Westray Pottery

18/12/2021

18/12/2021

View from garden into the valley Last of the fine days

15/12/2021

It's been two years since I left Westray and would like to send my best wishes and Christmas greetings to friends there.I hope the curse of Covid doesn't curtail celebrations too much.
It has been difficult moving around during the time of the pandemic and with friends affected,just hoping that people can live a more nrmal life.
Walking the high road above the village the air is rich with the scent of pines.In the open fields the olive trees are being cut back.Often families work together both with this and harvesting the olives.
The olive wood is burnt in people' homes and has a smell very reminiscent of burning peat.
Where the grass has been cut back a carpet of daises and wild flowers appears.It is hard to believe it is close to midwinter.
When the rains do come they are often intense and drenching.They are important for the olive and citrus trees because there is little or no rain in the summer.
There is also a heightened risk of wildfires in the summer if the winter is too dry.
It is a beautiful and spectacular view from the ridge across the valley to the mountains beyond.Soon the far mountains will be snow covered.
Descending into the village the sculpted orange trees give a festive appearance with their dark green folliage.In place of baubles are ripening oranges.The fruit lasts through the rest of winter and into the spring.
Many of the people here are quite poor but live decently
within the traditions of the rural landscape.The countryside is truly stunning with a rhyme and rhythem of grass granite olive and orange trees.
Nevertheless I am only here as a guest and visitor.The language and culture are difficult and impenetrable.
Hopefully festivities which can be colourful are allowed to proceed to some extent.

It

30/10/2021

Cop 26 China's Co2

With Orkney at the forefront of new renewable technology to tackle climate change and with new innovotive
Ideas to reduce individual usage such as the energy passive home which can cut energy loss by up to 90%
I hope cop26 wiil be a real sounding forum for the wealth
of ideas to reduce co2 and it's impacts on rhe world at the large.
China produces nearly 28% of the worlds co2.At present it has 1082 coal fired power stations more than the rest of the developed world put together.
In 2020 new coal fired stations were being built athe rate of one per week.73.5 gw of new capacity has been proposed.This is 5x more than the rest of the world put together.China does has said it does not intend to cut co2 emmisions until after 2030.With hundreds of deaths from flooding in this country alone this year it is one of the countries most likely to suffer from this policy.
Sadly the efforts of the rest of the world in trying to climate are likely to be neutralised unless China can be intensively lobbied to change its energy policies.
The met office was my first career choice but it was a very different world to the one we live in now.Kuwait for example has become virtually uninhabitable were it not for air conditioning( powered by fossil fuels)

26/10/2021

The real summer in Portugal comes in the autumn.From June until Late August the lanscape bakes to a cinder with no respite from the heat ,which can be between 34c to 42c each day.
Now the fields are greening and the olives are ripening.It would be better to be making pottery in Westray during the summer months.I am not sure that will be possible but here's hoping!
It is a changed world though everywhere with the pandemic continuing.For my friends in the Philippines it is a hard time.When there is no money coming in it is hard to survive and eat enough.It is the same for all poor countries.Vaccination rates are low and the vaccines available are not always the best.
Hopefully covax will deliver more in the near future.
It will be good to visit Westray next year and catch up with folk.

16/04/2021

The Weather (The story Of the clouds)

When I was around 13 before I had any thoughts of pottery,my sister bought me the observer's book of weather and sparked a lifelong interest.
Before the days of computer generated weather forecasts farmers and sailors in particular, would have to rely on the omens in the sky.There are many old sayings some of which are very accurate.Red sky at night shepherd's delight,"Red sky in the morning shepherds warning^ is very reliable.Mackeral sky and mares tails make tall ships carry low sails perhaps less so.One which I find particularly reliable is "The ark is out There's rain about."This usually appears in a bright blue sky and is like the backbone of a fish with ribs either side.
In folklore there is a deep mistrust of mild winters.Before the days of tarmaced roads lanes would become a quagmire and in mild wet conditios viruses would quckly spread."If the grass grows well in January it will grow the worse for all the year" "Green Christmas full churchyard is another example.
My father took me to the meteoroligical station at Gatwick airport.In those days all the weather maps were drawn by hand.There were not the worries and concerns there are today about our climate.
Forecasts were seldom accurate more than a couple of days in advance and there was an atmosphere of puoneer innocence around the whole subject.Trying to make my own forecasts from a combination of interpreting the clouds and watching the clouds amused my friends.
After.1980 I began to notice a change in weather patterns.Fairly reliable patterns in the years weather were not the same as before.From around 2000 the talk was very much of increasing carbon dioxide.To date this is now 50% above pre industrial levels.
There are many factors in global climate imcluding oceanic solar and volcanic factors.There is huge disagreements even amongst experts as to their relative influence.
In 2007 an article sppeared in the New Scientist entitled
Global warming why the sun may come to our rescue.
I discovered there is more to the changes than meets the eye .The earth in the late twentieth century was experiencing what is termed a grand solar maximum which could explain 30% of the warming in the 20th century..By 2020 the sun had come full circle and we are not entering a grand solar minimum which well last more than 30 years.
This is not in any sense to minimise the effect fossil fuels are having on the climate.In China alone there are over 1000 coal fired electricity stations and of course many nations produce grest amounts of co2.
Carbon dioxide is not an evil in it'self it is vital to photosynthesis. But in combination with other gases it traps heat in the lower atmosphere.
During a grand solar minimum cosmiic rays increase and there is correlation with this and increased volcanic activity and lower cloud formation.
Needless to say it is hugely contentious.Some think changes in the climate are purely solar driven whereas others blame man's influence.
Whatever happens it is unfolding story and with a major climate summit due to go ahead later this year our actions now may well shape the future.