A not so busy day!

This is where I was sitting on my stool this morning. The tomatoes are bigger now, growing the first trusses of flowers.
It was clearout day..all the pots where seeds were down two months ago...and didn't grow.  All the pots that finally needed to be planted out.    Went out!
I sowed the seeds of late purple sprouting broccoli  ,  romanesco, and French marigolds. Half a dozen cucumber plants were potted on, the sweetcorn and lentils planted out.
It came on to rain in the afternoon, which will do them all the world of good.
More photographs taken, research on pricing and history for tomorrow's eBay listings.
And the highlight of the day? A sale on Etsy! A funnel cup will be on its way to Florida.

Found it!!

I cleared some of his stuff.....and there is more to move out!!

And a nice end to the day

kiln design and mending

I'm working on the design for the kiln flue,using what we have already.
One piece of ceramic fibre and mesh flue I've never used, as it didn't fit the previous site...luckily I kept it...

Its a bit battered at one end,but I do have some spare CF blanket...
The main problem is working out what is needed for the damper section, and the join between this fibre flue with an internal of 6" x 7"....and a round stainless steel flue of 8" diameter...I have two 45 degree bends to turn the corner to the vertical flue.
Unfortunately the old damper section went for scrap, as it was rusted through, and the CF join to the kiln went with it

However as we still have the straight section,  its a guide to making another to go on a section that will have to be manufactured from new.

The kiln itself needs quite a bit of tlc, after its "lying down" antics....

This job needs temperatures of over 5C for the kiln cement to work...luckily it has been stored in the house while we were away!   Looking at the weather forecast I should be able to get on with this by the weekend if not before.
I'm not sure how to bring the back of the roof arch up again-that was subsiding in 2012 before the two moves...but once we're on to the job hopefully a solution will appear!

Meanwhile I'm busy with pen and paper....

Still raining

Today we went to Rollaston..think Bracknell but flat...spent 20 minutes driving around, kept on ending up in suburbs. Following a sign saying Town Centre...but then no signs and no indication of where to go!! Eventually found a huge shopping area and bought a usb to micro usb adaptor..now to learn how to use it to get camera pictures on here not just ones from the tablet computer.
It is still raining..but hopefully we'll start to get some sunshine tomorrow.
I've cleaned all the windows inside.....
The Vege garden looks good thanks to the rain.

Tomorrow we head south to Waikouaiti..about four hours driving I think..to meet a potter that so far I've only met on line.

kiln shed start..

The weather is at last dry...but cold, so at least we can get on with building,at last!!

gone again-and life goes on

The Oily One has left, but with luck will be back sooner next time..especially if we can identify a less windy time of year! It was good having him here and he made himself useful too. Pirate made sure we had plenty of time to catch up, sending us out on our bikes..and getting busy in the kitchen....

The kiln base slabs are all down, not 'perfick', but they are there..next job is to workout if the shed roof is high enough over the kiln.

We're at the end of July and although there is warmth in the ground,the jet stream being further south than it should be,means that we are having cold winds..and strong winds. 
July in Welsh....Gorffennaf..gorffen - haf...the end of summer...
it doesn't sound as if August is about to start much better...meanwhile across Mainland Europe temperatures are soaring....40 plus in central Spain, forest fires in France, hot in Hungary.....

pottery progress

The stock shed is up, carpeted , shelves bought and erected.
The boxes of stock have been emptied onto the shelves, plus some of my archive work and collection.  Perhaps I ought to sell some of the latter...but when I look through it , it can be inspiring....

All the photos from New Zealand are in one file on the computer now, the next step is to sort them and edit as well.  
There is so much to do, I'm running out of time on a rainy days!  We are now catching upon the rainfall, nicely timed for planting onion sets.  Warm weather and high pressure is promised for next week and we are looking forward to that. I cannot say that I've appreciated returning to cold windy weather, even though it is now the same in New Zealand, plus snow...but at least it is getting on to Winter there!!

workshop constructed

 going up, thankfully with sunny weather

 the working party

 Brendan finishing up, under the watchful eye of Charlie

until the workshop floor has been finished, materials and tools have gone into the Pirate's Shed...temporarily of course!

