Well, I went off down the river today. The actual purpose of the exercise was to find gooseberry plants to stea... I mean liberate for my own garden, and also to harvest later in summer. Also, I was gathering rocks for another task... All about rocks today. Anyway, all that went very well.

On the way back from this, I noticed that the very first of the season"s lupins had started to flower. I decided to take some home, and to do this I needed something to cut them with. I went looking for a stone, as I always do, and then realised I was about to complete this task...

You see, lupins have very strong verticle filiments inside the stalk, so you can't really snap them off without ruining the flower. I always use a sharp stone for the job. Actually, this whole exercise made me realise just how often I fashion temporary tools out of stone, wood and bone. The simple reason is that it's illegal to carry a pocket knife in New Zealand, unless you have a specific and immediate purpose for it. Also, my parents banned me from having knives as a child after certain... accidents.

Anyway, over the years I have, amoung other things, skinned a rabbit with a stone scraper, speared a fish with a bone and wood spear (which I crafted with a stone), hollowed out various plates and eating utensils, killed a possum with a stone headed hammer (which I was using to build a hut), and even used scraped out shist as a pot and cooking surface.

Today's tool was remarkably simple by comparison, and far simpler than the tool I intended to make (and indeed still WILL make for Absurdum's completion). However, it fits right in with the idea of everyday life...