Am at last starting to get some work constructed and drying ready for a mid March firing. Everything  seems to be taking too long and I ready need a kick up the behind to rev up a gear. Will try and scare myself into action with some calender contemplation. Need to get my exhibition pieces finished and push on with my orders and restocking the domesticware. Must also stop avoiding all the admin work I need to do for the Stamford Pottery Market I organize. The trick is to scare myself just enough to up the tempo but not to overdo it so that I'm paralysed with fear.

 Have spent quite a bit of the last 2 weeks in Middle Earth. Perhaps not an ideal holiday destination but a great retreat from teeth gnashing frustration with Woman's Hour and other tedious radio programs. I picked up a bargin box of CDs of the BBC drama serialisation of The Lord of the Rings. Was soon gripped by the story again but also had a double layer of memories of when I first heard it transmitted on the radio. I have vague memories of the pre-sunday lunch slot which brings faint whiffs of gravey and sprouts and then the late night repeat, listening in bed with the lights out and the frisson of fear in the mines of Moria. I sometimes find when I'm examining my fired pots that I am reminded of the radio programs I listened to during their making. I hope for a better radio week this week or else I'll have to raid the mobile library for its talking books.

Am striving on with my lenten tasks of a tune a-day and a sketch a-day. As with last year, there is a lot of late night sketching going on. Roll on Easter.