Meanwhile next door, another piece of history unfolds..Big Jim bought his house many years ago, before the council re-roofed these 1930s houses. He still has, for another couple of weeks, the original felt roof tiles.  He has been saving for re-roofing,not easy on a farm labourer's wages.
The jackdaws and starlings are a nuisance here, getting in through the slightest gap in a roof.  Before we moved in our landlord had our loft cleared of nesting material...nine large black bin-bags full....

We think he is in the wrong job..roofer....steeplejack?

looking for inspiration ...and moving...hopefully....

Some shots of fields a few miles from here, tried colour and monochrome. I prefer these as I'm seeing the forms....

 Our new home, if all goes well....workshop to the right, if landlady's brother will sell...if not there is a slabbed and painted base for a better one! There will also be left, once a kennel enclosure has been shifted, a very handy base where a kiln can be parked and a small pole barn built around it.....

Nothing is settled until we're in there and can believe it...five more weeks....we're hoping that the landlady will take life a bit easier and let her body heal....meningitis is nasty, whatever sort you have. 

The sun has shone all week,although the wind is still chill an the nights cold.

Visiting Girvan

Getting out of bed wasn't too easy today....should have left the woodstack.....
we were on the road just after 11, but with a headwind it took over an hour to get to Girvan.
We were both feeling a bit grumpy. Both a bit tired. Wind over your ears causes this too, as it creates pressure in the eardrum.  Plus the meds to deal with the hormone therapy side effects are giving worse side effects...including making him a tetchy Pirate...not himself atall.

Nearing Girvan the sun was being obscured by high mist coming off the sea.
We were glad of the shelter of buildings!

We missed our potter friend at her workshop where she holds classes,but caught her at her nearby gallery. I might be renting her kiln for bisque and glaze firings.
It will mean firing oxidized to 1230C instead of 1280-1300C.  But it will be firing...I'll return a week tomorrow to glaze some work....

Homeward bound after a "pensioners lunch" in a cafe (well we are both over 60!!!) we seemed to have found a following headwind.  With the coming weather change the wind was backing slightly, and colder. Most unfair! So it was steady as we go,plod along and find the most sheltered route.  As we moved further from the coast we regained the sun at least, and could see the mist sitting over the Carrick hills ahead of us, with the sea the far side of them.

We were glad to see the washing dry on the line and as I write,the next wash load is nearly ready for hanging out!  Make dry while the wind blows !

All this and I'm feeling guilty that I'm still slacking on my daily drawing, haven't done another linoblock yet, haven't posted on Etsy (or had any sales for a week)
Sometimes there is just too much to do....

Girvan

Had a walk around Girvan Harbour after we left Barr...the Gala Day was VERY wet...sold one wee jug and NO-ONE even looked at the cards.

keeping on keeping on...

 The blackthorn blossom here (and the cherry blossom) is the best for years.    Not that I'm "counting chickens...." but I'm hoping for a good harvest!!

I'm getting out a bit on the bike now, exploring some smaller roads...this is looking back over the Girvan Valley

 The "Black Cock"....I assume this could have been a stopping place for travellers, as an old drovers road crosses the lane here

 A Hawk Moth ?

 We planted flowers on Rocky the Patterdale's grave.   Nearly seven years gone now, but we remember the "Urban Terrorist" well and fondly.

 I used to call these Wooden Enemies when I was four years old!

All preparations done, The Pirate starts his radiation therapy soon...we seem to be just ticking over now, but it is hard to get work done.  

 There is so much to do....bike training, trying to de-clutter further to make the place calmer to live in, still hoping to find a workshop and getting a space to do some more lino-cut printing. 
Technology still defeats me....I've just bought a hard drive to back up images and writing....but it wont talk to the computer.  
Hopefully a friend will sort that and the printer problems this afternoon.  But don't hold your breath!!

