Glasgow

Help!!! I'm off to Glasgow for the weekend and I'm needing some advice, where is great to visit. I'm going to the Country Living fair of course, however I need some more suggestions!

Less mucky but with something to show for it!

Exciting pictures today (well depending upon your perspective!)

I've (sort of) completed my first coil pot - it is a big bugger and rather heavy here it is during construction

I promise that isn't what it looks like... it is what we are currently describing as worms or sausgages to add onto the pot!

Here is it a little more "polished" I've still got to even the rim off it's just a little wet to do that at the moment.

Nice ain't it! Even if I say so myself! I've even had two completed press molded bowls fired now, they are just waiting for glazing. I'm really enjoying pottery (apart from the throwing - which should as Sophie says be called slinging!) it frightens me a bit, I believe the teacher thinks I'm a bit weird to be scared of it!

The spikey one is a bit comet like - unplanned but I'm liking it now. I took persuading not to slice all the spikes off!

Next week - glazing - I like doing that too! Did you ever get the impression that I'm enjoying it?

Lest we forget...

90 years ago today on armistice day, families were still finding out their sons had fallen, including the family of the man who wrote the following. He received the Military Cross for bravery at Amiens and was killed on the 4th of November when attempting to lead men across the Sambre-Oise canal at Ors where he is now buried.

To all currently caught up in conflicts worldwide, may you return home safely so no more families have to face such news.

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! — An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs
Bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, —
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen (18th March 1893 - 4th November 1918)

Where there's muck...

I am now the possessor of the filthiest hands in all the world. I tried "throwing" for the first time on Tuesday and my hands are yet to recover. The wheel managed to grind the clay in good and proper and despite scrubbing with a nailbrush there are still bits of it left even now, so much so it looks like I've been at the fake tan (well apart from the fact that the rest of me is milk bottle). If there is anyone out there that knows how to get rid of it, I'd welcome the tips, thank you!

The C word...

… it’s fast approaching isn’t it. I know I should be shot at dawn (possibly overstating it slightly) for mentioning it, but along with the need to wear gloves outside today there is no use denying that nine weeks from today it is Christmas Eve… time to start shopping/making. Just to annoy all the last minuters out there, I’ve started mine already. In fact I got one today, for my little cousin Dylan for whom I have a very exciting present that I myself would have liked very much when I was that age! When it comes to the making, I have no ideas. I’m feeling a little stuck in the rut when it comes to making at the moment. I’d love to have some pottery ready, however I don’t think that is going to be possible (although you never know)

I’m having a lovely time writing this, I’m listening to Louis Armstrong singing La Vie en Rose and after that it’s going to be Moonlight in Vermont. I think I could listen to him forever.

I’ve been sorting out lots of photos to add to flickr and came across this one I took when on a visit to a stately home last year...so there you have it, an early taster for Christmas…. I’m so getting out a Christmas film to watch now……! Roll on Stir up Sunday!!!! Ma - we need to start on the cake!!!