gallery day

 I commuted by car today...can't desert the Oily One for 11 hours having got him up here !!

We are actually having some hot weather ..just over 20⁰ !!! 

people were commenting how nice and cool the gallery was..but in it all the time it was just chilly. For most of the afternoon we were covered by an intermittent haar (sea mist) and you could see it billowing past. 

One of our members has sadly left so the gallery has been shuffled around. My work is looking  very nice on the glass shelf unit

then the sun shone....

The Oily One got me out for a walk again after dinner...which he mostly made..I could get used to that!!

and with a clear sky, it was still almost light at 11

Although a friend sent me this....she is at Burghead, further north than here...

Flue!!

 The Oily One arrived just before lunch...and this afternoon I was the assistant..as with Pirate, finding things and holding the ladder!!

I've messaged a joiner friend about doors for the kiln shed.

like me, OO is usually behind the lens!!

next step , new gas hose....

and while he was busy I looked at the garden....

beetroot

carrot

carrot with beetles and bugs

sunflower

and we had half an hour's walk after supper.

I need to get back to that.

Damp

 I'd hoped for a dry afternoon...and did the sheets and things hot wash and the everything else wash...it didn't get to the line!! Maybe tomorrow.

Otherwise a day of bits. Having baulked at buying granola for £4 for 250g (?) I made 500g!! A mix of porridge oats, jumbo oats. oil. golden syrup and assorted seeds.

In theory in the oven at 140 for an hour. In practice I check the oven every 10 minutes as the oven gets too enthusiastic...It was done after 40 minutes!

In the short period of nicely dry weather I picked more fruit. The competition with the blackbirds has now extended to the blackcurrants!!

I turned the living room light on again....

and that is all for today!!

Friends...and pots...

 Visiting friends today..now my car is back on the road...it would be a three bus journey to see them and their local bus is infrequent...and possibly not on Sundays either! 

It started as yet another drizzly day, but by Girvan the sun was shining and the windscreen wipers were no longer needed.

I've been wanting to see them since I returned from Limoges, and we spent a very pleasant three hours talking about all sorts of things.

Plus the bonus that one is an ex GP...who explained my results as brilliant but satisfactorily boring!!! It is one thing just to have a list all saying Normal....but even better to know the what and why of all the tests.

So physically I'm ok...mentally I'm still finding it hard to be on my own, but it is good to recognise that and deal with it.

and pots....selling more of what I have left...and the decisions about what I let go...and what should I keep. 

At present I'm getting nearer having a working kiln. However these were fired in a salt glaze firing. I have no access to that process and I certainly wouldn't be doing that in my kiln. 

It is too near other houses for one, and the other reason is that the kiln is built of HTI bricks ..soft white High Temperature Insulation . For salt or soda glaze you need proper heavy bricks that would withstand the glaze vapours ..the inside of the kiln ends up glazed like the pots!!

So do I sell my salt glazed work like these boxes?

Cro's blog

 Message to all who follow Magnon's Meanderings..

I contacted his sister Susan.  Cro is ok, just locked out of his blog.

Comments have also changed to Will be published on approval...so a message to others couldn't be left on the comments!

All being well, Kimbo will be able to sort this soon.

Dreich

 No photos taken today.  Just damp or raining gently all day.

I've painted the rigidiser on the ceramic fibre liner to the flue... and soon realised that adding a clear liquid to a white blanket meant that I had no idea if I'd missed anywhere! I added a very few drops of ink to each 500ml bottle then I could see where I'd missed or not put enough on. Normally with slip (liquid clay) or glaze I'd use food colouring but couldn't find it in the studio.  It will burn out when the flue is used.

The to give the car a run before I go to visit friends tomorrow. 

First a hot chocolate in a large chain garden centre. I have a loyalty card that is £12 a year... For which you get a percentage off plants and two "free" cuppas a month. I think I'll cancel the annual direct debit. The chocolate was strong enough but very skinny and too hot. 

Even the plants not in the sale were in rather sorry condition. Sale plants were 50 or 70 percent off.... But they weren't even worth that and many should have gone straight on the compost heap. It really shows when the plants are bought in, not raised on site. 

The non gardening side is growing as in all garden centres.. It makes money.. but not brilliant quality.. And the food section is definitely overpriced.

So they have lost at least one customer... Not that they will worry! 

Then a longer run just to make sure, and to top up the fuel tank as well. 

So far so good! 

I've had the light on in the living room since six o'clock this evening, the clouds are so low 

I'm looking forward to seeing friends tomorrow and the weather looks to be "rinse and repeat" and I don't think that the washing will be on the line until after lunchtime on Monday!!

At least I won't be missing gardening time while I'm out! 

Heat?!!??

 

Heat? no. not us here. This is the wet and windy West of Scotland!!

Further south may be forecast temperatures up to 30⁰ next week, our forecast says low 20⁰s if we are lucky and plenty of showers.

This morning going to town it was an extra layer plus rain jacket weather. Not too bad down there I must admit...and the rain stayed away until I arrived home after this afternoon's French Convo. 

Home to see the car parked further back and the key put through the door..I assume that it has been mended!! I'll see him and settle up on Monday.