My mum will be pleased to know I've had a night off as we booked ourselves into Hampton Manor as a treat whilst delivering the last of their order.

Above was our room, it was huge and so well thought out, massive bed, beautiful bathroom and lots of thoughtful additions. I would really recommend staying here.

Even a cute map of the 46 acres that belong to the hotel which your free to roam round on your visit, beautifully designing by Fjona, the wife of MD James, a lovely lady. We really enjoyed meeting Fjona and discussing the future plans for the hotel.

And dinner, we had a treat for dinner and made our way through the Taster Menu, delicious, inventive and in a room which was so beautifully decorated and relaxing. We were in heaven!

Above bread, warm, fresh and so tasty, so here's the dishes, I can't remember the names for all of them but each one was fab.

Starting with a muse bouche, you can tell me if I've spelt that wrong, in my bowl,

followed by Heirloom Tomato, Burrata and Basil, a truly tasty dish, my cut and altered dish,

Organic Salmon, cucumber, horseradish with lemon and dill,

Then, Foie Gras with Sweet and Sour onion and bacon,

followed by Wild Turbot, cauliflower, orange and Iberia ham,

And on to the duck dish where they even supplied the Laguiole knives, we visited the little town in France where these are made a few years ago.

Muscovy Duck, Lavender, carrot and golden raisins, I was struggling by now even though the portions were taster menu size, the flavours were incredible!

so onto desserts, Passion Fruit, white chocolate 'aero' and liquorice,

Hazelnuts and chocolate on my plate,

And finally, on another one of my plates, Strawberries with tarragon and buttermilk and yes by now I was stuffed!

Needless to say we had very little for breakfast. It was such a beautiful place, the foods incredible, all the decor is inspiring, all the staff were superb. I'm booking to go again. It was such a buzz too to be served on our products and in speaking to the staff to know how much they love them. 

I throughly enjoyed the day James brought the team over to meet us at Sytch Farm and design the pieces they wanted, a brilliant experience to see the finished dish.

And after a great night away we're back to work. This week I'm finishing another order for The Hand of Flowers, owned by Tom Kerridge and a restaurant in Harrogate, The Wild Plum. Also getting ready for Carfest next weekend, and hopefully getting a little more on top of stock supplies.

I'm also excited as Gill from River Cottage has received a selection of pieces for photography for a new River Cottage book, can't wait to see how they use them. 

Still pinch myself, how did all this happen! 

That's it! Schools out for summer and hopefully forever for me, got my card, flowers and nice words today. From here it's 100% pottery work. How mad is that! 

To start the ball rolling I've been testing new glazes. Lots of people asking for pinks and purples so trying one out, also a glossy blue which breaks into a light mauve colour.  A few more tests before we'll make decisions. 

 It's great to be able to work outside right now, to be able to enjoy the days weather. I find myself starting a little later in the day after a bit of gardening, and finishing later too as the warmth of the day hangs around. 

Finishing off a few big orders right now, waiting on the 'go' on another one and over excited to be asked for products for a photo shoot for the next River Cottage cook book. :) #happydays

The lovely James from Kiln Care is with me this morning looking at both kilns, one is firing too high and the other needs a few new elements fitting, he's cracking on with all of that forcing me to do something else on a Monday morning!

So I've been picking fruit and flowers instead, a nice way to spend a few hours.

But not for long, James is done, on his way and I need to load the kilns, prep the clay and start throwing, a small break, but a break no less!

After months of playing myself with photography we finally got the professionals on board. These are some of the first images by Sandrine, look at her work at www.sandrinephotography.com and also her blog littleberriesandco.com

She's going to build up a portfolio of images we can use on our shop site to show the products off better. She's also going to visit and do a series of shoots at Sytch Farm. I'm really pleased about this, it's like the missing link really.

On the shop site we are limiting the amount of products that can be brought purely because of space, and time. If anyone wants to order specific pieces, plates, large bowls, cups etc then they'll go in the order book.