I'm still jobhunting, but possibly the best I can do is carry on the Pirate's gardening and hope to pick up another customer locally.   At least I wouldn't be shut up in an office or shop!!

busy getting nowhere..

and no job.  You understand why you no longer get acknowledgements for applications and they rarely say if you haven't got the job.   It is disheartening.

The Pirate carries on with his hormone treatment...the side effects suck, but it means he'll get his  life back...in Summer 2016...better that than none...

A decent night's sleep would be a help...

Radio therapy will be hopefully in April and May- seven and a half weeks of five days a week, 20 minutes a day zapping. He is, therefore, back on his bike, mainly on the track, to get fit enough to be zapped!!

We're busy scratching our heads to find an income..no chance of a workshop yet. I've been offered part of a cold, damp asbestos shed-thanks but no thanks!! So keep on hunting...all I need is  a small disused cowshed like Hannah!!

I've started looking back at my old drawing books- I've half a dozen here, of the fortyfive year's worth..

I'm working on producing cards..and going back to lino printing, something I really enjoyed way back when.

I'm not moving away from potting, but you have to create SOMETHING!!!! It will come in handy as I'll be able to make items  to go with the pots when I'm selling.

Meanwhile, a few garden jobs have appeared, despite the weather..and today we have had freezing weather, then snow, followed by yet more rain (as if we hadn't had enough already!)

 Glasgow Velodrome

 Him up a ladder

 Sunset over Straiton

Snowdrops....at last!!

enthusiasm

or rather, lack of it....

The cold and damp weather does not help.

No workshop does not help, and small hope of getting one...every time a small chance raises its head, it gets dashed...

Even when the weather permits , I don't feel like going out on my bike.  Half an hour occasionally on the turbo trainer isn't going to keep me fit for anything.

There is just too much going on in my head and I feel I'm getting nowhere.

The Pirate's treatment is progressing well. He is about to start on stage three...40 sessions of being zapped!!....and he might not have to have the other therapy for three years, perhaps only two...so at least something is being positive!

I'll feel better as the light increases and as his treatment passes.

Keep on keeping on....

jobs...

I've just applied for a cleaning job, ONLINE!!!!
This is the first time I've done this, saved the file as a doc then attached it to an email application....WOW!!    Nerve-wracking to say the least.

One must have money to pay the bills.   Including one to rent a workshop when I can find one!

Finding any job I can apply for is difficult, most want experience.  anything that doesn't, you know there will be a mountain...literally...of applications.   In theory there is no age discrimination, but in fact there is.   Just look how many shopworkers now are under 22....so the basic wage is lower...or even under 18, lower still.

I'm considering the other skills I have and agree with my daughter...there are just too many other interesting things around. Not just to do, but that we know how to and can do to a competent level.

We are both in need of a workshop, me to work in clay, she to screenprint.

She has just given me a scanner/printer....now to get on with it!

I can produce cards or postcards from my boxes of sketchbooks and drawing books and current drawings or photos.    Eventually this could be backup to the work in clay but they must be able to stand and sell in their own right as well.

I just need one small lead that got forgotten in the packing...all of £2 worth...and I keep on forgetting to buy one each time I go shopping!!

However we're going nowhere with the weather as it is...blowing a hooley and throwing very cold rain everywhere.   

weather for selling ?

Thursday's clouds and weather forecast didn't bode well...and as we left for a school Christmas fair in Alloway the snow was laying on the road an inch or so deep.
 You could only use dipped headlights as on full beam all you could see was swirling flakes.

Arriving at the school the snow had stopped and I got a parking space right by the entrance.   A good start to a profitable evening...it had a silver lining like the afternoon's clouds!!

It was a relief to drive home on clear roads and to have made some good sales too.
Fairs are always a hit and miss affair...guessing which locality will have enough spare cash and hoping for good enough weather to bring people out. Hoping that the organizers will have publicized the event sufficiently.

