Life seems to have been very busy recently. Managed to get my teapots and cups off to Scotland and then a family of 11 pots off to Cambridge. Am now back into restocking and trying a new system of 'decorating as I go' rather than having loads of thrown ware swathed in plastic waiting to be decorated. It's as much a question of workshop space as trying something new.

↑ Pots for Scotland                                                                                                                                                             ↑ Pots for Cambridge

Have finally got my act together and done a page on this website for the Stamford Market - so that is 1 less job to do, although jobs on that front are just going to keep multiplying until it's all done and dusted. Am most worried at the moment about getting all the posters and flyers out to the potters so they can get them out to their mailing lists. How to get the word out that it's happening so that people come throuth the door? The 6 million dollar quetion.

Had a great day on Wednesday. Went down to London to the Hockney expo and then to a matinee of 'The Ladykillers'. Had mentally prepared myself for the hoards of peop;e at the expo and in fact it was fine. I think my yardstick for a crowded show is the Grayson Perry one where people would hog the cabinets. At least people have to stand back to view the pictures so we all got to see them.  Like the Perry expo, the Hockney one seemed to me a lesson in thinking big, being blooddy-minded with following your vision, and if it's done with conviction your vision can change the way people look at the world. Sitting on the train going home I really enjoyed the Fen landscape. All those skeletal trees within days of exploding into green. Wondering what Hockney would make of the black fen soil and the silver birch trees of Holme Fen wood. Very inspiring.

The Ladykillers was a cracker. So many corking lines. I wish I could remember more. I could easily watch it again to catch the bits I missed and just to relish the script. All the actors were really good. Peter Capaldi and Ben Miller seemed to be having great fun in it. As was Sophie Thompson in 'She Stoops to Conquer', the last of this season's NT live link-ups which I saw last week at Stamford Art's Centre. Will have to wait until autumn now for the next season.

Must end now and go and do another late night sketch. The penulimate one.     Hurrah!      Happy Easter!  

Have finally managed to get my act together and design the poster/flyer for the Stamford Pottery Market. It had been resting on my guilty conscience for a while and was starting to really worry me so the only solution was to sit down at the computer and crack on with it. I took the design to the printers (BJ's in Stamford) on Thursday,  so hopefully they will be printed up next week or at the beginning of the following week and I can get them out to the potters. The printers are brilliant. I take them a scrappy mock-up done with my rudimentary computing skills - manual cut and paste would often be a quicker solution - and they sort it out with their whizzy AppleMac programs and produce a professional result. I do actually enjoy designing it all. I just wish I new how to use the computer better.  Pam is on the case with the publicity and there was a piece in this week's Stamford Mercury. Once I've got the poster I will scan it in and create a page on this website with a gallery of all the exhibiting potters. Another job to do!

What with my lenten tasks of practicing a tune every day and drawing a sketch every day, then everyday life such as getting on with work, walking the dog, eating and all other the domestic chores, there are just not enough hours in the day, hence my neglect of this blog which I intended to update weekly when I started out but is turning into a fortnightly occurence. The garden is starting to burden my conscience too. It's seed planting time and I'm always a week or 2 behind. My seed potatoes arrived this week. The only solution is frantic list writing - to wrangle everything into a managable, less scarey state.

Workshop update.

 Have at last finished decorating and constructing this batch of pots and fired a bisque kiln. It's cooling now and I hope to unpack, repack and fire again this evening. All being well, will spend Monday glazing pots and get a glaze firing on asap.

Need to send work off to Scotland this week for the teapot/teacup expo at Larks Gallery and get work through to go to Cambridge the following week for the CCA East Anglian Potters Selected Members' expo.

Must then seriously get my skates on, stop mucking around and crack on with a big order I've got for a gallery, plus restocking for Stamford, Fireworks at Blackthorpe Barns and Scotland Potfest, and a stop avoiding some private commissions. Am clinging to my lists like a lifeline.