A Busy Day

A Day Of Jobs And Roast Dinner


   Well, another Christmas gone and I hope all of you had a great day, it was a very quiet day here, just the two of us and I have to say I only managed a couple of short visits to the barn.
    Today is a day of many jobs starting with washing up, oh yes I am house trained and do my bit, this will be followed with an hour sawing wood ready to stack in the dry for use on the wood burners both in the barn and here in the cottage and then I have some glazing to do in the clay room, god knows what I'll be up to this afternoon but I have a feeling it will be in the barn, I so need to get the place tidy again.
    Boxing day is our day for a roast dinner and for someone who can take them or leave them I'm really looking forward to it, nothing special, no giant turkey or huge lump of beef but we will be having some nice local veg roasted and gluten free stuffing for the first time, not sure what that will be like.
   No rain here this morning in fact we have some bright winter sunshine at the moment, the village seems so quiet with hardly a car passing through, I think boxing day is the only slow day here in the fens, I guess most are recovering from Christmas day and others are visiting family but one thing is for sure, it's great to be living here in the countryside on days like this when you can take notice of the nature around you, I pray that I never have to live in a city of large town as I would sorely miss this life.
   Ok, I better get started on that washing up then the chain saw calls, I hope your all taking it easy today and  recharging those batteries.

Merry Christmas

Festive Greetings To All


   Another christmas day and I sit here with the memories of many christmas's past going around in my head, the people close to me who we have lost and the festive customs that seem to have been forgotten, they still live inside my mind and never fail to bring smiles to my face on this special day.
   I guess we all remember those christmas days when we were children, the great gifts we were lucky to recieve and the family party that always warmed christmas evening. Today we are grown up and Christmas effects us in so many ways, but still we harbour those little children inside and whatever we are all going through in our lives we still get that festive excitement on the morning of the 25th of December and always will.
   From me to all those who know me, buy and use my beads and those who just read this blog, I wish you all a wonderful christmas and I hope you enjoy this very special day.

Merry Christmas
Rob x

A Very Wet Christmas Ahead

Will It Ever Stop ?

   What a few weeks we have had here in the fens, rain, rain and yet more rain, this morning we again wake to the sound of rain lashing down over the lands of East Anglia, dyke's are full, fields are under water and water meadows are, well just a inland sea for as far as the eye can see, so all in all one very wet Christmas it will be.
   For us a quiet Christmas is in one way a very welcome one, a day or so off work  (tho I'm sure I'll still find something to do in the barn), but in another way I wish it was a family Christmas, holding a nice family get together like those when we were kids would be a special way to spend the festive season, uncles and aunts sitting telling tales of Christmas's past and kids playing with new toys, to sit and watch this happen again would make this bead maker a happy one.
   But this year those dreams still lay a year or two away and it's just time to recharge the batteries, today I'm sorting beads in my etsy store and adding more new sets, a good tidy up is needed which is becoming a regular job for me this time of year.
   It's funny really, I've never been the sort of person who can just sit around at Christmas, I can't spend hours watching tv and eating, I guess I still carry that excited little child around with me who loves Christmas so much and although it's not happening for us at the moment, he still wants to run around opening gifts and wants to smell that cigar smoke as uncles sit chatting about the past year, he wants to watch his mum making Christmas sweets and I think most of all he wants to be out riding that new chopper bike around the lanes of Ashwell again with that huge smile on his face, maybe that's why the many Christmas films just don't do it for me.
   Well, I have had a little fun baking gluten free sausage rolls and mince pies this year, so one up on last year and even if I say so myself they taste ok. I remember the first gluten free pastry I made in the summer, boy was it hard, I made a few jam tarts and I swear if you had dropped one it would have cracked any kitchen floor tile, but now I really have managed to produce soft buttery pastry that I'd be happy to serve to any visitor.
   I have lots of clay ideas to try this holiday and have lots of mugs awaiting glaze as I write, I even have my first teapot sitting drying, god knows how it will look when finished, but it's all a new experience and one that I'm enjoying.
   Well I guess I better get these beads listed and sorted, then I need to get my work bench in the barn in a more tidy state, how I get it into such a mess I'll never know, glass ends everywhere, tools and trial beads all over the shop and reams of paper with bead idea scribbled on, oh for the life of a bead maker.
 
