Wishing and Hoping

Woohoo it's cold out there in the world at the moment. We got minus sixies pixies the night before last, not the coldest place in Britain by any stretch but dam chilly to say the least. Lots of layers and lots of wood on the fire and hot drinks and chunky soup. Maybe some chocolate biscuits to go along with all that as a wee bit of comfort food, always needed I think when it's like this don't you think?
I have the pots ready for the McGill Duncan Gallery now, I appear to have slightly misread the instructions with the exhibition and have written in my diary, on the calendar at work and on my making list that they need to be delivered by tomorrow, in actual fact the letter says by saturday just gone. What was happening in my brain that day I can't honestly tell you. Thankfully it appears not to have caused any problems at the gallery and delivering them tomorrow is fine - assuming there is no more of the fluffy white stuff falling over night. These domed pots are tea light holders, they each hold three or four candles and the lids are the shapes cut out of the tops. They were a bit of a fiddle to cut and then to glaze making sure the lids don't stick but I'm happy with the finished pots.

The tiny tapered jugs are going to the gallery too.

The show at the weekend was not what one might describe as a roaring success. Firstly it had snowed on friday evening and the pavements of Kirkcudbright are apparently renown for not being gritted and cleared so people were unfortunately put off visiting. Understandable but very frustrating for those of us that were exhibiting. Visitor numbers were very low and so of course the sales that did come were spread rather thinly between us all. The plus point was though that Broughton House is stunning! Big and old and a swine to heat but really beautiful. Sally the property manager gave me a sneaky peak into the pantry where a lot of the pots that aren't on display are kept, the owner, Hornel, was a painter but also an avid collector of things, thousands of books, glassware, pots, lots of Chinese and Japanese painted porcelain and there are still many of the kitchen storage pots around (much more my kind of thing but the delicate stuff is amazing to see too) and of course the gallery space is full of his enormous canvases. The scale and the textures of his paintings is stunning, so many in one place I found a little sickly but there's no doubting the business head of the man, from what I found out about him over the weekend he knew and was implementing a lot of ideas that a good many artists and crafts people could do well to learn from today.

When he had a new painting he hung it in the gallery space and invited his clients and potential collectors to come down from Glasgow and view it. When it was sold - which it inevitably was - it was lowered through the trap door in the gallery space down to the street level where it was loaded onto a pony and trap and taken off to the station. By the time the buyer was arriving home back in Glasgow the painting was already in their house waiting for them. Compare that service to the courier that I have been waiting the last ten days to turn up who keeps saying he's sat outside and that I'm not in when I know full well I have been in at the time he said he was here. Today he actually rang me to say he was outside and where on earth was I, it turns out he had decided to keep on going to another house who's name starts with the same 4 letters as the workshops address does. He had failed to continue reading the full address and so had kept reporting to the office that I wasn't in. Grrrrrrrrrrr. Anyway the parcel is now hopefully winging it's way safely over the Atlantic to the USA.

There was something that I was thinking about today that I thought to myself I must put on the blog because it made me chuckle and now I can't for the life of me remember what on earth it was. Sorry about that. If I remember I'll try to write it down so I don't forget again.
The splendid fireplace in the image above is in the gallery space at Broughton House. Some of the stands were set out in here and some downstairs in the studio space. It's quite a feature isn't it.
Right it's bed time, the electric blanket is on so it should be toasty. I have been considering, as Paul is still away (he sails tomorrow for nearly three weeks sea trials so contact while be sporadic at best now) folding the electric blanket in half longways and getting in between it like a toasted Hannah sandwich, I'm sure it's not healthy but oh it would be warm. I haven't got any further than thinking about the possibility, maybe I'll save that for when it gets to minus double figures again...

Presentable Presents

Just to prove (mainly to myself) that my stand at the Great Northern wasn't set up wonky as it looked in the image that I had taken of it, here's a professional photo of it. Taken by James Photography at the event. I was pleased when I saw this as on mine the boards all looked squint.

This weekend I will be at Broughton House on the High Street in Kirkcudbright at an event called Presentable Presents. It is the former home and studio of Hornel, one of the Glasgow Boys. It's open 10am till 4pm and entry to the house and the fair is free. Wrap up warm though it's a tad chilly.
This teapot picture was sent to me by a gentleman who reads the blog, thank you ever so much, it is indeed a beauty.
This morning I had the unpleasant discovery while preparing to glaze some pots that my wax resist appears to have gone off. It still worked fine but it stinks to high heaven, most unpleasant.
It's a blooming cold night here, I just fell asleep in a hot bath, (I'm shattered this week and hungry all the time, it might be because of the cold) but the fire is stoked up and I'm about to settle in under a blanket with a good book. No snow this part of the country - yet. Keep warm all.

Back to it.

Today I absolutely had to get on with things. Come on H, get your head in gear. There were lots of jobs needing doing that were all a bit disjointed you know, one jug to handle, two plaques to slip, some candle holders to cut, a couple of phone calls to make (including one to let Doug know that I'd seen the cow roundabout that I accused him of having made up - sorry Doug).

