Spring is coming

I know, I am a terrible blogger... but I thought I should update you ... The world is still in the grip of Covid. It remains to be seen what happens next. Will life ever get back to what it was 'before'? I haven't seen my mum and sisters for over a year and its not clear when that will change - but hopefully soon. So, much like you, parts of our lives remain in suspended animation. What have we been up to? We worked through last summer and early autumn on the boat, taking visitors out sailing. This is always a huge privilege, even if it takes me away from the pottery. Most people we take out have never sailed and they expect a nice boat tour on the water. What they don't expect is the thrill of actually sailing a beautiful sailing boat, and we often return our guests to the dockside with huge smiles, even the teenagers who were hoping for a foreign holiday. Once the boat was all packed up, we got caught up in the next lock down and failed to catch up with family as a result. That was frustrating as we should have seen it coming. The next inevitable, which I also didn't see coming was the ski bum not being able to go skiing. I confess that I briefly cracked. The prospect of being confined to the retirement bungalow with a morose ski bum filled me with dread. Happily, and to everyone's total astonishment, the ski bum was phlegmatic and took full advantage of a cold Scottish winter to go climbing and even some skiing. It was even a pleasure to have him around... I wasn't expecting that! This and the promise of an exhibition in Edinburgh after lock down has kept me focused and its been a really productive few months in the studio. So that's about the measure of it, probably much like yourselves. Its been a case of finding focus and reasons to be thankful. As for the next few months, we'll just have to wait and see, but Spring is coming. If you just look for the green shoots, you will find them.