An Empty Nest

Yesterday Victoria left for Uni at Bath,
Jane and I are now alone here in Horsford which has left us feeling a little odd, now we have only each other to blame for light left on or things left were they shouldnt be, and there will be no more waiting for her to get home.
Life is going to change for us all, both here and in Bath, as we will not be there to run after her; it will be an interesting learning curve for us all but one more than the others, I feel sure she will cope and thrive, we will stay in touch using the internet, I remember my first days at Art school when I stayed away for the week at a time, she is away until I'm not sure when, Christmas? who knows,time only will tell.

25th Wedding Aniversary.

Today September 1st at 4:30 twenty five years ago Jane and I were married so today is our 25th Wedding Aniversary and we are trying to spend it together!

Time is never Enough

I know its been a while since I last posted and I will draw a line under the early part of the year as there seems little point writing about old events .

August 6th 7th & 8th saw the Bi- Annual seminar for the AWGB held at Loughborough which I attended and submitted work for the instant gallery I had a piece selected for the top fifty in the gallery again, which I was pleased to achieve a Bowl with a deecorated rim, I had submitted some other interesting pieces which you can see here I will post an image of the bowl when it is returned as it is at present away being photographed.

I did notice there is a great increase in the amount of coloured work that was displayed in the gallery compared to years past.

Friday saw the First ever internet auction to which I donated a piece from the Coral series which raised £340 for the cause The Youth Ttraining Scheme. The auction raised twelve and a half thousand pounds in total.

The weekend was informative, interesting and enjoyable, meeting old friends and having time to relax is always welcomed the Demo I gave on Sunday before lunch went well and was enjoyed so I was both happy and relieved.

The weekend always leaves me feeling tired and with mixed emotions as it only occurs once every two years. It answers questions and sets the mind in different/new directions this year the hot item for me is micromotors!

Nag Nag Nag!!

Well I deserve the above for not posting anything for some time but I will endevour to correct this shortly hopefully by the end of the week there is much work ahead of me so if it does not appear keep nagging and I will get it done.
I do so enjoy the postings but sometimes other thing must take priority. today it is another article for GMC Woodturning magazine, and the last part of my website rebuild which is almost there! Phew!. Thats three days work without doing any turning and then withdrawl sets in..

Last Weekends Trip To Ireland

Following an invitation to demonstrate in Sligo Jane and I flew to Knock on Friday 20th where we were hosted by some great Irish folk who showed us the best of local hospitality.

The demonstration took place in a members workshop. Thanks John, this is the usual way the club gets together each meeting.

This is john's closest neighbour and the view from just outsidethe workshop.

I quite like the isolation I have at my workshop but this is even more so than mine.

When needed the group got intamate to get a closer look at what I was doing.This happened several timesthey seemed extreemly interested in the type of decoration/colouring that I was doing.

The woodburner(front right) was used to heat the workshop.

I worked all day Saturday and Sunday morning after work we were shown some of the local attractions and found the area interesting even though I was not feeling on top of the world having come down with a nasty cold which went to my ears and caused a loss of voice which made things interesting to say the least it did make communication very frustrating at times towards the end of the weekend.

The cold was so bad when I returned home I went to the Doctor where he perscribed some serious medication for any infection that I was likely to develope following the flight home, my voice is at long last slowly returning but it is still hard work to speak and impossible not to do so.

Below are some pictures we took during our trip to Sligo and the local area.

We had bright sunny days,

Coastal views,Castles,ruins and even some stunning trees that had a very strange quality.

The atlantic Ocean at a quite time!

We are usually so lucky when we travel to new and interesting places.

This is a rebuilt/restored castle on lake shore.

Ireland is full of ruins like this but I particulry liked the cloisters at this riun.It was interesting to see the site is still being used for interment.

It was also good to see it being maintained.

If you look closely you can see a plane coming into land a knock airport t's not the disimilar to

Norwich some years ago a small airport uthat is currently under development which is no bad thing today.

I may post some more images in a day or two once I have edited them I will try to find images showing the the trees with the moss hanging off them.

The trip was great fun and we hope to go again hopefully to meet some more of the Irish turning community.

Thank you To the Sligo Chapter and especially my hosts you know who you are thank you again.

A busy week

As always the time goes so quick, the days just dont seem long enough and need to be longer the eary starts are paying off and the work is getting done ready for the weekend and the demo in Sligo Southern Ierland.There is still much to do so its back to the workshop after tea tonight.

Me and my Schnauzers

Here is a picture of me with my dogs outside my workshop Sammy left and Joshua right.

The boys rarely came into the workshop but would bark at the door for attention.


They are both sadly missed , they were with us for nearly sixteen years they enjoyed life and had lots of fun.


The house is so very quite now.