I’ve discovered that, to maintain my mental health, I need to spend at least a few hours every week in a state of flow. For me, that means making something in the workshop. Until my new shop is ready, I have to work in my old shop, which is still in Redwood City. From the ranch, it takes an hour and a half to drive there, so I’m not really reaching my minimum daily flow requirement on a regular basis, but I got a few hours in today. Making anything substantial requires continuity and regular hours, which is out of the question, so about the only thing I can make from start to finish in a single day is a turned bowl, and for the last several months turning bowls is the only thing I’ve been doing. Today I turned this simple bowl out of a block of Yucatan Rosewood, with a foot of red oak. The picture shows it fresh off the lathe, before I put on its first coat of varnish.