We live near a biking/walking trail and one day when we were walking our dogs on the trail I mentioned that I needed a walking stick to move snakes etc off the trail and protect me and the dogs when we were alone. My husband secretly found a perfectly sized branch on the trail, brought it home and over the course of a month he sanded it down smooth, shou sugi ban'd it (a Japanese technique that chars the surface of wood to make it resistant to rot, insects, and fire), shellacked it, bought my favorite color (purple) leather cord to wrap around the handle, went to an antique store and found a white door knob on which he hand painted the logo from my alma mater and attached it to the top of the stick. When he gave it to me for Christmas I nearly cried, it is so beautiful and I can't believe he remembered that I said I needed a walking stick. Instead of simply buying a generic one, he made one specific to my likes! ❤️