January Photo Scavenger Hunt

I'm joining in today with Hawthorn for the monthly photo scavenge hunt - a photo for a word.  It's been quite a few months since I played and today I'm having a relaxing day to clear a lingering cold  so a good chance to look over the past year's photos and find some images to fit.

Metallic

During the summer we spent two glorious weeks holiday in France. 

Visiting a small town with a chateau I spotted this on the path to the entrance .... just in case you weren't sure where you were going!

Plate

One of my prized possessions - a plate from Belleek Pottery, made by my father for my christening and painted by C. Arnold.  I just love the spider details in it.  

Made

I've finished quite a few knitting projects in the past year but this one I'm particularly proud of and actually knitted it twice for presents.   It's a technique called brioche knitting - that means it's double sided - and the pattern is from Nancy Merchant's book Leafy Brioche.  

Aged

At the old graveyard in Ballyshannon - I could have used this for metallic as well.   Again, it was the patterns that took my eye.

Modern

In the same town as the chateau I spotted these modern plant frames - aren't the shapes great?  Ignore the fact that it's covered in pigeon poo!  

My own choice

Ropes on the Carlingford Lough Ferry - I just loved the texture

So that's it from me for this month - I hope you'll take a look at some of the other people who post great photos from around the world in this challenge.   The link is here.  

My favourite Tea Set

In response to a post by Josna at Tell Me Another earlier this year, I thought I'd put up some photos of my old Belleek Tea Set that I guard like a mother lion incase anyone should break a piece.

Belleek is best known for it's shamrock ware which was mostly exported to the United States and was a big seller with Irish living anywhere abroad.  We sent it as presents and it was especially sought after for wedding gifts.

And second to that was the basket ware - hand made and hand woven baskets with hand made and hand painted flowers.

A finished basket

Wet clay being rolled into flowers.

The basket before firing

I spent a couple of school holidays working in the Pottery, in the office, learning how to do up the wages and piece ware books (the potters were paid by the piece) ... but most of all I learned my way around the workings of the pottery.   I used to love watching the guys working at the basket ware  ... the wet clay was a bit like pasta when it was pressed out into strings of clay and it had a very unique smell.

But then there were designs that weren't so popular and those were far and away my favourites and are collectors items.   Nowadays, the china has changed a bit in texture but it's still lovely.

My tea set was passed on to me by my mother after Dad passed away.

The design is Mask I think from the period between 1925-55.

I love the ritual of using a special tea set ... it takes me right back to my childhood.

This parian ware (another name for the fine white porcelain), they said, could be dropped on a stone floor and not break .... I've never wanted to test that out, but for sure tea and coffee tastes a lot better in it.

This blog is Day 18 in Sarah Allen's 30 day blog challenge

P is for Pottery

A song for today about Places  
The Old Maid in the Garrett

I grew up in a Pottery village ... Belleek China is world famous for collectors - and my father worked in the Pottery all his life - he started at 13 sweeping floors and was General Manager when he retired at 70.



The Pottery pretty much ruled life in the village when I was growing up ...  The hooter would go at 1 for dinner break and again at 5 when the workers were finishing up - so whoever was at home would have the meal ready by the time they got back to the house.

The Pottery had and still has a policy of 'no seconds', so anything that didn't reach the standard was destroyed ... And moulds were broken after the allotted number of pieces were made there .... A real treat for my brother and me was getting some old moulds to play with.  And my father loved to experiment with different soils in the area to see if something else would work instead of having to import the kaolin from Cornwall, and further afield in later years.    So we made many little dogs and pigs and other ornaments from clay out of our garden or out of the field and then it would be taken in to the kilns to be fired along with the real stuff!

I've always adored the fragility of parian ware and collect a few pieces.    Here are some of my treasures.

Today is the 16th day of the A to Z Blogging challenge for April.  Letter P.

Do you collect anything?
Is your home town famous for anything?