Jon's had an operation on his wrist but all's well. He'll be working hard once it's better to get his pizza oven finished ready for Sandrine's arrival.

We're still a little shocked at the response from the BBC Good Food Show and orders continue to arrive. This weekend is The Shrewsbury Food Festival and again we are showing there. It's been a fast year since we showed there for the first time last year.

And I'm completing my last days of teaching, after a few hours today I only have a day and a half left, then I'll be a full time potter. I'm really pleased and excited, it's been hard work and a massive learning curve. If you've never been back to the start of this blog before do so and you'll see I started it right as I was building up an idea of running a pottery business. Never imagined it would end up like this though!

We're back from the BBC Good Food Show and we had a fab time.

The response to our products was tremendous and it felt like all the hard work was worth it.

The comments we received from the organisers, the chefs  and the customers was brilliant, it really helped keep us going on days that were far too long.

I have a waiting list of orders and people wanting products and couldn't be more chuffed!

Right now though I'm shattered, think I'm losing my voice but happy, definitely happy.

To think this was my hobby, it's all down to the encouragement of lovely friends and family, especially Mel Price inviting my show for the first time two and a half years ago in her lovely Christmas Fayre and my brilliant, supportive Jon.

As always, I've been busy! The pottery world is going good and I'm working on a big order for a hotel I can't wait to visit. The change in the season has really increased the amount of work I'm getting through as I'm using the warmer weather to dry off pots, throwing in the morning and turning in the afternoon. If I'm lucky glazing in the evening.

Around lunchtime though I do take half an hour to potter in the garden and it's paying off. Anyone who's been to our place over the last year will know the garden was a tip as we moved all the beds, laid out paths and finished off building works. It's great to see it coming together so I'm adding a load of garden photo's, my mum likes to see these! and lots of plants have come my way from her lovely garden in Cornwall.

As you can see the Garden Kitchen is finished, with electricity and running water, the fireplace works great and kicks out the heat. It's now a case of finishing the pizza oven.

My allotment, just starting to get going!

And then there's these, finished ready, thrown, altered, three sided plate/bowl. I really love these sculptural shapes.

And finally, tomorrow this old fella is coming down. He's dying slowly and if you know your tree's you'll know it's dangerous when these start to age as branches easily fall off. I was gutted when I found out but now, being practical, I'm okay about it. 

Just to make it even easier Jon has got materials together to build me a shepherds hut there instead to have as my potting shed! Happy Days!

Summer's coming! We finished off the building work in the garden this weekend, there's just a little top path dressing to do and the main alterations will be finished, well, I say finished but there's still the pizza oven to build. That though is a design job Jon's really looking forward too and he'll take his time to get it right, we've heard lots of stories of pizza oven's not getting hot or staying hot, so using a few tips from the kiln building books we have Jon is going to develop his own design, fingers crossed.

The pizza oven base isn't in either of these photo's but just to show the finished ruined cottage, folly, grotto, whatever people want to call it. It now has a sunk with running water and electricity supply too, I'm guessing we'll be using this a lot over summer so long as it's warm enough.

Here's two of our friends testing it out with a cuppa!~ and the top photo show's the fire place in action, it really kicks out the heat.

I've been quietly making, glazing, throwing and generally building up the stock, I'm loving the warmer weather, means I can use the outside space to dry work through as well, not too fast as the drying needs to be even to prevent warping but it does speed up the whole process. I'm watching the time scale pass slowly knowing that the first show of the year is going to be a biggie so well need lots of stock ready.

And these two are my constant companions, they have settled into the rhythm of a working pottery really well, every now and then Betty comes in for a nose and gets more clay on her coat then either of us would like but if that's the worst that can happen then hey, happy days!

  

Today I've set off the biscuit firing so I can glaze today and tomorrow ready for when it's cooled down, I'll add photo's from the glaze I opened last night later on but there were some beautiful little espresso mugs that came out and some great mugs along with a bunch of other stuff.