So here we go, SHED MONDAY. Amazing. And the sun came out to celebrate. I am already working on the second conceptual piece... the first got binned.... it looked too much like a donut... I might post something later in the week if this one works out. I should be smoke firing, but its too goddam hot and I feel sorry for all the neighbours with their windows open. It can wait.... Now I have every day, nothing feels quite so urgent any more. I can roll along and make. Speaking of making, a friend recently bought me an amazing book called "The case for working with your hands (or why office work is bad for us and fixing things feels good)". The book is about how, if you learn to fix and make things, it makes you the "master of one's own stuff". It also talks about how good that feels (it does). It scares me how interconnected we all are now in terms of our reliance on each other. White goods are built to fail, cars cannot be fixed by their owners, we turn on switches and taps and things unquestioningly work, we wear and throw away clothes made for us by people in poverty and we store all our precious memories on some digital "cloud". Where is that exactly? I am more of a "money under the bed" kind of person. I prefer what I can see and fix and understand and I like self reliance. It makes me feel safe. Sailing and pottery are all part of that approach. Don't get me wrong, I am no survivalist (and the money is in the bank), but I do think the world would be a better place if we all practiced a bit of self reliance once in a while. Now, back to the shed...