 

To Fight On

   A year of fight but here I stay, we made it to another Christmas, they said I wouldn't but how wrong they were. Me, give up, never ! yes there are times I want to and days I feel the world owes me, but the only one to blame is I, the old sod in love with his glass.
   Scared of stopping and losing all I trudge on, tiny steps not strides of old, but steps forward along those lanes, watching, learning, hoping that day will come, the day it all joins and lady luck welcomes me into her world for that second, that's all I need, just one second of luck and it may all change.
   I'm tired at times, dark mornings when cold barn is my only friend, but every day she does breath life back into this aching body,she knows there lay a mind of a million ideas just waiting for a reason to work in the flame, wishing they were still wanted and one day they will be so.
   People talk of giving up this life I love, this addiction of fire and glass, watching magical tricks produce beads that live for a thousand years. And in my heart I worry that day will arrive, my fight is running out and cannot last forever, but I'll keep on and if still I'm of no interest I will fall upon my flame, not to pester. Barn door will stay shut and winter cold will pass through while glass stands and flame dreams hide in dark corners.

Foods Of Festive Feast's Do Gather

Christmas Past

   Pickles are bottled and sweets are formed by hand while yule logs are decorated with holly and cone from Christmas fur.
   Winter game is hung and hams boiled in salted water while paper chains place smiles on children's faces and cut tree green with needles are placed in candle lit rooms both large and small.
   Evening kitchens with scents of spice and hot mince meat will leave memories never to be forgotten.
   Clementines, nuts and dates do gather on tables that wear embroidered cloth and tins of dusted turkish delight chuckle at chocolate brazils.
   Children listen for sleigh bells as santa's helpers hide gifts from little eyes, Christmas dreams dance in the fire as holly looks down on all.
 

Wood Burner Working It's Magic

Nice Warm Start To The Week


   Yes, you guessed it I was out there at dawn lighting the stove in the barn so we get another nice warm day to work in, dark fen skies and ice filled rain here in the east this morning, just what we need to start a fresh week. I sit here with a hot cuppa watching the winter weather while my head is full of bead and ceramic ideas, oh how different it was a few months ago when I was sitting out in the garden watching the early garden birds and planning the day so as not to be too warm in the summer sun, now it's all about keeping warm and dry, getting ready for the snow and ice and wishing spring was just around the corner again.

   A busy day ahead for this bead maker with beads to clean, string and photograph ready to list, beads to make and this afternoon my first couple of teapots to assemble in the clay room, all this plus a trip to the bank so at least we escape for an hour into the real world. I enjoy our trips to Downham Market, a cute little town with lots of small shops and none of those giant stores where the customer is just a ring on the till, in Downham everyone seems to know everyone and you see old folk sitting chatting, putting the world to right while watching the world pass by.
   I've had a quiet few days on the pottery side of things with the bead making taking up a lot more of my time this past week, I guess the reason being the barn is now so warm and the clay room is still bloody freezing, but saying that I have been happy with the pieces I produced last week a couple of which were cream jugs like the one seen above. Nothing fancy, just me trying new shapes and designs plus the more handles I make the better I will become.
   I have more mugs to make this week and yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, I have a commission for mugs too, to be honest I never thought the day would arrive when someone asked me to make some pottery for them, I must be improving !
   Well, cuppa time over and I need to brush up ready for trip to bank, by the way I've been writing about Christmas past and would be nice to share some of the pieces on here with you so maybe this evening I'll list one. Ok enjoy your day and keep warm.

