Garden gherkin and a post box

We've had a lot of work to do over the past few weeks. Most of it has been rush work of one sort or another, quite a few Magistretti Carimate seats and various handsome antique armchairs. It is satisfying to see them all lined up when they're finished waiting to go home and ready for another few decades of service.

But I still have to find some time to do a bit of exploring, some experimentation. I had a deadline to come up with a few design ideas for a local magazine, so it gave me a brilliant reason to spend time making a few things that we needed. First was a post box. We couldn't bring ourselves to make a letterbox hole in our new front door, we liked it better without one, so the only option was to buy a post box. I looked around at loads, but couldn't find anything that would be just right, so I made one and here it is.

Not necessarily everyone's cup of tea I know, but it's made out of outdoor quality synthetic materials and is big enough to take the largest of envelopes. I was chuffed when the postman used it the first morning after I put it in place!

The second thing we needed was a protective cover for our herb "bag". The local family of sparrows have taken a real shine to our plants especially the chard, they were coming in like little vultures and eating the lot even though it was right under the kitchen window - little beggars!

So I built a "garden gherkin" as a framework to cover with bird mesh.

It works a treat.