Raku Pots - update

From kiln to sawdust.

On the weekend myself and my pottery friends went back to Wrington to finish the pots we made a week  ago (see posting of 21st Sept 2010).  The beautiful autumn weather continued throughout the day and we were able to have our lunch al fresco! We worked through from 10am to 6.30 pm.  this whole course is a delight from start to finish.




Douse with more sawdust.



                                                                               Finished Pot.

                                                   Sunset at The Walled Garden, Wrington.

The end of our time at this lovely place at the foot of the Mendips.  This is the last thing we saw, the sun setting over the tiny little village Church in Wrington.










Jewellery making.

 

Just a small sample of what I made on Monday.  At £2 a class in the Chaple hall in Ynysddu is fantastic value.  You then pay the tutor for the beads and findings that you use.  These four pair of earrings cost me £6.  Four Christmas gifts for £6 isn't bad.  Okay, I have to by the small boxes to put them in, but that will be minimal on the Internet.  Good value for token Christmas gifts and stocking fillers.  It would be even cheaper if you made them at home yourself of course, but then you have the initial outlay for the tool.  It depends on whether or not you want it for a hobby or not I suppose!

Dylan Thomas - A Child's Christmas in Wales.





 Having dutifully handed in my homework today, I thought I would do a short posting on this lovely book - A Child's Christmas in Wales - that I had to study for homework last week. It's not the first time I have read it by any means, but to hear it read by our tutor today gave it a whole different perspective.  It is a far better story for being read aloud than it is to read.  Thomas writes in a prose style that highlights the pleasure of words.  It is evocative of Christmas and viewed with great pleasure by me as I was born and brought up in the Welsh valley's.

It brought back so many memories for me and the sentence in italics below are probably my favourite piece of the text, as I can identify with it.

"I can never remember whether it snowed for six nights when I was twelve, or whether it snowed for twelve nights when I was six!"

Well, neither can I remember that kind of detail, but Christmas was always a snowy time (or so it seemed) when I was a girl.  Those were the days when winter was winter not these muggy, watery, sunny, mild days we have now at Christmas.  Ahh... nostalgia!





Raku pottery

Barley Wood Craft Barns, Wrington





Stage 1 - Throwing a pot.

Stage 2 - Throwing a pot



For the second year running my pottery friends and I went to the lovely Barley Wood Walled Garden craft barns in the village of Wrington ,nestling below the Mendip hills.  What a lovely venue for the teaching of crafts.  In our case we went to received pottery tuition, just as we did last year. 

The walled garden dates from 1901 and were constructed for Henry Herbert Wills, director of the Imperial Tobacco company in Bristol.  Walled kitchen gardens were the zenith during this time, supplying every kind of fruit including figs, grapes and nectarines to the family in Barley Wood house. Although not part of the house any longer, they are still beautifully tended by the current owners, and the craft barns, a relatively new addition, lend themselves perfectly for creativity in this glorious location.  In addition there is a delightful cafe/restaurant within the walled garden complex.  They serve wonderful freshly cooked country fayre.  A wonderful day out if you are a gardener, of the craft persuasion or simply for a ride in the country with a delightful lunch.  I can't speak highly enough of this venue.

I must not forget our pottery tutor Bill Moore, an excellent craftsman with enormous patience.  This extremely talented man has a display of all his own work in one of the craft barns, and it's all for sale if you are looking for a gift or just collecting pottery. This place and the whole experience for my friends and I have been a real find over the last year or so.













Independent Ballet Wales - The lady of The Lake/ Llyn-y-Fan

This time last year I went with my friend Anne to see the Independent Ballet Wales perform 'How Green Was My Valley' at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff. I was enraptured. This evening I was fortunate enough to see them perform again at the  Riverfront theatre in Newport.  This young, vital group performed 'The Lady of the Lake', the fairy bride who left her underwater home to marry a farmer and lived as his wife in the Brecon Beacons. Ultimately, she returns to her water home in the lake, it is quite a sad tale, but beautifully performed again this year.

These young people take the most famous Welsh folk tales of all time and perform them as breathtakingly as any professional performing the classics.  These young dancers are pushing back the boundaries of classical ballet while bringing life to the finest characters in literature. 

A literary coincidence?

 The Boathouse, Llaugharne

 On our return journey home from Pembrokeshire, my cousin and I stopped off at Laugharne.  Neither of us had been there for many years and decided it was time to return.  Lying on the estuary of the river Taf is this lovely home of Dylan Thomas.  He lived there from 1949 until his death in 1953.  It is said that Laugharne is probably the town that inspired Thomas when he wrote about the fictitious town of Llareggub in 'Under milk Wood'.

It was amazing that on my first day back at college today (2nd year HND course with the University of Newport Wales) the tutor should ask us to read short stories for homework, recommending Dylan Thomas's 'A Child's Christmas in Wales' as the one for student discussion next week.  There followed a question and answer session on Dylan Thomas and his lifestyle, which was good for me as I was able to shine with my recently refreshed memory of some of his work and background - unusual for something to go my way!

Pembrokeshire 2010



Proof that I had a paddle!



Canadian geese gathering for migration.



Beautiful Newport bay.

Pembrokehire was equally as beautiful this year as last.  My cousin and I made the most of our three-day break and we were lucky to have experienced just one day of rain.  Considering the summer we have had this was good.  However, the day it did rain - it poured!!  We parked at Manobier bay, read the papers and nodded off for a while, that was all we could do!  It was far too wet to go out and explore. We had set aside this day for a return trip to Caldy Island and hoped to attend a service in their local church, but the weather was so rough all sailings to Caldy were cancelled.


The day before had been warm and sunny and we managed to paddle (see photo above - actual proof!).  We took ourselves off to Newport, (Pembs. obviously) and explored the area. A picturesque little town between Fishguard and Cardigan on the A487. We found a lovely place for coffee and were so impressed we went back there for lunch. On our way down to the beach we saw Canadian gees gathering prior to migration.  It was a magical sight.


If anyone reading this blog is thinking of a break, you won't go far wrong with this pretty little town especially if it's peace and tranquility you're after.