First Earlies

There's a different smell around the farm at the moment - I find that Debbie has bought a blow torch and is experimenting with scorching her paintings. The results are amazing! but, since it's all done outside, it's a case of trying to dodge the snow showers...

With best intentions I have a box of first earlies chitting in windowsill half way up the stairs. I have a bag of main crop waiting to be laid out in a second box. Life is so busy at the moment I think I'll be putting most of our raised beds down to one or other type of potato with maybe the odd onion and parsnip - minimal attention required... Good job the three of us are spud fans!

I'm home for the weekend between trips abroad with work. Time to refill the boiler, bring in some logs, wash some shirts, and spend some precious time with family. But most important of all - strut my stuff at Coxwold Village hall at a very dear friend's 40th birthday bash - 70's style. Over the past few weeks I've been growing a goaty beard which today has been trimmed down to a classic porn star / drug dealer / hipster droopy moustache (I don't think it will remain on my face for mare than a day!)

I think our son is stirring after his midday nap - so better be off...

Snow snow snow

Just like everyone else in the North East of England, we have had our fair shair of snow over the past week or so - however, from the news coverage it looks as though we've missed the main falls and only have about 30cm on the ground. But, as we live here, we have no problem getting to work! So we're still open to all who venture out to see us.

Very glad we took delivery of 5 tons of woodchip a few days ago - with temperatures dipping down to minus 10 C the boiler has been earning its keep. And it's been a perfect chance to throw some large logs in that we collected in 2009 from some of the branches down around the farm. The boiler seems to work better when it's firing on all cylinders, really seems to burn the wood down to very little ash...

Following a very busy month - courses from Celia Smith and Peter Wray, and opening TWO shows - Debbie's own show in the main gallery and a show featuring Hilary Angle and Barbara Wood in the Tractor Barn - we now have only a few weeks left before closing the doors for Christmas. It's been great to have the gallery bursting with people and creativity, but it will also be pleasant at the end of the month to take a deep breath and enjoy a few days to ourselves!

Steve's week off..

I've taken a week off work and had a 'staycation' in the truest sense of the word - stayed at home. And it's been great - once I managed to get my head into the 'holiday' groove... Playing with chainsaws and fallen trees, piles of wood, mowers, cars, bikes... anything to be outside in the fresh air (occasionally tinged with exhaust fumes and wood smoke) - and playing with our son.

Wednesday was a special day - Debbie and I packed up our rucksacks and headed for the hills -our first real walk on the moors together since the boy came along. A day in glorious sunshine up above Hawnby, with the ever present Bilsdale mast towering above us.

Debbie took sketch book and pencil along for the day - it will be interesting to see if any of the walk ends up in future drawings... On the topic of Debbie's drawings, we spent a morning with the framer last week in the very pleasurable task of discussing how to frame Debbie's newest body of work due to be exhibited in November in Lund Gallery. There are some interesting 3D blocks and multiple image works - can't wait to see how they will look when framed up...

Autumn on the Lund

The past few weekends have been wonderfully busy ; the opening of our 5th anniversary show, followed by a woodblock printing course from Jo McChesney and a stone carving course from Dominic Hopkinson. The creative buzz that comes with hosting courses makes the whole Lund come alive...

The sculpture yard has been bursting with colour - could not believe how the borders have flourished...

... and the White Horse of Kilburn has been repainted in the last few weeks, and it seems to jump off the hillside on a sunny day...

Steve has been trying to work out what veg to plant over the winter - this year we will mostly be eating spinach and spring onions.. I know it's a cliched picture, but I could not resist a snap of the fork in the vegetable plot that I saw the other day... They say that much of the pleasure of food is in the anticipation - well we'll be anticipating these for several months!

Almost Five!

Lund Gallery is rapidly approaching its fifth anniversay! In may ways it seems 'just like yesterday', but then again there are times when it feels like more than five years - there's a lot of hard work behind the scenes!

In these last five years we have built up a considerable mailing list to which we send out invitations to our featured exhibitions and events, and it has grown to quite a size - a little bit too large in fact. So in order to save some trees we have decided to make sure the list is up to date. So, if you are currently on our mailing list and would like to continue receiving information from the gallery in the future, please let us know by e-mail, 'snail- mail, or in person when you next visit the gallery.

Peter Humpherson's Pots

A short blog entry just to say how much we like Peter Humpherson's pots.


He has a selection in our current show, including some new forms on wooden bases one of which required a little last minute work before display...

On yer bike...

I took some time away from the chocolate factory and loaded up my bike with a tent and loaded the bike onto a train up to Berwick upon Teed (what a fantastic thing to be able to do - take a bike on a train for free!). The following days were then spent ambling back through the Cheviots and the Pennines roughly following Sustrans route 68. Revisiting many of the places I have not been on a bike for over 20 years - absolutley fantastic. One of the highlights was an old railway up Tynedale to Alston; I think Sustrans deserve a warm pat on the back for having opened up some fantastic cycleways.

I would also like to take the opportunity to praise Anna Whitehouse, an up-and-coming ceramicist from Harrogate who has helped us out in the Gallery over recent weeks - including photographing much of the current work in the Gallery and setting us up with some 'business pages' on Facebook : thanks Anna...