Following a suggestion from Phil Harding (PhilH) of using tea leaves for leaf litter, and the realisation that the current malty breakfast blend I'm currently drinking has an admirable mix of leafy bits, sticky bits and general dust I dried some post-brewing dregs out on a baking tray in a low (50^oC) oven. The brewing and drying made it lighter colours too, which look better than the very dark pre-brewing shades. Three pots and a quick grind with a pestle and mortar to generate a bit more fine material, some dilute PVA, and the result is pictured...

I had considered using Treemendus products as suggested by Andy Y, but the tea was there already and just looked right.

On a more significant turn, I have finally made a traverser fiddle yard for Bad Horn, having bought the runners months ago. No rocket science here, just checks with a set square and a lot of luck. Well, except for one thing... I had already built a pair of boards for a conventional points ladder type yard, and to drill the holes in the end piece of the new traverser I decided I'd take the end piece off the previous board and use it as a template. So, I merrily whipped out the screws to the longitudinal battens and gave it a tap with a hammer to break the glue bond. It barely twitched. So, I laid the board down on the deck, stood in the middle to stop it moving and gave a couple of good belts. Off came the end piece, along with part of the top, well held with three more screws... Oops.

Anyway, other than my own stupidity there were no problems in the build. I did notice that the MDF shelf I am using as the top piece (18mm- I didn't feel like making two frames, and didn't trust myself to make them both square) was sagging in the centre, so popped down to Mitre 10 to get one more runner for the central cross member. Of course, drawer runners are only sold in pairs, so I have one spare. Pictured here is the base frame before the central runner went in. Note that the runners are a little short. I'm using a 300mm wide shelf, but the runners come in 250 or 400mm lengths. Still, as it moves both ways, that's no problem.

There was one bit of really good luck. By turning a batten on its side, its depth plus the ply top at the end is within a millimetre of the depth of the shelf plus runners. That saved a lot of messing about!

You can also see the sag that concerned me in that image.

Next stage, maybe even tomorrow, I'll head to the Warehouse and get some cheap workmates to act as layout support. At $20 each with four needed for the layout, it's cheaper than I can make legs for. Also, Diane has authorised Bad Horn's semi-permanent erection in our spare room/study- even though it means moving her desk! I love my wife