Take two, week two

Hello Everyone,

This week has been an interesting one.Lynne and Phil left for America early on Wednesday. Prior to that Phil was in super-speed-mode trying to get everything done. He is a little behind so he is feeling pretty stressed that he had to go to America. We had to finish packing all the 80 pots for his St. Ives show. He had quite a few large bottles that are several feet tall which presents a packing nightmare. He said next time he should make the pots to fit the boxes instead of trying to find boxes that fit the pots. He had a bunch of jugs to make and some bottles to finish. I cleaned the workshop and the showrooms so that it would be somewhat easier for Phil to come back to. Jason is planning on doing another firing soon and he asked if Phil and I had any pots we wanted to put in his kiln. I gave him two shallow bowls to put in his salt kiln. On Monday night the three of us went over to Jason and Julianne's for dinner. They had lamb for dinner which I'm sure was delicious but I just could not bear to eat it...I've grown rather attached to all the sheep here. After supper we went to the sitting room. Jason and Phil got out a bunch of old records like the Rolling Stones and the Beatles and popped them onto the record player. We all sang along for a bit to the familiar tunes. Phil said when he was about 13 he loved the Beatles and had all their records and scrapbooks. He told me once his grandma even made him a knitted necktie that were all the fashion when the Beatles were popular.
It feels a bit like spring here. It rains all the time and little snowdrops and crocuses are yawning and stretching out of the soggy ground. We did have kind of a freak day on Thursday as it was sleeting, hailing and raining. That was the day that John and Sue came down. They live in Stoke-on-Trent which is about 2 1/2 hours away. The Rogers met them when John came on a summer workshop Phil used to do every summer at his house in Rhayader. John and Sue are the dog/house sitters and come here several times a year when Lynne and Phil go away. They are a very nice couple. They have a married son who lives in Texas who is not much older than me. Just as I talk to my parents on a computer program called Skype, they did the same with their son almost daily. While they were here I made teapots. They went much easier this time and I tried some different types of handles. I also had ideas to make some oval casseroles with slab built bottoms. Phil gave me a list of tasks to do while he is gone. I did my own throwing last week and will do all his stuff this week. He and Lynne will be home on Thursday or Friday. John and Sue stayed until Sunday when they made the trip back to Stoke. It was nice having them here. I have to say it is a bit creepy at night when I'm here by myself. It is so dark here because there is no light pollution. Sometimes Libby and Tess will start barking in the middle of the night and I don't know why. It does make your hair stand on end. Fortunately, Phil says in the almost 30 years he's lived here there has never been any kind of horrible crime.
My sleeping has finally returned back to normal. Now Lynne and Phil are going to have that same problem when they return. Well, I have a long list of things to do before the boss gets back- make 12 press molded bottles, pug clay and mix up a bunch of new clay too. I'd better get going on that. Until next week....