Wiktionary
vb. (present participle of potter about English)
Usage examples of "pottering about".
In the first library an old crone was pottering about, shifting files and noisily snuffling back the snot which trickled onto her upper lip.
I was looking forward to that very much, but rather less to the prospect of another long, purposeless day in Bowness, pottering about trying to fill the empty hours till tea.
Every morning after breakfast she went out and was happy pottering about in it.
He had a frugal breakfast of his own and spent some time pottering about the cottage.
An old man of astonishingly benevolent appearance was pottering about in the garden.
She still maintains she can't remember what she was doing on the Friday or the Tuesday: she was pottering about, she says.
I'm quite happy pottering about here, minding my own business, he told himself untruthfully.
The scientist was pottering about the little laboratory and only turned to look at Hatch when he entered.