It's a cat blog....

 Just a cat blog...

...but what's not to love about a cat blog?

"What greater gift

than the love of ..two..cats"...almost Charles Dickens.

In a cat's eyes, all things belong to cats...including your favourite chair!

Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods.Cats have never forgotten this.

The phrase domestic cat is an oxymoron.

...one cat just leads to another...Ernest Hemingway.

...oh ! happy christmas Erni..x

Eric and his slave.

Dogs come when they are called...

...cats take a message..and get back to you.

And there you have it...two besotted old adults...who really wanted a dog...and got two cats by mistake!

gingerbread houses and neviepie

Every year for quite a few now my daughter makes gingerbread houses as part of her business.

Natasha Collins..Neviepiecakes...designer.

I can't bear to eat these amazing pieces of art and so they sit atop my glass cupboard for me to see and love.

Yes they are gingerbread...but the amount of work and art involved makes them so much more than something to eat.

You might be able to see this year's model in Fortnum and Mason in London.....if you are quick!

This Dutch inspired one is my favourite at the moment.

Blogging, followers and friends!!

I've been posting blogs since March 2010...I can hardly believe that!

 But in all that time I've not personally met a single blogger friend. Well all that has changed! 

The timing was exact...the place was right ...the conversation started...and lo and behold...someone who actually had read my posts...finding them on the sidebar list of the wonderful Pen Wilcox. Stunned ..we both were.

I was standing by the Pithoi pots at The Beetham Garden Centre near Milnthorpe in Lancashire when as I was ringing the rims to make sure that the pot was whole..as.any little crack or flaw will not give a bell-like sound. (This I know from the potter himself!...he had rung one or two before going off to buy a pot for our Christmas present to one another.)

It's big!...some in the Tuesday evening ceramic group that he teaches wondered why he didn't make it himself...well...it's bigger than the kiln for a start! And pithoi from Crete are famous for their shapes and traditional decoration.

So now I'm a follower on "woolywanderer" on Instagram...I'm G Snape there.."Documenting the Mundane" by the way. And also a follower on multicolouredmadness.blogspot.com .

We hugged with laughter and tears and hugged again...two grown women who had never met but had so much in common! 

Well that's blogging for you. You wait five years and along comes a follower and then a friend. We shall plan to meet up again I'm sure of that as we both have homes around that glorious Bay I talk about so much.

Thankyou Blogspot...thankyou daughter amelieshouse.blogspot.co.uk for getting me started...thankyou senior grandgirl troase.blogspot.co.uk for encouraging and quietly showing me techie things!!

The Gingerbread Hut!

...each year our daughter....neviepiecakes ... makes us a gingerbread house for Christmas...

I can hardly bear to eat them...so much work and thought goes into each one.

This year she has excelled all expectations with...

...a gingerbread fisherman's hut fully equipped with lobster pots, a little fishing boat and a driftwood Christmas tree covered, of course, in snow...

...I love... love it...so what am I to do?

 ...it is truly a piece of edible sculpture...

...but she tells us to eat it and not to be so "precious"....

...look on the door ...a blackboard telling you that fresh fish has been caught and is there for the buying.

...and behind the snow laden driftwood tree ...a pile of lobster pots await the fisherman ...ready for the outing the next day....

...oh now I'm getting carried away!!

I just had to take lots of pics ...because the gingerbread is as good as the design...so there is no way that it is going to last forever...

...as Marie Antionette once didn't say...

"Let them eat cake"

https://www.facebook.com/NeviePie

Christmas Angels

Fresh from the kiln and singing their little hearts out!

"Hark the herald angels sing....."

Can't keep the potter out of the studio!!

Merry Christmas

Thankyou so much, all of you lovely folk, who have taken time to leave a comment,

or just even just stop by,

 for a glance into the life of us here at the Potters House in Penketh.
Who can believe that another year has gone by...am I any wiser?...not sure really...but what fun in blogland!

Cake, cake, cake!

I'm just back from The Trafford Centre, Manchester...having meet up with my lovely daughter at Selfridges for a morning drink. It doesn't happen very often...but today she was delivering the last of the Christmas goodies to the northern store. London and Birmingham already have their supplies of Neviepie Cakes.

So proud mother ...oh stop it mum....had to take a pic of her beside the display.
She's very perfectionist...well so is her brother...but I don't know where it it has come from!
So the stall is given the once over....

 ....And yes , it will do! Hurray.

Actually the cake department were already oohing and aahing over the goodies.
If you want some ...you need to get there fast...it's all gonna go!
Individual Christmas cakes with hand-painted designs, cookies on a stick and the sweetest gingerbread houses...some with Hansel and Gretel standing in front to welcome us!

I can hear her say, "Now you are being a bit fanciful mum"...but she expects that of me I'm sure.