A couple more snaps of the pots for the McGill Duncan exhibition for you. Not fired yet but they will be Zoe and Gill, don't panic.
News from Japan is that most food tastes of fish and some of the lads that Paul is working with have tattoos of Japanese designs that don't necessarily translate as well as they had been told they did. One thought his said "rebel" but the more accurate translation apparently is "thief" - oops!
I did my baking as promised so for anyone that's interested this weeks offerings are currant buns and tea a plenty. The Christmas cake is done, and there's an apple cake in the freezer awaiting Paul's return and being as there was a rather large pile of apples waiting something happening to them there are a good few chopped and frozen ready for pies and another lot stewed. There's still a couple of pounds waiting for something, maybe another cake to be eaten now, we'll see.
Finally a very big HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY to Alex McErlain who if you read this regularly and actually take any of it in, was my tutor at college. He is retiring at Christmas and it'll be the end of an era for the course there. Congratulations for your birthday Alex.

Friday

Although I have been at work all week I don't seem to have achieved much at all. Mostly I have been packing pots to post away and that does always take me far longer than I ever think it will. I blame it in the weather really. Most of the week has been grey and dreich, it doesn't make for particularly energetic feelings really, not at the moment anyway. One day I rode over to Laurieston for a meeting about an exhibition next year. I think we made progress but that's all a bit scary and different for me and for Phil McMenemy my photographer friend who I will be showing with. I'll tell you more when we know more ourselves.

On the way back from Laurieston the road travels through fields that border the River Dee, it was dusk when I was heading home and the geese were all, unbeknown to me, settled in the fields for the evening. I must have made them jump as I rode by probably singing or talking to myself and a couple, then a couple of dozen and then what felt like a couple of thousand of them all took to the air squawking and flapping and frightening the living daylights out of me.

These wee jugs were decorated earlier in the week, they are for the Galloway Dark Skies exhibition coming up soon at the McGill Duncan Gallery in Castle Douglas. The wee people are out and about again.
What the weekend holds I don't yet know, it seems to loom a bit when there's just me here, I mean I have tonnes to be done but whether I'll get around to the application forms and the accounts and the hoovering is another matter. I am however going to bake the Christmas cake at some point so that'll keep me occupied for a fair few hours while that bakes. I like baking but I'd better not get carried away as Paul's not here to wolf it all down in no time at all. Or I could get carried away baking and then you can all come round for tea and cakes next week, how about that? Anyone fancy tea and cake?

Stuff and rain.

I am not among these fruit loops but I lent my treasured pumpkin outfit to Paul for his Halloween bike ride with his friends, can you imagine meeting that lot hurtling (and boy do they hurtle) around the forest on their night ride? Mad as a box of frogs the lot of them. He did not I am pleased to report catch the plane wearing that outfit. He has seen some pots out there in Japan he does report and has taken a photograph for me of the pot. I hope he doesn't think that one photograph will be enough, I'm expecting a whole pile of photographs!

Blimey what a weird day. After spending an hour chatting to Doug and discussing among other things the fact that today it hadn't been raining, I then promptly drove up to New Galloway to my Cub meeting through roads that are fairly well flooded. How come I didn't even notice that it had rained that much? I'm not sure what planet I have been on today, an even odder one than normal obviously.

Birthday holly tree from Amanda.

My Cub group are great, I was there tonight, they don't half come out with the funniest things bless them. One was rather concerned that the Scout hall might get flooded and float away, and what would we do then because the electricity would go off. The fact that the hall is on a hill higher than most of the rest of the village and so if we got it then the rest of the place would be in an awful mess didn't seem to have registered.
The other brilliant one was on sunday as we walked between the cenotaph and the church, they were discussing their breakfasts. I started to pay more attention and stop spotting the conkers
when one announced that she had had courgettes for breakfast. Really? Asked another, yes she replied, they were warm and one had butter melted on it and the other had jam and they were lovely and flaky. Ahhh I see, croissants! Brilliant.

The video is just a quickie of the slightly over full river running out of Grasmere towards Ambleside when we were on holiday. Woosh!

New blogger for you

There's a jeweller based in Glasgow but from this region who not only is a lovely great person but makes some stunningly beautiful pieces of work. Alison Macleod has started a blog, you can visit it here. You can visit her website and see some more of her work here. Alison has taken part in Spring Fling as a Home Comer a couple of times but we'll miss her in 2011. Come back soon!
PS I hope you don't mind, I "borrowed" one of your images from your website Alison.

Brrrrrrrr!

