I lay boards on top of other boards and stuck my tongue out the side of my mouth and squinted and came to the conclusion that that looked neater, so I went with putting the planks that way. Very scientific... 
I think that bench might have ended up at a mate's place after his girlfriend saw it and decided it was "rustic" and she couldn't live without it. If it makes her happy, I'm not going to criticise her taste in furniture.
I made another one, it's in the workshop, half stained, half sanded, carved in places. But I don't have any photos of it at the moment. 
I got the idea from the internet - it's called a five plank bench. It looked simple, straightforward, relatively easy to make, and it turned out that it was, which was a good thing for me.
I pretty much made it without the first clue as to what I was doing.
I had to measure the height of the seat on the couch in order to work out how tall it should be, and the width of the cushions to work out how wide I thought it should be.
Talk about carpentry by the seat of your pants...
I started out with an idea, and I enthusiastically went ahead with it, "making up the rules as I went along".
Sometimes it's amazing that I can make anything that doesn't fall apart the moment you look at it.
Reckitt's blue.
I couldn't work out how blue could make whites white until I started fiddling with lights and electronics and learnt that blue light is an important component of "white" light - which is why your "white" LED torch emits a slightly bluish glow.
Ooh, trivial fact-ette for the day...
Oh oh oh for a nap indeed!! Alright, who did that, who said NAP?????
Look at that gorgeous bench that ecar made, surely a prize winner, how professional it looks and so sturdy as well, well done xxxx
The hot chocolate went down well in the middle of the night. I think the problem was that I kept dreaming I was on the plane coming home so I had to get up and make sure I wasn't ... 
Looking like we have planted the vegies a little bit too early this year, the kale shrivelled, some of the cos lettuce dropped all their ears and plunged back into the soil, the spinach turned into crispies mostly, and last but not least, the baby carrots have decided that all but four would return to the cosmos .... 
However, there is hope, yes!! This weekend, we're going to plant (drum roll) CORN!
There is good news though, the tomato plants have survived and have flowers on them now because we put them into a little hothouse ... so at least we did one thing right .... 
The problem (maybe) was that it turned very cold again and we should have waited.
The tree is a good tree, but the branches are set just too far apart, so the birds and the possums can't climb it, using them.
It's like a ladder, where every second rung has been cut out, or a staircase where every second step is missing.
The solution is to fit artificial branches; a block of wood, with a piece of dowel sticking out of it, tied to the trunk, placed more or less mid way between the branches.
It's not the prettiest of solutions, but it works.
That looks like a very good solution to keep the possums out ecar. Do birds climb trees? I think I lost the plot there for a minute ...
It gives the possums something to climb, especially the little, little ones. And yes, birds climb, too. They'll stand on a branch, grasp the branch above with their beak, then pull themselves up. They must have incredible abs.
Actually, it's more for climbing down, than climbing up. That's a curious sight - watching a bird climb down a tree.
