A special day

 Pirate would have been 86 today..so I did things that would have made him happy.

Cleared the garden path...he used to look out of our bedroom window first thing every day and always wanted the path clear....

Picked my first "Russian Black" tomato 

Heard from his eldest daughter that her son passed his degree with a 1st...and it was cap and gown day today

Bus trip this afternoon to the travel agent...I have my boarding passes for the French Trip and I will get them in an email as well...all eventualities covered.

I practised small bag packing... I think that I have everything in...now to see if the vacuum packing bags will work to give a little more packing space. Putting a light cardboard box inside the bag looks to have worked..to ensure that the bad doesn't bulge ..I have no wish to be charged...about £50...each way!!

No pretty coloured sky tonight...but still a beautiful one

The flap of skin that got pushed up in the scrape looks to have stayed down...Aloe Vera gel has helped as well.,

Hard work morning

 This morning's work was kneading clay...two bags again....it took over an hour and a half, but worth doing well to have the firm and soft mixed evenly.

I counted the bags...I have put two more in the soaking bin..

There are twenty, stiffer bags...and six possibly half bags that are completely dry.

I could do with moving the small chest freezer to the workshop for a clay store, but there isn't room for it yet...so.it will have to stay cluttering the kitchen! 

I managed to scrape the back of my hand on the rim of a plastic tub....mad dash to clean up and slap two plasters crosswise on my hand to keep it clean. So no throwing in the afternoon... probably a good thing after the morning's work!!

So I finished cleaning off the biscuit mould...

Lunch was had sitting on the garden bench in the sun...while the bread machine was the source of lovely kitchen smells??

I saw the late Paddy over the road's son...Patrick...now called Paddy!...at the house over the road...he has a garage in Ayr, but works on his own..so doesn't do clutches.

He returned a handy side table that Pirate had given to his dad...and gave me a small carved wood table...which will be very nice as a present for a friend's birthday next weekend!!

A bit of weeding then quick supper and chat online with another friend. Online socialising might not be ideal but it is keeping in touch.

Then time for bed....from a watercolour sunset last night to a peachy one tonight 

Rainy day

 St Swithin's day... apparently it is now supposed to rain for forty days and nights..it certainly started with a vengeance in Glasgow with five days worth of rain ina couple of hours.....

I ventured out in what looked, according to the radar maps, the most likely time to stay dry...a quick two bus journey, no wait on the way out and ten minutes wait on the return...and a mile away from home a cloudburst started!!.. luckily at my bus stop it has just subsided to light rain...just 200 m to walk!! But even in that short time the puddles were starting around the house 

Today's job has been just finishing yesterday's three bowls and small platter..

Despite it being cooler and wet much of yesterday they had dried well..a little too well!!..but a quick spritz and wrap saved the day.

I discovered some new biscuits in the shop...not sure where they are from...

I am making a biscuit mould!! I've done similar before...it had to be fired with the biscuit!!  Then you take the mould to make another impression...and THAT becomes your pattern stamp!

Watercolour sunset..10.20pm

Another clay day!

 Over night it rained quite hard...then mizzled in the morning..but then turned fine by lunchtime...washing out....and dry!!

I settled in to my workshop, radio on and got on with it!!

The clay isn't quite right... working on it to get it back to the right moisture level isn't just a fair bit of work...it needs to settle down a bit before I can ask it to do things like bud vases or bottles....but bowls and platters are coming along ok

It isn't that big a platter...the batt is a foot wide...then the clay shrinks in firing..a good 10% if I remember correctly...I'll have to check with the supplier.

I got the first batch of fruit leather made..I used the oven on low instead of the dehydrator. I think I haven't dried it out quite enough...but it will do for first try!!

The recipe said sprinkle cornflour to stop it sticking...but it would take more than that! 

It is tasty .... blackcurrant with apple...

Getting there

 The garden looks much happier with the hot weather 

And it has helped dry pots!

I discovered the last kiln god 

And I have fifty years of tools to sort....

Clay day

wedging Al fresco!  I found a spare slab..too big to go in the workshop, but it sits on Pirate's outdoor bench ok. Clay preparation was this morning's work before it got too hot.. then before a late lunch....

While the bees bumbled around the borage.

 After lunch it was too hot to do anything out doors..we reached 30⁰ today at least.

Then as it cooled a little, I turned and decorated two small bowls and wrapped everything not finished.

Hopefully I can get up and get moving a little earlier tomorrow and get them done before it heats up again.

A warm day

 This morning's jobs were... housework....and thankfully the washing dried at full speed!!

Then turn an trim and finish the small bow, apart from a little fettling. It is far from perfect, but it is a beginning!

A sandwich lunch before catching the bus to town.

I talked to a small gallery on one of the main streets..they have " pop-up" exhibitions, a medium sized table with small plinths...I thought later that perhaps I could start there with a pop-up of prints, seeing as they are coming out of the Smiddy Gallery.

Then on to the French conversation group...today we were reading aloud in turns, verses of Le Chat, a poem by Baudelaire.   Translating, discussing, going off at tangents...in French as much as we can, and in English. Comparing words across other languages...fait gronde I think it was (my copy is downstairs and I'm not going to fetch it now!) is to purr....which in Welsh is Canu grwndi...(Canu being to sing).

Two hours and we could have carried on...but 5pm is the closing time for  the library!!  

Supper was just pasta pesto and walnuts and a little salad...and my first tomato this year!!!

O

The variety being Costeluto Fiorentino..and very tasty too.

I planted out the rest of the leek seedlings...

Inside the frame on the right you can just see a purply block...bread trays..and to the left of that a black.one and a grey one....defences against cats!!!!

Then at 10.30pm....

Arran. The Clyde, and further to the right...

The Beinns...I'm not sure which is Beinn Lomond 

And behind the house, the clear sky still showing blue, and the moon not risen yet.

On the bus again!

 I had a birthday card to send... Pirate's cousin is 80...Pirate's mum helped at his birth while Pirate age 6 and cousin's big sister, 8 , tucked into juicy cherries..and got cherry juice everywhere!!

Back into town on the bus after sorting a few things, so a later bus....and went back to Lidl...the apricots were no.longet on offer....but peaches were...the bag was heavy...3kg peaches...plus 4kg sugar because I had used all I had at home...but worth it. 

And weight carrying exercises are good for me!!

After lunch.....

Put on toetectors..with steel toe caps under the leather....prepare wheel and tools...

I made one small bowl. It is a start...but the clay is too firm and the scrunchy sounds of protesting wrist and fingers joints is definitely not good!!

I put one unopened bag of clay in a bin full of water... surprisingly that does work..so there will be workable clay in one or two days.  The clay that I'd hoped to use is in a tub with a little water... maybe tomorrow?

With the warm weather we are at last having I had to wrap the bowl after a couple of hours! I will turn that tomorrow morning.

Then time for supper...and lift one of the tatties plants to see how much is there....

Not atall bad!! And very tasty too, with some salad and a couple of poached eggs....

Evening clouds.

And then a full moon..