
As it happens, the varnish house turned out to be a very good idea. On the last day -- the day when all the ingredients were combined -- we had to move cooking operations into the garage, where we perched on upturned buckets and a bale of straw and shivered through several rounds of heating up, cooling down, heating up ... however, it was all worth it: last night, I decanted eleven bottles of varnish in a rich chestnut colour.