Boats away

Slight hiatus in the doors at the moment, but on the other hand I was finally able to get a pic of something made of wood in the entrance of our local supermarket. For a few weeks now, this rowing boat - about 10ft I reckon - has been gracing the foyer (Foyer? Of a supermarket? Well you know what I mean). As the weeks have gone on, it's been submerged under more and more footballs, so it'll probably be utterly invisible by the end of the month.

It was made by students at the local Marine School, where, amongst other things, you can learn how to build boats the old fashioned way. Alas, because of the footballs, I couldn't get as much detail as I'd have liked, but if memory serves, like the bow thwart here, all the bottom boards are similarly beaded along their edges, as well as other similar marks of care in construction and finishing.

I like it very much, not least because craftsmanship is thin on the ground during the weekly shop and it maketh me to smile (which is something that's also a little thin on the ground as you play dodgems with shopping trolleys). But the very fact that the supermarket has agreed to have it there and advertise the skills and teaching at the local education emporium is a good deed in a bad world.

I'm sure it has absolutely nothing to do with the torrential rain we've had and not merely the manager lining up his escape pod when the flood comes... ;)