Workshop

A workshop day in the studio at The Potters House Penketh.
Ten potters making pots!

Shells...

boxes....

rolling out slabs....

impressing design...

(in this case the arms and legs of a Barbie doll! We're talking post-modern here!)

Laying out the slabs to dry in the sun...

...yes we had lots of sun today!

we had coffee and scones for the morning break. ...

while I got going on making  a bean salad for lunch...

..with a potato salad and some greens and fresh radishes from a friend...

savoury pastries...

..cheese dish and tomatoes with mozarella

and some freshly cooked baked ham.

The chairs set out behind the tool shed with "blankies" in case a breeze blew up and caused a shiver!

"Guten appetit!"

Meringues with fresh cream and freshly picked raspberries for sweet.

...and at the end of the day...

some great work to be dried and fired and glazed.

Happy days.

Fuengirola Market!

It's market day!

Hooray!

Alan and I always start with a spanish coffee and a toasted croissante.

It costs all of 5.80 euros...that's for two of us.

Delish!

This year lovely Jean (the potter's sister] and gorgeous hubby, Rob..

joined us at the grand do.

But I had to go back the next week to see what the clothes stall was offering.

I'm hooked!

The stall in the market that has me in my best cherry-picking mode has got me again!

It used to be, "n'euro...n'euro!"

This year it was, "d'euro, d'euro!"

Three trestle tables piled up with clothes from all over the world.

"Roll up ladies and grab your hearts' desires."

Last year I was entranced with two African coats,

I flung them over my arm, to save them from the melee.

I posed wearing the blue....

and the potter kindly secumbed to my pleas to wear the green one.

( note facial expression).

This year ,

oh joy of joys...

a Japanese kimona..

I assumed that it was merely a pretty house coat...

but no,

there on the label in the back was ,

"Made in Japan.   100 per cent silk"

I often wonder who owned these garments

and how did they manage to end up in Fuengirola Market?

And when if ever will I have an occasion to wear them...

I don't get out much!!!

Well you may or may not remember the

Mad Hatter's episode last year

and there they were...

...those garments.

Though what they had to do with the Mad Hatter...

I'm not entirely sure.

Back!

It's nice to be back!

Back from the annual slowdown, wind down, and become a bit more human in the process.

That's what the Spanish fortnight does for us both.

We gaze out over a cork oak valley...

with earth coloured houses...

then

drive annoyingly slowly down the hill ...

[that is for the locals behind us desperate to get to the business at the bottom]

...drink our coffee

...eat our toasted spanish croissante

and tootle off to the beach for another busy day on the beach beds!

It's a hard life...but I can cope with it ...at least once a year!