Travelling through the South of England (part I)

At the end of April my husband and I travelled to my first Potfest show in the UK. It took place at the beautiful estate of Glynde Place. This historical manor was the perfect background for this wonderful ceramic show which was so well organised.

It was such a pleasure to be part of it and I've met many wonderful new colleagues. Everyone was so friendly and kind! Next year I hope to go back to participate in one of the Flagship shows.

Below you can see field for the ‘Potters competition’ where the visitors could vote for their favourite piece.

Some details of my stand at the show.

After these 3 days of work we continued our journey to Canterbury.

Having a break with English scones and a cup of hot chocolate on this rainy day was definitely a must!

We loved wandering around in this charming city and curious as I am, I also liked to look into these old houses and imagining the people who might have lived there.

We discovered this lovely second hand bookshop ‘The Crooked House'. Amazing, isn't it? Entering through this bright red crooked door into an old house with wooden floors, shelves loaded with books and small stairs with creaking steps.

The next village we visited was the mediaval city Rye in East-Sussex and we really loved it, even more than Canterbury. It was so charming and picturesque with its moss covered roofs and old houses in tiny cobbled streets.

The church of St. Thomas the Martyr at the centre was surrounded by bluebells and gravestones under a gigantic red beech. It was definitely a peaceful place of peace. I loved it here and enjoyed the silence while sitting on a bench and pondering how life must have been here back in the Middle Ages.

There are an almost innumerable number of reasons to visit Oxford, the City of Dreaming Spires, which was our next stop. The literary history was surrounding us at every turn, world-class museums, the exceptionally beautiful stationery shops and famous bookshops... . But for me it's its exquisite architecture in those warm hues. It so often felt like I was walking inside a postcard whilst traversing Oxford's winding streets on this sunny day.

I wanted to visit the Natural History museum and look into old herbaria I have been reading about but it was already closed so I really hope to go back one day!

One of the things that unifies the buildings of Oxford and makes them so beautiful, especially when the sun shines, is the Headington stone that the buildings are made of. The stone gets its name from the Headington Quarry where it was produced, around 4 miles from the centre of Oxford.

We wandered through the cozy streets against a blue sky, marvelling at all this architectural beauty and cohesion. Such a lively city with all the students!

We had exceptional beautiful and sunny spring weather and all the green looked so vividly. The lilacs and blossoms were in full bloom and made everything look so pretty.

The famous Radcliffe Camera is an iconic Oxford building and still a working library which is part of the central Bodleian Library complex nearby.

Of course I wanted to visit some of the lovely shops. My first stop was Alice’s shop. It was quite a disappointment because it mainly sold typical touristic items.

So let's go to my favourite shop in Oxford now, Scriptum in Turl Street. This was an amazing shop with a huge selection of fine stationery. I couldn't resist buying a wooden travel flower press and some wax seals. As I have already quite an amount of notebooks in stock at home, I resisted the temptation to buy some more.

I have to admit I've been visiting every bookshop I came across and bought some lovely new books about natural history and gardening. After all, it's only in the UK where one can find such a broad and interesting selection on these topics, isn't it?!

Blackwell is Oxford's biggest and oldest bookshop, selling knowledge since 1879. What a delight to browse for some good books in this big bookshops which last for ages.

And now my husband and I drive to the lovely Cotswolds… In my next blogpost you will read everything about it!