The Good Day Pottery Retreat – Winter Update
December 6, 2024Anonymous0 Comments
✨ The Good Day Pottery Retreat – Winter Update ✨
A December Letter from the Polish Countryside
First Edition
Winter has settled around the retreat like a thick wool blanket — the kind the ever-gentle British gardening icon Monty Don might wrap around his shoulders while strolling through a frostbitten orchard, with two loyal dogs trotting ahead of him.
The cold arrived early this year: two frosts sharp enough to make the grass ring underfoot and one particularly stern –7°C morning.
By Cornish standards, that's "shut the gate and put the kettle on" weather.
By Polish builder standards, it's "see you in spring."
The barns have fallen quiet.
The water is shut off to all outbuildings.
The heater in the workshop is doing its best… but mostly losing the battle.
So the construction rests.
But the story carries on.
**Clay, Children, and a Village School Christmas**
When the barn goes silent, the creativity simply moves elsewhere.
We took pottery to a local village school recently, and honestly — if you'd seen Anja…
If Jamie Oliver — all energy, warmth, and easy charm — ever taught pottery, it would look exactly like that: flying hands, laughter everywhere, and a room full of children (and parents) happily elbow-deep in clay.
Now their handmade decorations are drying: delicate stars, wild little shapes, and a few delightful oddities that only children could dream up. Soon they'll be fired — small promises glowing quietly in the studio.
**English, Artpreneurs & A Full Winter Teaching Roster**
My English classes have become a lively winter engine.
Not just general lessons, but the growing movement of Art English and Creative Business mentoring.
Two new Artpreneurs joined recently — each with their own vision and a desire to communicate it clearly to the world.
The Art Philosophy Lecture Series, which I delivered live to a few brave students, will soon be released on YouTube.
Early reactions have included:
• "Incredibly inspiring."
• "How dare you be this thought-provoking on a Tuesday morning."
I take both as compliments.
**The Retreat: Slow Work, Still Work**
Renovation moves at a winter's pace — slower, yes, but steady all the same.
• Repointing the stable walls
• Preparing the barn for the new mezzanine
• Finishing long-promised jobs in the main house before Christmas swallows the calendar whole
The UK architectural storyteller Kevin McCloud would call this "the quiet part of the build — where grit and character reveal themselves more clearly than plaster or brick."
He'd be right.
**Cooking, Filming, Creating**
As if pottery, English, mentoring, and renovations weren't enough, I've also begun developing recipes for the Friday cooking videos.
Think Rick Stein meets Jamie Oliver meets… the Polish countryside meets… well, me.
Farmhouse cooking with flair — the same flair that produced the now-famous BLT with a French Kiss, served on a hand-thrown plate with coffee in a handmade mug.
Food is a language too.
And soon we'll be speaking it together on the website.
**And Now, A Step Back… (in Third Person)**
Stepping back from the day-to-day, it's remarkable to watch.
This winter, Adrian and Anja aren't just teaching classes or renovating buildings — they're building momentum: in education, in pottery, in community, in creativity.
Even as frost pauses the construction, a deeper kind of work continues — shaping a retreat that doesn't just exist, but invites.
A place where stories, skills, and people come together.
The progress may be slow in the cold,
but the vision behind it
is unmistakably warm.
A December Letter from the Polish Countryside
First Edition
Winter has settled around the retreat like a thick wool blanket — the kind the ever-gentle British gardening icon Monty Don might wrap around his shoulders while strolling through a frostbitten orchard, with two loyal dogs trotting ahead of him.
The cold arrived early this year: two frosts sharp enough to make the grass ring underfoot and one particularly stern –7°C morning.
By Cornish standards, that's "shut the gate and put the kettle on" weather.
By Polish builder standards, it's "see you in spring."
The barns have fallen quiet.
The water is shut off to all outbuildings.
The heater in the workshop is doing its best… but mostly losing the battle.
So the construction rests.
But the story carries on.
**Clay, Children, and a Village School Christmas**
When the barn goes silent, the creativity simply moves elsewhere.
We took pottery to a local village school recently, and honestly — if you'd seen Anja…
If Jamie Oliver — all energy, warmth, and easy charm — ever taught pottery, it would look exactly like that: flying hands, laughter everywhere, and a room full of children (and parents) happily elbow-deep in clay.
Now their handmade decorations are drying: delicate stars, wild little shapes, and a few delightful oddities that only children could dream up. Soon they'll be fired — small promises glowing quietly in the studio.
**English, Artpreneurs & A Full Winter Teaching Roster**
My English classes have become a lively winter engine.
Not just general lessons, but the growing movement of Art English and Creative Business mentoring.
Two new Artpreneurs joined recently — each with their own vision and a desire to communicate it clearly to the world.
The Art Philosophy Lecture Series, which I delivered live to a few brave students, will soon be released on YouTube.
Early reactions have included:
• "Incredibly inspiring."
• "How dare you be this thought-provoking on a Tuesday morning."
I take both as compliments.
**The Retreat: Slow Work, Still Work**
Renovation moves at a winter's pace — slower, yes, but steady all the same.
• Repointing the stable walls
• Preparing the barn for the new mezzanine
• Finishing long-promised jobs in the main house before Christmas swallows the calendar whole
The UK architectural storyteller Kevin McCloud would call this "the quiet part of the build — where grit and character reveal themselves more clearly than plaster or brick."
He'd be right.
**Cooking, Filming, Creating**
As if pottery, English, mentoring, and renovations weren't enough, I've also begun developing recipes for the Friday cooking videos.
Think Rick Stein meets Jamie Oliver meets… the Polish countryside meets… well, me.
Farmhouse cooking with flair — the same flair that produced the now-famous BLT with a French Kiss, served on a hand-thrown plate with coffee in a handmade mug.
Food is a language too.
And soon we'll be speaking it together on the website.
**And Now, A Step Back… (in Third Person)**
Stepping back from the day-to-day, it's remarkable to watch.
This winter, Adrian and Anja aren't just teaching classes or renovating buildings — they're building momentum: in education, in pottery, in community, in creativity.
Even as frost pauses the construction, a deeper kind of work continues — shaping a retreat that doesn't just exist, but invites.
A place where stories, skills, and people come together.
The progress may be slow in the cold,
but the vision behind it
is unmistakably warm.