I'd like to appologise to my clients at Huntington for leaving two days early after having assured them that I would be there selling for the entire festival. I had a medical problem early Saturday morning and had to pull out. Please contact me if you had a pot you were intested in purchasing or come to the Christmas sale on the weekend of the 5th and 6th December.

At last the winter months seem to have left us behind. I know it has been a very mild winter but I do much preferr the warmer times of the year. I have been keeping my self entertained by firing with Chester Nealie and then just last week with my friend in Victoria Su Hanna.I have yet to see the pots from that firing but feel sure there will be some good results. It was interesting to travel to Bendigo where Su is based. I have never been to that part of Victoria before and was very admiring of the architecture of Bendigo or at least the little I saw of it. It looks like a beautiful city. While we were there we took the opportunity to visit Kylie and Hayden and the first family grand child Matilda. Now that is one of lifes greats. On our way home we stopped in Canberra over night and went to see Owen Ryes show at the Watson Pottery Centre.Well worth a look and then went out to a place called Stathnarne [ not sure about the spelling] to see Owen who is in Canberra for 3 weeks. Don and I had a good prowl around all the kilns there as I desperatly want a wood kiln of my own . I am having alot of trouble choosing which type to build. Too much choice I suspect!!

I will be part of a group exhibtition at Studio Alterburg in Wallace St Braidwood in July. The show will be opened by Gail Nichols and looks like it will be very interesting with a broad selection of work on show. It is about jugs. Wonderful things they are. I enjoy making them very much and using them in a number of ways.so get along if you can.

I have almost finished an unbelievably busy month or so. Not to say that it hasn't been extremely enjoyable.Started with a wonderful invitation to the races at Randwick for the Autumn Carnival. Oh I do love going to the races. So that was really good fun . Then my Aunt Bet turned 100,so cousins out from U.K.and many family gatherings and lots of late nights and very good fun. Don and I have also been up at Mooramaju fixing up the lovely house that we have on 14 acres and trying desparatly to work out how we can afford to have two houses going rather than let the house to a tennant. Not possible at this stage but how spoilt for choice are we. Two lovely places to live. At this stage we will remain in the mountains. It is so, so dry up there no water in the creek so the garden is dead such a shame. There used to be a great lawn all around the house, but the last tennant had ponies and the nieghbor has goats ,need I say more. This week we will finish all repairs and put in new carpet. Then I will go out to janet Mansfiels to help fire her racer kiln and when that is finished that should be the end of our madness for the time being. I did fire the kiln last week and that seems to have been a reasonable success. I haven't really had a good look at it yet as I have been doing an Advanced Fire Fighters course this weekend and that was really great I just have to knuckle down and study some of the new skills shown to us so I pass the assessment in about 6 weeks.

The last few months in the lead up to my show in Melbourne were very busy. I must thank Bill Samuels and Janet Mansfield who both kindly offered me large amounts of space in their kilns and allowed me to fire with them and have some very beautiful pieces to take to the show I had at Skepsi Gallery in Melbourne in August. We fired out at Bills in all kinds of weather. The first day was very cold and raining and then fined up to be breath takingly shiny bright and warm[ after the sun came up] I got some beautiful soft fired tea dust bottles, a stunning chun vase and some beautiful soft fired chun bowls that sold before I could even clean them up properly. Also out of that firing came a facetted vase fired hot in a sagger so it had glorious glaze quality and all sorts of things going on with chrystal growth in some spots. That is of course why I find wood firing such a blast . Shortly after that I went to Gulgong and fired with Janet Mansfield and Judy Boydell. That was a 40 hour firing and fired much hotter than Bills kiln. From out of the back of that kiln I got what I felt were some of the best pots I have ever made. The tea dust was varied all over some of the bowls and two Chun jugs that really made me swoon. The glaze quality was just wonderful. I really cant thank those two generous people enough, and of course the other kiln firers who helped with those firings. After the opening at Skepsi and giving a workshop for Ceramics Victoria, Don and I went out to Gippsland to fire with Owen Rye. That was wonderful as ever and it was good to meet up with Su Hanna again and to meet Sue Acheson , Bruce Pryor and an American lass Cilla all of whom were involved with the firing. It is such a team effort a 5 day firing. Made my way home over the Snowy Mountains. What a fabulous drive. So here I am preparring for Huntington and the Christmas Sale with one more wood firing for the year with Chester and I am looking forward to that. Have a new computer coming in the next week or so, so hopefully I will get on top of my image problem and be able to post some up.

Today 24th July 2008 I lost my enitre mailing list and no I hadn't backed it up for a couple of years and I can't find that disc. I have been putting the list together since 1991. If you wish to be on my list or have been could you please email your postal address to sixmaxs@bigpond.com This is not very good timing as the show in Melbourne opens on the 15th August at Skepsi Gallery.