Spring Pottery Times Two

I took a pottery class at Britannia Community Centre again this Spring, as I have done many times before, with Helen Spaxman as instructor. She has become a good friend over the years. I was also a member of the UBC Pottery Club (a "community" member, I pay more than students do, which is fair). Both were a lot of fun. Here is one batch of stuff from UBC:

None of this turned out like I had hoped. There was elaborate (well, for me) designs in underglaze that just didn't come through. The napkin rings were part of a birthday present for my son (I gave him cash as well, I am not crazy!). I know the glazes at Britannia very well by now, so the results are more reliable:

Some of these have already been given as gifts and I kept the garlic jar (green, left, the other candidate that is blue is a tea light). I was pretty happy with these. 

A beautiful woman gave me a beautiful fish

Maybe you were hoping for a picture of the woman, but here is the fish: 

It is a cold smoked mackerel. It is quite tasty as well as being beautiful. I had some of it in a sandwich I took to work to eat for dinner this evening. I had a bit of work to catch up on but mostly it was an excuse to cycle in and then go to the pottery studio afterwards. I am just going to head over there now and try and make something. Anyway, the fish is very tasty but quite rich. Having it with bread was a good idea. I think I will make some of the rest of it into a pasta sauce, with something to cut the richness. Maybe lemon juice and zest, or capers...

Tidying my apartment

I bought the book below, by a Japanese woman who makes her living helping people tidy up their homes. It has some really good ideas in it.

The two main points I thought were

• Don't keep anything that doesn't bring you joy to own.
• Arrange your things so you can see everything you have.

There were some details on the order to sort through things and how to handle specific categories. There were tips on how to let things go that did not bring you joy but that you had difficulty getting rid of (like gifts from friends and family). I made some progress on my place and gave away a bunch of things to charity, reorganized the rest. She had an idea for how to store clothes which at first I thought was silly, but it is actually quite helpful to let you see what you have. Below are my short sleeved T-shirts organized by her design. It works really well. 

The book seems more useful than most books actually aimed at self mental health. The simplification of environment and the release of stress from the reduction of clutter would benefit a few people that I used to live with. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend the book to them as they would only take offence.