How the place had changed.

While going through images for my presentation I came across this photo of Barnbarroch Old School in 1978 shortly after we moved in. (It had been closed for about ten years prior to this). During the year it took to get the building workable I was making pots in the old soup kitchen on the right of the photo. It had running water and an old sink, so was an ideal space to get started with my brand new bright yellow 'Potters Mate' wheel. I remember it being pretty cold in the winter and boiling hot in the summer. In this photo it looks like we have already glassed in the porch and turned it into a (very small) showroom where my first pots were displayed on boards balanced on kiln bricks.

For many years we kept chickens in the playground for  many years, only when we turned their run into a car park did we have to pass them on.

It is easy to forget how much we have done to the place over the years. Today the hedges and trees which Rodger planted are mature and happy - the one behind the bikes is an aspen brought up as a sapling from Yorkshire.

We extended the old porch showroom outwards in 2001, a date which we will always remember as we struggled to re-open for Easter, only to have the road closed in either direction by the army while cattle were slaughtered in an effort to control the Foot and Mouth epidemic. Horrid times.

These lovely sunny photos were taken at Spring Fling late May. This week the rain has stopped at last and suddenly it seems possible to believe that there will be a Spring again.

Today I have been slowly gathering up all I might need to take to demo at the Scottish Potters Annual gathering at Kindrogan in Perthshire this weekend. I just hope the car will be big enough - seems like I am taking the whole workshop.