I've bought some Post Office packing boxes to calculate post and packaging costs.  We now have three rates for different size packages and the Post Office have boxes behind the counter to see which category your packet/box will fit...and  slits to see if your letter is a letter, a large letter, or a package!!

Friday was an At Home day, but a steadily busy one.  An electrician friend came for the day and he and The Pirate quietly got a lot done!  The weather has been mostly dry but chilly and damp.

I'd bought a settee in a charity shop and today was delivery day....the time set came....and went...then the shop phoned...
The delivery driver had phoned and I was out!!!!  Not when I last checked!!!
Eventually we solved the problem.  The shop had kept my carefully drawn map so the driver had relied on google. We have six or seven properties within half a mile of each other with the same postcode and three of them are called The Stables.....put our address in and it sends you to a farm a quarter mile away up a small lane!!

Settee in place, we had lunch and I could move everything back in around it...and the place still looks tidy!  Mid- afternoon and we had visitors..tea and home-made cake ready baked, luckily.

Then relax and check facebk...and I have another sale from posting about my work selling in our local community shop. 
Time to choose work to photograph and put on sale in the Etsy shop!

keeping warm and dry

Today started with twenty minutes on my bike...which is fixed to the turbo trainer!!

A session interrupted by a phone call...inviting me to have a stall at the Doonfoot school Christmas fair on Thursday evening!   They have had a cancellation so there was a table spare. 
There is hope of better sales there, nearer to Ayr, so I said yes!!

The rest of the day has been bits here and there, dodging the rainshowers.
I did my shop duty today and collected the money from November's sales...only a salt pot and two mugs, but it is growing quietly.

We're working steadily through our woodpile, so must replenish it soon.  I travel with a small bowsaw and loppers in the car for "roadkill"...after all one can't just leave it to be a hazard on the road!!

harvesting

We're busy (between showers and bike rides) harvesting our local hedgerows- or we were until they were very efficiently and tidily shorn!!  We'll be quicker next year!!

The Pirate's treatment progresses steadily...it feel better to have a few actual dates for things and gradually more knowledge. We're both quietly confident of his success, but there is always that "but" at the back of your mind.....

We have been out watching more cyclo cross...and getting nicely wet again!  The race was at the southern tip of Loch Lomond at Balloch.   Then we intended calling past the velodrome to say hello to friends and warm up.....advice....in Glasgow don't just follow the road signs...they will send you miles out of your way, you end up on a motorway heading in completely the wrong direction for your desired destination!!  THEN they send you back in the right direction from the other side of Glasgow!!

We just went home!!

I've booked a place at a local market to be held at the Carrick Centre in Maybole from 10am this Saturday (2 November) and I've heard of other markets run for rural crafters...sounds like I might have found the local grapevine!! I could do with some sales! Here's hoping for decent weather....

packing pots

Today's first job ( after the@@**##!!! Housework!) was photographing pots, ready to go on Flickr.

The Carpenter has put the images chosen on a cd for the Eisteddfod. Fill the form in tonight, and off First Class Post in the morning.

I have a deep (but not large) porcelain bowl, cut foot, impressed decoration on the outside, highlighted with oxide, blue slip inside. Saltglazed.

Do I have the cheek to enter it (and me ) for the Welsh Artist of the Year competition?
I doubt that I would win...but it might get me noticed....yet another form to fill in.

Three orders have been boxed ready to go, another I can't send as I'm not happy with the pots. They are ok....but not good.

Most of this afternoon has been spent on this laptop computer, googling how to use the damper.
I think I understand a little more. A potting friend is calling past on Saturday and I shall pick her brains too!.

I'd love to put some pictures on here, but until The Carpenter lets me onto His computer, we will have to wait!!

At least I haven't wasted a good weather day on inside work! It is a cold, wet and windy day and has been all day, with the mountains being shrouded in cloud half the time.