Thanksgiving Greetings

I usually try and find a beautiful American quilt to greet you on this day!  However, because I'm under the influence of my visit to Stoke on Trent, which I have yet to tell you about, I am sending you instead, a Turkey platter made in that city!

This beauty was made by Spode who manufactured in it's vast factory in Stoke from 1774 to 2008, when it finally closed.  The brand was subsequently purchased by Portmeirion, who continue to make Spode branded wares at their own factory in Stoke.

A sad and familiar tale, but at least the name continues albeit in a somewhat diminished form!

 

Greetings from Wales to all 

Across the Pond on this 

Thanksgiving Day!

Big Day for EB!

I am still preparing the next Stoke on Trent post, but in the meantime I have to share with you these pictures of Emma with the Duchess!  Better publicity you could not buy?

No prizes for guessing what the Duchess is asking in the last picture?

It's all in aid of charity of course!  Here is the link to the story if you would like to follow it?

Of course the EB potty people are very eager to get their hands on some of these, but they won't be out until next March. With Christmas coming, followed by the special sale runs, the factory will be working at full capacity now.  So everyone will have to be patient, but it really is the thrill of the chase.  Once they have them it won't be long before they will be selling them on eBay - I have seen it all before.

I love this pattern -

I would choose a six pint jug!  However, I am pretty sure that this won't be going into general production - the big teapots are probably either gifts or raffle prizes?  Indeed, the Duchess might be taking one home with her?

A little break!

I have been doing a bit of gadding about!  Sharon and I have been staying in a Facebook friend's little house in Derbyshire for a few days!

It was quite delightful and a lovely base for visiting some favourite places.

On the way we visited the Bicester shopping outlet and did some Christmas shopping and this was the hall on our arrival!

It got much fuller than this -  this was the rear view of the cab on the way home!

Well where to start?  We packed so much into those few days!  Of course as both of us are potaholics we made two visits to Stoke on Trent, but on the middle day we visited Chatsworth to take in a bit of culture!

This is the view of the Painted Hall where the staff were beginning to put up the Christmas decorations!  They were full of apologies for the disruption but it was interesting to see the process in a stately home.  We weren't that impressed with the decorations which we thought were more suitable for a department store and didn't think that they did justice to their sumptuous surroundings!

Chatsworth is a stunning house and we had a beautiful day to see it all -

The above picture is a view of the golden windows, not yellow paint but real gold leaf!  When I visited a few years ago the whole house was shrouded in plastic as it was being renewed.

Next time I will tell you all about our visit to Stoke on Trent and the pots we bought and saw!

Till then, here is a taster -

Thank you Sharon for taking the pictures!