Marie Antoinette’s Oak

On a recent trip to France our transport supervisor, Gabor, visited Versailles and brought us back these fantastic photos of the 60 ton trunk of Marie Antoinette’s Oak Tree.

The Oak tree, which died during France’s devastating heat wave in 2003 after standing for more than three centuries, is now preserved in the gardens for admirers.

Unlike Marie-Antoinette, the 66-foot-tall tree escaped the blade. It was simply uprooted and pulled down after being shorn of its branches.

Marie-Antoinette’s Oak was planted around 1685 when famed landscape artist Andre Le Notre fashioned astonishing gardens around the Versailles Palace, the lavish residence of French kings from 1682 until the French Revolution in 1789.

In the years preceding the revolution the queen enjoyed calmer summer days in the shadow of the tree, sometimes dressed as a shepherdess.

The Versailles gardeners were careful to gather the trees acorns ten years ago and they have planted all those small trees in the grove that will forever remain the ‘Grove of Marie-Antoinette’s Oaks’.

Chauncey’s French Reclaimed Oak flooring may not be from Marie Antoinette’s Oak tree but it is certainly fit for royalty!

Have a look at the Chauncey’s website to find out more about our stunning oak flooring.

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Oak Apple Day – 29th May

Having just come back to the office fresh from a long (if rather wet) bank holiday weekend, I’ve just found out about Oak Apple day – which should really be our next bank holiday on 29th May.

Oak Apple day was originally celebrated to commemorate the restoration of Charles I to the English throne on May 29th 1660, as Charles was said to have hidden in an oak tree during the Battle of Worcester.  People wore a sprig of oak on the anniversary of his crowning to show that they were loyal to the king. Those who didn’t risked being set upon, pelted with eggs or having their bottoms pinched! Consequently, this day also became known as Pinch-Bum-Day.

In some areas it was the custom on Oak Apple Day for school pupils to line the teacher’s morning assembly chairs with nettles and brambles. The staff were expected to sit on them without complaint and at the end of assembly the pupils were given the afternoon off!

Some parts of Britain still hold events.  In Castleton, Derbyshire they parade a garland through the village on horseback. The three foot high King Garland is made from a wooden frame to which small bunches of wild flowers and leaves are bound. This heavy flower tower is then lifted onto the shoulders of the “King.” After touring the village pubs on horseback, the King is relieved of his floral encumbrance which is then hoisted to the top of St Edmunds Church tower.

Sadly, Oak Apple Day was formally abolished in 1859, but I think it would be great if it made a come back in honour of oak trees.

Chauncey’s logo used to be an oak tree too (see the lino cut I made several years ago) so perhaps we should re-instate our oak tree too for Oak Apple day!

Mary xx

P.S.  Oak Apples aren’t really apples at all – they are  large, round, apple-like growths (galls) commonly found on many species of oak. Oak apples are caused by chemicals injected into the developing leaf bud of the oak tree by the larva of the cynipid wasp.

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Permaculture in Malawi

Whilst James and I were in Malawi we were fortunate enough to be given a tour round a permaculture training site which aims to help farmers in Malawi to grow their crops in a more sustainable way.

I thought I would just let the pictures speak for themselves…

 

Growing crops and wood for building materials in a more sustainable way will also play a part in reducing the de-forestation which is decimating parts of Malawi and which our adopted charity Temwa is helping by replanting thousands of trees.

Mary xx

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Sport Relief Mile run in Cheddar

Chauncey’s recently sponsored our Operations Manager, Mike, and his daughter Charlotte, to run the Sport Relief Mile in Cheddar.  (Of course this means the place, Cheddar, not that Mike and Charlotte had to run a mile in cheese!)

They both did fantastically well – a mile seems a long way when your dad makes you run the whole way!!

Congratulations to them both.

 

Over a million people took part in fundraising activities and the Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Mile over the course of the weekend, helping to bring the total up to £52,070,587 … and counting.

This money will help people living unimaginably tough lives, both at home in the UK and across the world’s poorest countries.

Mary xx

p.s.  Mike even wore his Chauncey’s T shirt…

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Tree Planting in Malawi

There haven’t been any blogs recently as James and I left Chauncey’s in the capable hands of our staff and spent two weeks in Malawi to help with the re-forestation work being carried out by our sponsored charity, Temwa.

James and the local Temwa employees

We travelled to Usisya in northern Malawi on the shores of lake Malawi – quite a trek involving an overnight 16 hour flight to Lilongwe (via Addis Ababa), then a 7 hour bus ride to Mzuzu, a one hour drive to Nkarta Bay and a 3 hour boat trip to Usisya!!  Needless to say we were exhausted once we got there.

Our beach hut

Our beach

We stayed in a beach hut, which looks very romantic (apart from the mosquitoes and the danger of malaria!) until you realise there’s no running water and no electricity – so washing was in the lake and once it got dark (around 7pm) we had a kerosene lamp to read by.  Still, the stars were awesome and we could watch the fishermen out at night on the lake with lights on the prows of their boats.