It appears that the winter is here properly. This morning the view as far as the eye could see was white with frost and the Galloway hills to the west were properly snowy white a good half way down their flanks, last weekend they just had white caps. I ate my breakfast while watching the mist rise up in the early sunshine off Screel. As I watch a rain cloud appeared, dropping a heavy shower which froze immediately on the icy road making a beautifully smooth slick surface to cycle to work on. It has been freezing all day, I'm tucked up under a rather lovely quilt now which is much better.
Today has been a day of packing and boxing up pots a plenty. A big order was sent merrily on it's way to Blue Ginger in Malvern, so that will all being well arrive tomorrow and then those of you in that area can go and start your Christmas shopping there at the weekend. Another parcel was packed that will be going out to some customers in New Jersey too. The workshop was looking much better when I left tonight than it was when I took this picture, I could barely move for boxes and pots and bubble!

The fair at the weekend was good, a fabulous setting, that is Loch Inch castle you can see just peeping through the trees there behind the Belted Galloway cattle in the foreground. Very iconic creatures for this area are those cows.
Sales were ok, thank you all, I met lots of great people and I swapped some pots for a fabulous new hat. I'll try to get a picture for you. Yes it was good to sell some pots after the poor sales at the last show, a bit of a much needed confidence boost for me.

Cold days make for great sunsets, if you can brave the temperatures there's some great photo opportunities out there.
This week looks like it'll be starting a new batch of throwing, it feels like a while since I've done any throwing, it still hurts quite a bit so I don't want to push it too much - which I obviously did do recently. It's frustrating when you feel like you should be fixed and folks looking at you wouldn't know there was anything wrong at all. Grrrr, patience dear girl, patience.

Here I be.

I'm still here, just been a bit distracted. It comes to something when you see your mum and she tells you off for not having blogged for two weeks!
It's been busy, stupid busy in the run up to that last show, then the week after that finishing things and packing pots (which always takes far longer than you think it will) and then I was exhausted and just wanted to curl up and sleep. Which I did - in the Lake District for a week. Well we did lots of other things too but I slept oh so soundly for the first few days, it was great! We're not far from the Lake District, it's an incredible area, stunningly beautiful but to be honest in the summer there are far too many people about for me.
It's become a bit of a tradition that Paul and me go away for a few days over the period of my birthday so we booked a little flat just outside the village of Grassmere. It was an excellent spot, ten minutes from the village, in a rambling old house surrounded by wonderful trees. That's the thing I always think of about the Lakes in the autumn - the trees and the colours of them. Stunning.
The thing with the Lakes that you have to accept if you are going to go is that it rains. It's a mountainous region and of course mountains interrupt the weather patterns and down it comes and it isn't called the Lake District for nothing (bit of trivia though only one of the bodies of water is a lake and the rest are meres and tarns and other such things.) However if you got the right gear then it's all fine really. Thankfully we did have all our waterproof bits and bobs and it did what it does and we got some stock of rain. We did have 3 or 4 clear and beautiful days too, but a couple with a lot of precipitation.

We did lots of walking. It was brilliant, none of the whopping big hills but some great ones and some fabulous views and some wonderful meals and lovely real ale and generally a relaxing enjoyable time was had by all. A little hiccup in the final afternoon up on a ridge in the wind and the rain when Paul realised that I hadn't eaten enough and my energy level had suddenly hit zero and I was stumbling around and not really with it. Oops, haven't done that in a while, we got back, very slowly, it was dark when we got off the hill and Paul had to keep making me eat. A bit scary all round really, I wanted to just curl up behind a stone and go to sleep, thankfully I was still at a point where I knew that was not a good idea.

I have lots of photos from the area and some crazy watery videos from the day that we couldn't do the walk we planned as the path had disappeared under a couple of feet of water and in fact the bridge we had walked over the previous day was not to be see either! Amazing amounts of water around. At one point walking on the road we were carefully tip-toeing through water that was 6" deep. If I was very gentle I could just only just do it without it flooding over the top of my boots. My camera got a bit wet and stopped working, after a night on top of the heater though it's back to it's old self again.

Here we are up a hill, this was just before a black Labrador smelt the salami sandwiches in my bag and took a shine to them. It was the day after I trapped my thumb in the latch of a five bar gate and the had the weight of the thing drop off the latch onto my thumb (great colours it went but not as impressive a bruise as you would like after the pain it caused) and just after I sliced open the end of my finger in a dry stone wall that I happened to just brush against (very deep but really clean so it gushed a lit and then sealed up nicely). Clumsy? Me?
So we're back home now. Well we were until Paul left for 5 weeks in Japan except he's back tomorrow as somethings been delayed and he'll be off flying out there on sunday now. In the mean time I've got a fair on this weekend at Lochinch Castle Charity Christmas Fair, which is just outside Stranraer. Friday the 12th 3pm till 9pm and Saturday 13th 10am till 4pm. It will be full of some wonderful local art and craft and there will be mulled wine and hot seasonal food on the go all the time. It looks like it'll be a great event but I'll certainly be dressing up warmly for it. The weather here has gotten cold and crisp, today there has been thick frost on the ground that hasn't shifted all day! Brrrrrrr. It does mean that it's the season for lighting the fire and cuddling up under a blanket on the sofa with a good book.