Rowallane Pottery

A lovely friend of ours has done a fantastic blog post on Rowallane Pottery - I suggest you scoot right on over there to check it out :D

http://tinyurl.com/6aanjpv

Beadtastic!

Today marked the 2nd beading for beginners workshop in the garden kitchen tearoom. And being such a good host, I thought it was about time I tried beading out for size!

The classes are lovingly organised and taken by Kara McCullough - a lovely lady who works in Rowallane Gardens.

Our back room was set up with multiple pairs of pliers and ready to go!

My Mum joined me, and the lovely Deborah and Lynne from Castleward, sat with us!
After a quick run down by Kara - we all leapt in with gusto - however some people caught on faster than others! lol!

The level on concentration is apparent on the faces!

Everyone went away with a number of bespoke pieces. With what seemed like hundreds of different beads to choose from, it was easy to find some that suited you! And Kara was on hand with friendly help and advice when it all went wrong!

I really enjoyed my morning - and everyone else seemed to have a whale of a time too - I hope we see many more of these workshops :)

If you fancy learning how to make some beautiful, personal pieces - you can get in touch with Kara via her Facebook page! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beading-Bliss/180989881932455

Rowallane Pottery

After my post about the wheaten bread bakers I thought it was about time I posted a bit of information about Rowallane Pottery.

Tucked away in the secret garden the pottery is a beautiful little haven! With terracotta, stoneware and smoke fired pots of all different shapes and sizes, and a friendly Matt the Potter to help, assist and make/throw anything you could ever wish for, it is definitely worth a visit. I shall hopefully have some pictures of some household pots to show you soon, too many pictures to trawl through! Here are mainly terracotta plant pots, and a sneak look through the windows of the showroom!

Here is the resident robin checking out a particularly nice smoked fired pot!

 And a picture of another little character you are likely to meet in the pottery, our puppy Cwtch!

The pottery is currently open from Fridays to Sundays, from 12 - 4. With these hours changing at the spring! However, Matt the potter, is contactable via email - mattliddlepottery@yahoo.co.uk - and via the blog! 

Hidden Secrets!

You would think that, with both living in Rowallane, and working here, I would know the place like the back of my hand!

Well think again!

I went on a little wander the other day to take some pictures for Matt the Potter - He wanted me to take some snaps of the drive way and stuff.....

So the small black gremlin (Cwtch) and I set off on our mission!

Whilst we where wandering around, I came across something I never knew existed in the walled garden! It makes me wonder if I am walking the dogs with my eyes closed on the mornings and evenings! However I prefer to think it is because there are so many pretty little details in the gardens - though I admit that this isnt little - but it was tucked away in a hedge hideaway!

Another reason new pretties keep appearing is because the hard working gardeners keep uncovering and/or creating new things!

A week or so ago I noticed this little pond for the first time. The gardeners had been hard at work uncovering it. For some reason I simply LOVE it! I can visualize it all colourful and lovely when the grass recovers, and the surrounding rhodi's begin to bloom! It also makes me think of dinosaurs.... think it is the giant leaves on the rhodi's there....

Whoop Whoop website excitement!

My website is eventually on the way! 

With much thanks to Simon at SRHDesign I have a cute 'coming soon' page and lots of excitement for the page to come!

Watch this space ;o)

Wheaten Bread Bakers - Rowallane Pottery

I love this time of the year, the pick up in weather is apparent in every ones moods and actions, and it starts to motivate me to get a move on!

During the week, the gardens are still relatively peaceful, allowing me the luxury of playing around, while my brain comes out of hibernation!

Today I decided it was about time we started to use our wheaten bread bakers again! Matt the Potter, made a number of these for us last year, and since the summer disappeared, they have been gathering dust on a top shelf! I tumbled them down, and set to rinsing them out and oiling them again.

The moistness of the wheaten bread that appears outta these little guys never seizes to amaze me. I love the look of the little loaves poking outta the top of the bakers!

So I did what I thought best - took the little guys outside for some sun shine :D and to snap them in the best light with their flowery buddies!

And then set to trying it! And it wasnt disappointing!

These little bakers are brilliant for wheaten bread, however David has used them for a number of different white loaves, always with good results. Go and visit his blog or why not pop up to Rowallane Gardens and visit us both!