This year marks fifty years since I immigrated to Canada from England. Over the years I’ve made many trips back, usually with Alan, but sometimes on my own. I always make a point of revisiting favourite potters and galleries near where family members live.
After Al had had his eight-day trip to Osaka recently we agreed that I should take a holiday in England alone, mainly to catch up with my large family over there. So I’ve just returned from twelve days in England and Berlin with jet lag, a beastly cold, memories of several family get-togethers and hundreds of photos! As this is a blog mainly intended for pottery enthusiasts I shall post photos of pots, sculpture and other art but you’ll have to put up with some photos of the twenty-three family members I was able to see too! It may take me several days to describe my busy days and select the best photos – so don’t be surprised when more blogs show up in your email box.
My dear sister-in-law Lottie met me at Heathrow on Oct 5th, partly because she knew I would otherwise be tackling tube and train rides to her home in St Neots, carrying my suitcase and the ‘carry-on’ box of jugbirds. I am so grateful for that, Lottie, and the ride to Stanstead two days later. On our day together we took a lovely long walk beside the River Ouse on a fine Autumn day. It was an excellent way to try to avoid jet lag and to experience once again the delights of an English country walk.
Next day I took a half-hour bus ride into Cambridge with my nine jugbirds for a 9.30am appointment with Jeremy Waller at Primavera Gallery on King’s Parade. The prime location for this three-floor gallery opposite King’s College Chapel is leased from Corpus Christi College (at great expense I’m told). My now-departed brother Bill was a graduate of said college and I can still thank him for telling Jeremy, many years ago now, that his sister is a potter!
Downstairs where most of the pottery is displayed I quickly unpacked my pots and was relieved to find that all had survived the trip. 
Jeremy seemed pleased with the new birds, explained to a new employee how much time and expertise goes into each one(!), speedily labelled them all and placed them amongst other notable glass, wood and ceramic objects. ‘Bring more next year’, he says!
See if you can spot my work in these photos.
Then I took random pics of other pottery in the gallery rooms. You’ll see that Primavera likes to keep lots of stock on hand!
So my English holiday started on a satisfying note. Shipping pots over there would be nuts but taking whatever I can carry is a nice incentive to get new work done. I am lucky to be represented by such a prestigious gallery.
This showed up on Primavera’s website this morning!:
https://www.primaveragallery.co.uk/products/puffin-jug
