Treacherous Almond Wood

I thought I've already experienced all the dirty tricks that wood can prepare for me. I saw knots, irregular and wavy grain, soft punky wood and woodworm holes. But almond prepared a big surprise for me. Note the small hole in the upper part...

At first I thought it was a pulp or some rotten wood, later it seemed like a hole bitten by some mysterious insects. Anyway, the hole branched and it went diagonally to the other side of the log (although not completely, there was about 1cm layer of wood on the surface to mask the hole). No matter how I would place the spoon, the hole would go right through the middle...

Fortunatelly, the other part of the log had only some shallow holes, so I could carve a spoon in the end...

This wood is very similar to apple, it is just as hard and dense. The heartwood has beautiful colors from yellow to brown and red and it is obviously harder than the outer sapwood. It can also be polished very nicely. I expected that almond wood would smell like almonds, but it has no characteristic smell. 
So everything ended well and I learned an important thing: if you see a hole in the wood, always make sure how deep it is before you start carving. Otherwise you can be very surprised!

I Found a Perfect Shape

Sometimes I try to carve a spoon according to some picture from internet and I always learn a lot. This time I chose a spoon by Jarrod Stone Dahl with white painted handle:

And here is the result. I also wanted to try a homemade paint from milk, vinegar, lime and pigment. But I can't take heart to do it because for now I like the spoon just as it is.

No picture can do it justice, but this shape is subtle, elegant and fits nicely to the hand. I think I will make more spoons like this!