Happy Lunar New Year all! It’s 4707 in Asia, the year of the Tiger. The Tiger is said to be lucky vivid, lively and engaging. Another attribute of the Tiger is his incredible bravery, evidenced in his willingness to engage in battle or his undying courage. I’m visiting my sister-in-law’s family this week to celebrate the lunar new year. There will be lots of little cousins around which means the kids will be quite pre-occupied, which also means I can get caught up with shakuhachi repairs! One is not supposed to work on New Year’s Day, but today I’m surrounded by things I deeply love so I’m going to take this opportunity to get busy. My life rules!

I was able to set up and work in my brother-in-law David’s art studio. See his work here - http://www.gonville.com/.

Dave’s a fine artist whose works is inspired by natural landscapes and surfing. Some of his works bring to mind Richard Diebenkorn, the Bay Area Figurative artist.

One of the repairs today involves replacing monofilament bindings with rattan inlays. Here are some tools for getting the job done.

This is a 7-hole modern Keizan instrument. It will need some bore refurbishing also.

Had to play with the kids for a least some part of the day;)

OK, I have to say it again, “My Life Rules!”