Wednesday

Good morning.  It looks as if it might be another really pleasant day today, weather wise.  The sky looks pretty clear and it looks 'bright', if you know what I mean.

Good news for me:  I got an email yesterday letting me know that my application for a Disabled Persons Railcard has been approved and it's in the first class post.  That was impressively quick; I only posted the request off on Sunday afternoon.  It might even arrive today.
I must plan a jolly using it for next week as it's half term so no tuition to get back for - very little tuition anyway.

Pottery update:
I neatened up around mousehog's eyes and it's in the kiln again - forgot to take a photo, sorry.  I will, I promise.  A good laugh is always a pleasant thing! 

The leaf glazed OK . . .

. . . but not perfectly -  there were a few white-ish patches around the edge so Alex (tutor) helped me re-glaze those patches and that's also back in the kiln.  I now know that dabbing is better than painting, more like stencilling.  I'm really pleased with it though and I'm sure it will look great.  I think I need to get some stick on felt spots to give it some 'grip' underneath.  Also, I quite fancy making some coasters at some point and some felt underneath those would be essential.

I finished the first part of the coil pot and now it's drying before I can neaten it all up.  It's not great but I enjoyed starting to learn the technique and it will suffice as a pencil pot - unless I can't handle it looking (leering?) at me all the time. Also, the sides are very - er - undulating, and that might bug me.
See what I mean?

Detail of the top.  It will look better once I have smoothed it all off.

And Alex thought the buttons a great idea when I explained what they were for so I punched out eight butterflies and they will also be finished off next time before firing and glazing.

Sadly, next time does not equal next week.  It's half term.  Never thought I would be sad about half term!  However, that gives me a day for a jolly (with my new rail card, maybe) somewhere which is nice.

The rest of the day passed pleasantly, so all in all it was another super day.

Today I will be off out to have lunch with Val and I'm looking forward to that very much.  Val is an old friend who used to keep an eye out for my two after school when they were younger but had moved on from Primary when they could usually stay with me in school until I could go home.  She lived just down the road from me so it was very handy and I was very grateful to her.  Since then she and Mike have moved away and we recently got back in touch again - there's time now that we're both retired and have a bit more time for fun things.  Our get togethers have settled to once a month and I shall take my diary with me so we can fix the next one today.

Apart from that, there's just a spot of tuition so it's going to be a very pleasant day indeed.
I do appreciate how fortunate I am, I truly do.

Have a great day yourself too.
xx