I’ve been home from a 10-day holiday in England for almost a week now but still feel somewhat jet lagged. But the days over there were packed with happy, exciting, nostalgic events. A particular highlight was taking 12 jugbirds into Cambridge, to Primavera on the King’s Parade. My brother Bill and sister-in-law Lottie helped me carry a box and a bag on the bus from St Neots.

At Primavera assistant Hugo set out two tray-tables, Bill helped me unwrap all and we were happy to see that they had travelled safely. Gallery manager/owner Jeremy Waller was most kind about my work. He asked if anyone else in Canada is doing anything else like this, how long they take to make, information about the slips, glaze and firing temperature and says that they’re certainly quite different from anything he’s seen made there. We discussed whether I would design and make English birds if wanted, yes! and whether I’d ship more if required. He mentioned displaying them on the main floor, and said that this pre-Christmas season might be good for them. So now all I can do is wait and see how the English like my work!

But of all the things I did while in England this was the most important to me. Even though I have had my work shown in a couple of galleries in the south-west (Candover Gallery, Alresford, now closed, and Fisherton Mill in Salisbury) this feels like a big step. As kind Paul Mathieu said to the other artists in my studio in August, ‘Primavera is the premier ceramics gallery in England’.

After that Bill and I walked just a little further along King’s Parade to the ever-fascinating Fitzwilliam Museum. What a treat!

My photos are of my pots waiting next to work by the English, including Richard Batterham, the mission statement of the gallery, Jeremy and me outside Primavera Gallery, King’s Parade and Bill outside the Fitzwilliam Museum.

I’ll make up an album of other events during my trip, including a visit to the Geffrye Museum in London where I caught ‘Ceramics in the City’ and the reunion I attended.