A View from the Kitchen Window

Or sweating profusely in the name of beauty!

Our ‘Mediterranean’ Garden!

Leaving a ♥️ for me not only buys a smile, but might even allow others to see this post - one step further in my bid for global stardom 🤣

How can it feel as though it has been both a quiet and busy week? In any case, here we are, and it’s Friday.

I’ve been reflecting on just how good getting away last week, being creative with other people was genuinely restorative for me. I came back with a different mindset and have been really productive, both in the studio and the garden, I even got up at 4:30 one morning at the weekend and went into the garden with my camera, so there are more photos than usual in this post - if the newsletter is truncated in your email you should be able to click on "view entire message," and you’ll be able to see the whole thing.

One of greatest joys of a workshop is being fed by others!

I regularly harp on about the positive side of social media, ‘though don’t get me wrong I have many concerns and complaints about it too and massively dislike the pressure of feeling I should be making videos for Instagram. But its power to connect people with similar interests and outlooks from widely varied ages, backgrounds and parts of the world is remarkable.

This morning I received a message from Jackie, whom I met almost ten years ago. We don’t know each other especially well, but she was working just down the road from me at the time and we’ve stayed connected virtually over the years. I once attended a fascinating birdsong recognition workshop she ran and hugely admire her commitment to teaching about nature and the outdoors.

Jackie and her colleague Sophie are running a retreat in June in the Wye Valley - a glorious spot if you don’t know it - and it sounds wonderful: a chance to step away from daily life, pause, rest and reset. It’s a new venture for them, offered at a very accessible price, and they’ll also help participants find accommodation.

If I hadn’t only just been away, and if organising care for Gertie and the garden weren’t such a faff, I’d be very tempted myself. Anyway, I wanted to share it here in case it appealed to you too.

In The Garden

When we moved here three years ago the garden was full of a bright blue campanula, it was generously distributed and softened many edges, but I didn’t really like the blue. I longed for Erigeron and its pretty pink and white daisy like flowers. The joy of Erigeron is that one only ever needs to every buy (or beg) it once and the rest is done for you; every time I see another little patch of it appear in the garden I smile. I’m sure our successors in years to come will curse me, but that’s their problem!

I also love this renegade thyme which appeared in the paving.

Last weekend, on the ‘almost hottest day of the year’ I decided - in a notable lack of wisdom - that it was time to clean up the garden room and its surrounds. I seriously can’t remember when I sweated so profusely and frankly it almost killed me, but it all looks and feels much lovelier now and I think the various family members who came to supper on Saturday evening have forgiven me for telling them all it was time to go home so I could go to bed!

This weekend’s mission is to clean out the shed. Behind these doors hides a shameful mess of pots, soil, poorly maintained tools and many, many cobwebs. It is not a job for the faint-hearted, but it must be done for I can’t persuade Mike to help me move a large table into it for potting purposes until it is. If only I were the sort of person who would, once it is beautifully clean and tidy, keep it so.

The hydrangeas will be blooming soon, and though there were lots of alliums amongst them last year none seem to have appeared this year which is odd. Still, another couple of weeks and this lot will hold their own and look pretty magnificent. I do wonder whether a perennial geranium beneath them at the front might be pretty though - any thoughts?

See? Nearly there!

The view from the kitchen window has pleased me endlessly; despite the front garden looking a bit of a neglected wasteland for the past couple of years it is finally doing what it was meant to. Watching the Oxeye daisies sway in the breeze while I wash up is joyful - could I be more middle aged?!

In The Studio

Well, you won’t believe this, but after I wrote last week I did indeed go and get some glazing done, and when I opened the kiln I was actually rather delighted! I most definitely managed to set aside the perfectionism which has weighed me down and slowed my progress for years, and found a way to finish vessels which felt more expressive and free.

I have photographed everything to add to my webshop, but it’s going to take a while to actually load it all (one day I’ll find a rhythm and routine to all this), so in the meantime here are a couple of images.

Thought you might like to see where my studio is too!

Stoneware vessels with a satin white glaze and bronze swirls

I’ve also managed to be pretty productive on the throwing front this week - lots of tiny bowls and tea-bowl style vessels. I may manage to get them fired next week, but glazing will have to wait until my kiln has been serviced. The last glaze firing took so much longer than anticipated that I finally worked out that it needs new elements. In truth it is an entry-level kiln which I fire to temperatures that ask a lot of it, and it may be time to consider upgrading.

The studio is a very irregular shape and thus far I’ve managed with a variety of shelves made from whatever we had lying around, but the time has come to improve it a bit. More shelving, better storage and a floor that is possible to clean since the current painted concrete is pitted and gathers the clay in an unhealthy way - unlikely to kill me in the short term but not ideal in the longer term. I’ve asked my interior designer friend Becky Harrison to come and help me plan and organise for I need someone objective to avoid the possibility of my simply taking everything out of the space with the intention of reorganising, only to run out of steam and decision-making ability.

On The Home Front

These little curtains in the kitchen window are nothing more than a little dressing really, but I finally got around to it and they were a labour of love since the muslin is so lightweight and open-weaved that it stretches in every direction. Still, sitting in the shade stitching the hem one afternoon was delightfully ‘Edwardian Lady’ (had it not been for the bottle of cold beer at my side!).

Right, onwards and towards the weekend. As ever, I hope that whatever you’re up to for the next couple of days is pleasurable and puts a smile on your face now and then. There’s always plenty to worry and moan about, but the verges are full of buttercups and daisies so it’s not all bad!

With love, Vx