Pottering a Plenty

We have spent part of the week when it wasn't too frosty or snowing, preparing the beds on the allotment. I have planted a tayberry and a red currant bush. The gooseberry bushes and blackberry bushes in the Artful Garden have been pruned. 

The grape vine in my home garden has also been pruned.

It is amazing how high the grapevine grows within a year

My potatoes, Pink Fir Apple and Sante which are main crop, and Nichola a first early have all been put to chit in seed trays as I have run out of egg boxes.

Chitting ie. potatoes put to sprout

On a trip to Carlisle the daffodils were in full bloom on West Walls.

A carpet of golden daffodils

The snow on the Pennine hills looks beautiful as it enhances all the contours.

The view from my back garden

My two little pottery birds are surviving the freezing weather.

Two little birds are we

I have spent several long days making my pottery. First I design the object then make it in clay. It is left to dry before painting with glaze stains, a coloured powder mixed with slip. 

The colours always look different when they are fired

This is my table top pottery.

Painting the pottery

Here is a selection of flowers, bird houses, and lady gardeners I have recently made. They are now ready for  the first firing, biscuit firing. I apply a contrasting coat of glaze stain before the final stoneware firing.

Most of these designs can be mounted on bamboo canes

A selection of shells I brought back from New Zealand. Such a variety, beauty and abundance on the beaches of the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea.

Lovely colours and shapes

Pumice stone found on the beach.

Bubbly pumice

I was given this card by a friend. 

Watch out there may be a gardener about