Authorlouisa

3BT – sprawl, interlopers, samples/skeins/blankie, home/feet/ginger cat

0. The dog and cats sprawl across us. When it comes time to get up, I try John’s pointing trick but Lily just looks at me: I’m not the one that gets a result with that gesture.

1. I spot another primrose that’s made its home in our garden. I’m not sure where they’ve come from but they’re welcome – I always meant to put some in.

2. Spinning samples – the pleasure of the texel after cotton, the linen after ramie

2b. A row of little skeins

2c. Kaufman under his little blanket all afternoon

3. It’s nearly a month since they moved in and it’s changed from a shell of a house to a home.

3b. Lily’s feet are especially white after her shower: they didn’t look dirty exactly before, just not shiny white.

3c. As we get out of the car, we hear a call. The ginger cat just over the garden fence wants to make itself known.

3BT – certificates, tea, veg

1. I’m amused to find a folder that contains my first swimming certificate (25m), my second swimming certificate (50m) and my degree certificate – and nothing else.

2. We sit in the dining room together, drinking tea, just before John has to rush out for his bus.

3. An experiment to liven up some veg (with mustard) works out well.

3BT – before I get up, texture/new/lift/slashes/sunset, cats

1. I don’t have much time before I have to get up, but there is always a little time to read some more of my book.

1b. We hear a noise in the garden: two foxes fighting (or building up to … sexy fight) at the edge of the stream.

2. Touches of texture on smooth little pots.

2b. I try something new, a total experiment for me which I push on with even in the face of doubt from others. It works perfectly so I replicate it several times in quick succession.

2c. The moment the drying clay lifts away from the plaster mould.

2d. Slashes of yellow, flicked on with unusual confidence.

2e. When was the last time I left the studio in daylight? The lengthening days allow me to enjoy the snowy hills at sunset.

3. The cats have clearly been saving up their cuteness until I arrive home: Strange meows at me through the door then Kaufman stands on his back legs, leaning on the back of a dining chair, so he can reach up for a stroke. Tilda is nowhere to be seen at first but when I go into the bedroom, I hear a meow coming from John’s (now closed) t-shirt drawer.

3BT – our community, just right/indigo, sleek

1. A ridiculous number of people stop to chat or to offer support as I measure the road.

2. The underglaze colours are just what colours I want: the yellow is satisfactorily mustardy and the blue-grey is a perfect balance of the too.

2b. The fading in the indigo dye on my sleeve.

3. Sometimes Lily’s head looks sleek like a seal.

3BT – pate on toast, lamp, polish sausage and dead veg soup

1. Pate on toast for lunch. One bit of the bread is a little thick, a little doughy but the rest of the toast is perfectly crisp.

2. I picked up a bargainacious lamp in Southport on Saturday – a pretty duck egg blue angle poise, just what I’ve wanted for my desk for a while. I find a random bulb in the random bulb box and a pleasant soft glow lights up my workspace.

3. Polish sausage and seven veg (carrots, parsnips, onions, peppers, beans, peas and spinach) soup is delicious. The recipe was a bit of an experiment – a combination of guesswork and using up spare veg from the fridge – but it came out just as I wanted: packed with goodness and incredibly moreish.

3BT – nothing to do, getting longer, giggle pigs

1. I’m tired, groggy and wake up with a splitting headache. But at least I know I don’t have to do anything, all day. (Well, except for walk the dog but that was hours away at that point.)

2. We set out late for our walk but still manage to get a whole loop in, going right over the quarry to the end of Clara Drive and back again, before it’s dark. Hurrah for the lengthening daylight.

3. We stand side by side and make cakes in cups. We giggle throughout the making and cooking process.