Peter Lloyd

The Old School House
Hallbankgate

Email:
peterlloyd@
finehardwoodboxes.com

News

Tired feet...

Tired feet...

Another humungous gap in diary writing but this time, a relatively good excuse in that we have been away for four and a half months wandering across Europe. We were a bit like snails with our house on our backs and going rather slowly - never quite sure whether we would manage to reach our destination. So when we did drop down from the mountains to the Mediterranean and stagger into the sea it was a strangely emotional moment.

Life is gradually returning to normal - whatever that is and Peter is already creating loads of dust and muttering to himself in a rather bad tempered way. I think he enjoyed a break from boxes but he was very attracted to some houses in Holland that were completely square!

So the suntans are fading and the trees are turning brown, the Co-op is already selling Christmas chocolates and our first grandchild - Iona has turned our lives upside down with love. The memories of our trip are fading but what remains are friendships made and 2,500 photographs to bore the pants of all our friends and family.

 

Gold and babies...

Gold and babies...

As I write this the snow is falling and the view from the window is reminiscent of Siberia - not that I've never been there but our back field looks like the mental image I have of it. Spring however is definitely on its way as the first lambs have been spotted and the lapwings, curlews and oyster catchers are out in force doing their spring thing and filling the air with some lovely noises.

Peter is bashing away working on his very last commission with lots of mixed emotions but mainly one of looking forward with anticipation and having more time for his own ideas.

Exciting customers recently are George from Aberdeen who pans for gold and who wants to display and sell the gold in one of Peter's boxes. You can see his website at http://www.thegoldclub.biz/Scottish Gold.htm

Other news is that we are to become grandparents and I'm not talking chickens this time but real babies which apart from making us feel a bit old is rather wonderful!

 

 

Birthday Boy

Birthday Boy

Ssssshhhh, don’t tell anyone but Peter reaches the grand old age of 60 this week - I can’t believe I’m married to such an old man.

I think arriving at this milestone has made him think about the meaning of life and even though he hasn’t come to any mind boggling conclusions he has made some decisions, one of which is to no longer take on any commissions and so be more free to let his creative juices flow .

He has had some wonderful and exciting commissions in the past and really enjoyed doing them but now he just wants to go it alone and create - goodness knows what will be coming out of the workshop in the near future. Now, I’m off to make a cake but I’m not sure there’s going to be enough room for all those candles.

Happy Christmas!

Wedding bells and rainfall....

Wedding bells and rainfall....

I can't believe that the last diary entry was in April and that I was rabbiting on about sunglasses and gardens - the sunglasses never did get used and the garden is now less like a jungle and more like the Amazon rainforest.  We have now got our very own wetland area in the back field regularly visited by barnacle geese and mallard ducks and we may even decide to start our own nature reserve.

Despite the constant rain the summer has been great with a wonderful holiday walking the Tuscan hills (in the rain), the wedding of our youngest son Thomas to the lovely Jessica (in the sunshine - hoorah) greeting lots of lovely people to the B&B and box making going on in-between times.

Pete has had some lovely commissions - one for Colin Woolfe, a wildlife artist who is creating some very special books of his work to be presented in one of Peter's boxes; a tea caddy box to house eighteen tea caddies that has had Pete scratching his head quite a lot, and a very nice pen box which got a very good write up on the online "Fountain Pen Network"!

Our local Co-op has got the Christmas chocolates in stock already which is a bit scary but I refuse to say Happy Christmas just yet!

 

 

Boxes,beds and breakfasts.......

Boxes,beds and breakfasts.......

Yet more months have passed since the last diary entry and the sunglasses have come out of retirement and the battle commences with our jungle of a garden. Peter is busy in his workshop and has had a very nice commission from St Helens council who were awarding 7 of its citizens with freedom of the town. I'm not sure what being a Freeman allows you to do that us ordinary mortals can't do, but each of them now has a fine walnut box housing a rather grand scroll. Peter was able to engrave each name on the lid of each box and they did look rather nice.So, if you ever need a scroll box you know where to come!!

Apart from that, he has been working on various other commissions - one, a display box for a guest book that has been signed by Prince Charles. It has a very secret opening that I think would baffle Einstein himself!

Another completed box is being given to the Tullie House Museum in Carlisle as they commissioned it for their permanent collection. A great honour as Tullie House is a fantastic museum and if you are ever in Carlisle is well worth a long visit.

The B&B is doing well and bookings are trickling in. It's a grand way of meeting some very lovely people.

Chris