Pots down south

Here I am back in the workshop after a silly quick trip down south at the weekend. Last weekend I was driving north to the middle oft he middle of nowhere, this weekend I was on the train south to London - Bedford - Cambridge - Stoke Ash - London and then home. It was rather a whistle stop tour but I got to spend most of the time with my good friend Doug and my friend Jon and we had the company of many a fine pot along the way.
I've never been to the Fitzwilliam Museum before so we all met there and oooohed and ahhhhed and left greasy nose marks all over the glass of the cases of slipware in the museum. We drank lots of tea though I have to say some brew offerings were rather better than others and none as good as the one I had at 11pm at the hotel next to Carlisle station on my way home on saturday night where I was taking refuge while waiting for the last train.

The Fitz was great, lots of pots that I know from seeing in books and on websites but haven't actually seen in the flesh before.
On saturday after an early start we were at the Victoria and Albert Museum for the Heritage Crafts Association spring conference. I really enjoyed listening to Lida Kindersley who is a letter cutter and who now runs the Kindersley Workshop in Cambridge. I was aware of the workshop, I think from college but I'm not sure, her talk on training and passing on of skills was really interesting.
I also enjoyed the slightly sheepish way that Robin Wood admitted to spending far more than "an hour or so" on the internet each day using blogs and twitter and facebook and the like. I know that feeling, it feels somehow that you are very bad for using the technology so much, my excuse is that I don't have much pf a life, I don;t have a TV either so the time some people would spend watching that I spend writing this or watching videos of potters and looking at pictures of pots etc etc.

While we were at the V&A we did get a brief chance to dash through the ceramics department, I visited my favourite green tapered Mill Green jug, I do so love these pots, there's a few knocking around and they are delicious.
Back to work this week, today I have thrown a trillion plates (so it feels like) and split a million trillion pallets up (so my arms are telling me) and I am now off to bed!