68...Two Stormy Weeks

A dark and stormy day

After the longest, mildest autumn I can remember, winter finally arrived here with a flurry of storms. Actually, flurry is a mild word for the winds that raged through here on and off for two weeks. This photo was taken from my studio at lunchtime one day..it didn't get light. Branches have been falling daily and finally on thursday night we had the biggest storm of all before it all calmed down. The thursday night storm had me up at 4am...closing shutters and checking windows...but we still lost a few panes of glass and some tiles from the roof. I think it sounds worse here because of the large trees all around the house, twigs and branches clatter down onto the roof, and the trees seem to bend down so far you imagine they are going to fall.

Out in the garden the workawayers have continued on despite the rain and here Laila has dug up all the weeds around my veg beds. They are now covered with liner and later we will put a thick layer of wood mulch on top. This will save me loads of work next year...not having to cut the grass around the beds, and less transference of weeks into the beds.

Simon from Sweden has been cutting down small trees and logging them up into large piles which look like lovely wooden installations around the garden. These will season for the next 2-3 years before coming in to feed the Rayburn.
Someone who read a previous blog asked me about the Workawayers....so this is how it works. If you have a project....of any sort, or if you want to go somewhere..anywhere....you write a profile on the Workaway site. You need to be quite specific about the work you want done, or the work you can do, but it can be anything from gardening, building, looking after kids etc etc. If you are a host, you post some photo's too. Then you wait for people to contact you. The deal is they give you 5 hours work a day, 5 days a week, and you give them somewhere to sleep and provide for 3 meals a day. Normally people come for 2-3 weeks..sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on the work. So far I have had 3 people here and it has worked out really well. I can't keep on top of the garden by myself and so far the people that have been here have used their own initiative and just got on with things. The great thing is you get time with people to talk about their culture and see the way they do things. We have had Swedish meatballs twice since Simon has been here....and they are lovely.   Laila has also been cooking dinner once a week which is such a treat.  I've already had several requests for next year...so perhaps my jungle will turn into a lovely garden soon!

67...West Blatchington Primary School's Fabulous Flowers

One of the 7 sisters

After a storm which brought down part of the roof at the Newhaven terminal, we sailed out into a glorious morning with not a cloud in the sky. The only signs of the storm was the churned up, sludgy colour of the sea which today seemed less to reflect the colour of the sky and more the bottom of the ocean. The ferry had actually sailed during the night and got in a little late this morning and the doors to the outside decks were still taped up to disallow entry....no doubt they had to stop the smokers from being launched over the side of the boat. A high price for a fag!

I had been back in Brighton this week for the 2nd part of a workshop at West Blatchington Primary Schood. Each child had made a flower out of clay based on research they had done on the flora of South Africa. I have done this workshop before with their teacher Nicola....but she has moved to this school and wanted to repeat the workshop with these children as it had gone so well before.

Today the children were painting their flowers with underglazes and layering bright colours on top of each other.

I think I enjoy this workshop just as much as the kids do. The flowers all survived the biscuit firing so we could just relax and make the flowers gorgeous.......

....with spots and stripes and swirls..lovely!

It is often said that children are losing the knack of concentration....but I find that when they are really engaged in a project, they can keep on going for ages without being distracted. Certainly, these children would have happily painted for twice as long as the time they were actually able to.

This chap on the right turned out to be my partners great nephew, and we didn't even know he was at this school......and what a lovely young man he is. Hi Jason!

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66...Centre de formation ceramique and winter arrives

Centre de formation Ceramique

This week I attended a meeting at a ceramics centre in Bolbec, Normandy, we were discussing a new potters fair that is being organised for next October. It was very interesting for me as it is the first time I have seen a place like this in France. It looked extremely well organised, clean and tidy...I like that in a ceramics room.

Test tiles

It's always good to take a look around and see how other people organise themselves in their working environoment.

Clay man coming out of wall

There was a lot of students work around and I particulaly liked this man stepping out of the wall. The wall had been made by the students in the Cob method which involves mixing clay with straw etc. I don't know the exact method, but it is the way they built walls in the Norman long houses, and you still see it on a lot of buildings.

There were a lot of different styles of work both traditional and contemporary. I'm not sure how the education system works here with regards to the applied arts but the people here were on a 22 month diploma course and should be able to start up their own business once they have qualified (although starting a business in France is easier said than done..the rules..the paperwork!)

Poppy vases

Back in my own studio I had a good glaze firing with a rush job of vases which will be winging their way up to a London gallery on thursday, just in time for Christmas. Unfortunately, an element also broke in this firing which is rubbish timing at this time of year as the whole lot will have to be replaced now.

Snow scene

It is becoming quite the done thing to go crazy with the garden decorations for Christmas over here, and many houses set up tableau's like this one..it was quite arresting and lit up the whole area. Some small towns around here set up scenes like this in every garden, and people drive through of an evening in a long line of cars. If this were in Britain, there would be someone set up selling mulled wine and hot chestnuts...not quite so entrepenurial the French.

Winter finally arrived today, the temperature fell and soon after the garden turned white with hailstones...still we've had a good run this year and this is the first time it has been properly cold.