Planting trees

De-forestation is a really serious problem in Malawi.  We arrived at the end of the rainy season, which is why everywhere looks so green – but all the new seedlings need to be planted at this time of year to stand any chance of surviving the heat.

This is Beth, who is the chair of the local women’s farming co-op.  She looks after seven orphaned grandchildren, whose parents have died of Aids.

Beth and her crop

Beth and five grandchildren

 

Here are two other villagers who have benefited from the Temwa tree planting scheme.  The papya tree on the left grows extremely quickly – it has only been planted for 5 months and will soon be bearing fruit.

Other trees may be grown for fruit, for shade, for building material or for fire wood.

The Moringa tree (also known as the ‘miracle tree’) is grown particularly for the immune-boosting properties of its ground up leaves – this is particularly useful for families where members are suffering the long-term problems of Aids or HIV infections.

For more information on Temwa’s work or to support their tree-planting programme follow this link

However hard life is for the people in Usisya everyone was  incredibly welcoming and friendly – and the children were all really excited about having their photos taken…

Me and some children of Usisya

Mary xx

P.S. if you want to learn more about de-forestation in Malawi and see the scale of the problem then this you could watch this YouTube film by Ripple Africa, who are another charity who work with Temwa

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New Chauncey’s Staff

Sadly, our logistics supervisor, Jason, left yesterday to pursue a career in music – we wish him all the best of luck.

Our new Logistics supervisor, Gabor

Gabor, one of our best warehouse men, is taking over from Jason.  Gabor has already been working alongside Jason for several weeks and so is ready to hit the ground running and keep providing you with the same excellent level of service in making sure your deliveries of Chauncey’s Flooring arrive on time.

Arnold and some 'Bristol Finish' boards

I thought I would take this opportunity to also introduce Arnold, who has been working with us for several months now and does a lot of our excellent  ‘Bristol Finish’ pre-finishing work.

Marcos - ready to help with your order

 

We also have another new guy in the warehouse to cover Gabor’s absence – Marcos – so a big welcome to him, too.  I’m sure he’ll fit really well into our hard-working warehouse team and will be on hand to help you with your next order of Chauncey’s FSC Extra Tectonic flooring.

Mary xx

 

 

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Chauncey’s Flooring for Life

Our new ‘Flooring for Life’ banner went up a few days ago – after much discussion and thought we eventually decided where to place it – who knew that placing a sign could cause so much debate?

Here’s Ian debating the placing of the banner (and Mike putting it up!):

Whether you buy solid oak flooring or engineered oak flooring, Chauncey’s timber flooring will indeed last more than a lifetime – and will probably be looking better than ever, as long as the floor is properly maintained and looked after.

For more information on how to maintain your floor and keep it looking good please look at our maintenance page on our website or click on the ‘oils and lacquers’ tab at the top of the blog home page.

Mary xx

 

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Chauncey’s Oak iphone and ipad

These beautiful wooden covers for your iphone and ipad really caught our eye:

to find out more follow this link.

It could always be a way of using up those left over pieces of Chauncey’s Oak Flooring!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary xx

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Vertical Marathon for Temwa

Friday was such a busy day.  Not only did we film the first four of our batch of new Youtube films, but we also took part in a climbing challenge in aid of Temwa in the evening.

Many thanks to all our staff (and friends) who took part and helped to raise vital funds to tackle the extreme poverty suffered by many people in Malawi.  The challenge was to climb a vertical marathon – almost 42,000 metres.  Teams of climbers throughout the day helped – and the Chauncey’s team did their bit by climbing a total of 730 metres.  Each ten metre climb did feel like quite an achievement – especially for me!

Here are some photos of the climb:

Ian reaches the top

James and Ian make a good team

Me - pretty terrified!

Mike is determined to reach the top

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sherry takes it in her stride

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll let you know how the challenge went as soon as we have the details.

Mary xx

Why not check out the Chauncey’s website to see what other heights we can climb in supplying the best oak flooring

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Filming in Chauncey’s Warehouse

Friday saw the shooting of our series of four films about moisture control and wooden flooring.  The four films will cover:

  1. General advice about how moisture can affect wooden flooring covering expansion & contraction as well as cupping and crowning
  2. Testing concrete and screed subfloors for moisture levels
  3. Testing wooden flooring for moisture levels
  4. Measuring the Relative Humidity levels in the environment

To keep the films fresh I persuaded our sales manager, Ian, and our operations manager, Mike, to help out with the filming….  and a fantastic job they did too.

Here they both are being filmed by Adam from JonesMillbank.

Ian talking about moisture testing Chauncey's flooring

Mike describing testing for moisture in concrete

As soon as the films are ready they’ll be added to our YouTube channel and will be featured on relevant pages on our website.

Mary xx

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