Woof.......

The boys & I had to make a run for it today in the neighbouring field as I think wasps have made a home there.

Balain wanted a nosey at something in the grass & when I looked I thought it was deer poo with a lot of flies round it (as Balain is quite partial to deer poo) but when he went over to investigate & I followed to stop him from eating it, we both realised it was loads of wasps round a hole in the ground.

Don't think I've ever seen Balain shift so fast, plus I wasn't that far behind him but running in long grass with wellies on aint that easy.

Meanwhile Murphy missed all the excitement as he was off still looking for a ball I had thrown for him. Don't think we will be walking over that way for a while.

Inspiration all around us.

This summer in the fields around the pottery where I go walking with the dogs there has been so many nettles but I came across these ones getting munched by loads of caterpillars.

Now a couple of weeks since the last pic we have so many beautiful butterflies, nice swap for a load of stingy nettles :)

Not sure what type is what but if there is any people out there who is, could you maybe leave a note & let me know. Especially this third pic as the colour's were stunning.

There is just so many picture's to be taken, this gorgeous thistle with this busy bumble bee doing its thing.

& last but not least the Fox glove that has shown its bloom so elegantly this year. With all this beauty all around us, it sure isn't difficult to be inspired.

Making clay.

Here is Hugh emptying the slop buckets with the left over clay & the pots that didnt quite make it to make our first mix.

Look at all that lovely clay :) just asking to be made into pots.

This is the next batch which is the new mix which is made up of Hyplas 71, Hymod AT (these are both Ball clay's), China clay & Nepheline Syenite. The Nepheline Syenite works well for making the wood ash stick to the pots better.

The next job is pugging, this takes a while. Think the part time work I done in factory's while seeing myself through Uni was good experience for pugging as being able to switch your brain off & becoming a drone help's. lol I dont mind pugging, quite nice to switch off & day dream for a bit

& finally here is our clay all nicely mixed, pugged & stacked in our old freezers which are great for storing clay. We stack our slop mix seperate from our new mix & use the slop mix first & let the new mix sour.