Another Sunday, Another Fen Wind

Winter Winds Return


   How quick the weeks seem to roll by when your enjoying yourself and man did I enjoy myself this last seven days, the ebay shop was cleared out and the start of the new trios and orphan sets were listed, with a lot more to come this week I may add, the new interest in my etsy shop is growing by the day thanks to a little hint on sale techniques from a friend and with the barn now being warmer due to the wood burner stove I installed, it's a delight to be in there working once more.
   Yet again those fen winds are rushing over us this morning but I guess we are lucky it isn't the snows or the rains, tho there are warnings of snow in East Anglia this coming week so lets see if any arrives here in the flat lands. Those remarkable little gold finches are riding the niger feeders again feeding on the last of the seed, I hope I can get more this coming week as the wild bird seed feeders have now gone over a week without being filled and if only you knew how much I hate that, fingers crossed we can buy a sack in a few days and my little mates will forgive me and return.
   So lets get on to the subject of the wood burner and working in the warm. We were so lucky that a friend who comes from the same village as me and who grew up in the years I did, well a few years younger maybe, knew of a guy who makes wood burners from old gas bottles, well, now a few weeks later we have one sitting in the barn keeping us warm and I'll always thank her for her help, we would have been facing yet another winter working with hot water bottles on our laps is she hadn't of known this guy.
   We managed to obtain most parts for the flue and a few we couldn't I found parts that did the job and now the barn is a very nice warm place in which to work, it makes the thought of going to work every day one of excitement again and just showed us how much the cold was getting to us both. We had been searching online auctions etc looking for a wood burner for nearly two years but the prices were just out of our reach and I must admit it was beginning to seem that we were to face the cold months wrapped in layer upon layer for years to come but now sitting at my torch without my feet freezing and knowing the roof is water proof again makes this bead maker one very happy one.
   I know we have gone without to make this happen and there is a very good chance Christmas won't happen here this year but it's so important that we can work in a dry warm place and in the few days we have had the stove going it has given me so much love back for bead making, to be honest those cold dark mornings unlocking the barn and walking into that freezing work place was not that great and it's no wonder in my eyes I was making less than standard beads, in the last four days this silly old sod as returned to making what he makes best, the beads he loves and the beads that others love too, a born again bead maker  haha !
   Ok I better get off to my torch, I'll try to get a picture on here this evening of the stove and some beads I've been making, I hope you all enjoy your Sunday and look out for that snow !

Cold But No snow

Dark Cold Mornings But No Snow In The Fens


   Another freezing cold dawn here at the barn but so far none of this talked about snow that some parts of Britian are getting, to be honest with you, tho I love the snow I'm glad it hasn't arrived here yet, it will be a while before we get and heat in the barn and already fingers are cold when we work, please mother winter let us off for a few more weeks !
   Already I feel a big disappointment for not being able to fill the bird feeder this week, the finches are still happy with niger seed still in there hanging larders but the last of the wild bird seed was polished off Saturday and we can't afford to replace it yet this week, I hate not having bird seed and people say I'm silly for feeling this way but I do, these poor little guys bring me so much pleasure through the year the least I should be able to do is keep their feeders full. I often say bird seed come before food for me and it has done many times over these last few years and will again this month so I'm hoping they will get food in the next week, fingers crossed.
   Yesterday was spacer day for me and I hope to list some this evening in the etsy shop, today I'll be making all sorts at my torch followed by a few hours in the clay room this afternoon, now that is one cold room, I find by adding boiled water to my water bucket on my wheel I can still throw away happily for an hour or two even when the temperatures are low.

   Last night I listed a few Christmas bells in the etsy shop, I made some and thought they were worth at try on etsy, not sure people will like them as they have no glitter to speak of, I love the old Victorian type colours and the simple bands they used to place on decorations in those days, I guess we will find out if I'm the only one.
   I've had some interest in the apple bakers like the one shown above, people seems to like the thought of baked apples in the colder months and I must say we are planning to have a few this winter, so easy to cook and great after a cold day working in the barn.
   Right I better head off back to my flame and try to warm up next to the kiln, I have some Christmas gift tags to photograph this afternoon ready to list so maybe they will be of interest to the odd customer, it's a real miss match here at the moment, so many ideas I just need another three or four hours to the day.