This photo was taken with my feet in the water, tears in my eyes, as I watched the ferry come in ready to collect us from the beautiful Iona to take us home. D you ever have that feeling, when home is where you are and yet it isn’t? I felt like that the first time we came to Scotland and the power of that feeling grew with each visit, till eventually we had to move here to stop the feeling of homesickness.

Chris saw my tears and said ‘oh oh, does this mean another move..?’

But we are already home. We live in Argyll, of which Iona is a part. It is all beautiful. We are blessed indeed. The colours, the textures, the peace.. We hope you see this in our work and hear it in our poetry.

We’d love to know where home is for you..

This is just a little shout out for shopping local. Yesterday, before the rains came (at last), I had a wander down to our lovely local community shop. I counted my blessings as I went. The shop is owned by the community (you can read of the story here) and during the pandemic has been the heartbeat of the village. From there, deliveries, papers, food, milk, went out to those who needed to stay home.

As I went, I passed a few neighbours along the way and stopped for a blether with each, exchanging views on the weather and the pandemic, for what else is there to discuss?

The road goes downhill from our house, past a woodland which has been restored over the last year by an amazing group of volunteers called Inspiring Innellan, who have just entered our village into a Beautiful Scotland competition, past the pub which thankfully has just been bought and re-opened by new owners – we aren’t much for pub-going but it is lovely when all the family is gathered to have an hour or two with other locals and a good game or five of pool.. and waved to the owners of the local hotel, taking in deliveries.

In the shop, I banked petty cash from the recent ceramics fair, posted out orders and birthday gifts, bought local milk (delicious bottled milk that has cream on top…) and cheese, collected bubble-wrap saved for us and a copy of the local paper, not to be missed.. On the way home, it’s all uphill and I walked back through the restored woodland, stopping for a moment to admire the view…

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Recently, we’ve had an annoying spell of things breaking. Something new happened to add to it, which was flat pieces (for pictures) breaking in their first (bisque) firing – that was a shock indeed! Looking into it I discover the same old story – I’ve just been lucky so far..

What I should have been doing is putting sand or batt wash (a powder usually mixed with water to cover the kiln shelves) on the shelf and placing the picture on it, so that during the heating and cooling processes in the kiln, it has room to move and not be under pressure. Lesson learned.

One of the pieces was actually three large flat pieces forming one artwork, a triptych, that will form a backdrop behind someone’s aga style cooker. I would say I could have cried, but actually I did just cry. I dwelled on how to respond to K, the person who commissioned it, and eventually emailed her with the sad photos and the offer to remake (a long wait), refund her or start again but deliberately make it in six pieces (also a long wait). You’ll not be surprised to hear that I cried again when she phoned in tears saying how much she loved the broken pieces and wanted them glazed! The reason she chose us, she says, was because of Chris’s poetry, which reflects often on what is beautiful and what is broken within each one of us..

The fourth piece to break that day is pictured below – less of an emotional deal, although still puzzling! However, the ancient Japanese method of restoring what is broken with gold, kintsugi, works beautifully with the subtle and fragile looking trees and the poetry with it. What do you think?

Sometimes, there are such big things happening in life – family illness, bereavement, financial juggling, changing covid regulations, trials and tribulations and ups and downs.. however you want to phrase it all – but the other day it was creating these necklaces that nearly finished me (Michaela) and had me reaching for the job page in the local paper..

I made necklaces in the past but wasn’t really happy with the finish so I tried again and this time created something more ‘seatree’ and more finished. On advice, I used epoxy for gluing the new findings to the ceramic pendants, which took some time – only to come in the next day and find how easy it was to pop them off. Sigh. Out comes the super glue which fixes anything to anything, apparently – it says so on the packaging but also it stuck my fingers to the scissors, the scissors to the table, my fingers to the table, my fingers to each other, the paintbrush to the pendant.. Eventually I had ti all lined up and sat for 2.5 (im)patient minutes while holding the pendant and finding together at a weird angle.. And dry. Sigh of relief. Then the next morning, off they all popped again. I could have cried. How hard can it be!

Wish us luck – as tomorrow we try a newly recommended glue by a jewellery expert. Otherwise, I might be applying for that job in the local post office…

PS The photograph I can’t take credit for as that was our daughter took it, trying to give me some hope! Doesn’t it look lovely?