatery on the Thames Valley, somewhere, which was shut for several weeks by the food inspectors for having poisoned its hosts. L'Anima was amongst the top 20 on this list, more precisely at number 17. Maybe it should start poisoning its clients to gain the first place: "i do not make concession to my clients. Once one gets famous one could do what one likes.". Francesco is a likeable and diplomatic presence, but as most talented people go, he must be difficult to work for. But his staff is glad to work for l"Anima which they helped up the slippery ladder of the gourmet restaurants in London.

Thank you Francesco!

Thank you too to the friendly presence of Francesco's American financial backers and great gourmet connoisseurs who added colour, spontaneity and warmth to our course. (not forgetting the young and distinguished Oxonian-Finno_Brits who stimulated the conversation).