I’ve always had a yearning to do more with clay, no I haven’t watched the latest series on television, more from lack of time than anything else. When I was a child I was quite good at making pots and playing with glazes and then I took it back up whilst pregnant with son no.2 but a deep vein thrombosis and several weeks in hospital put paid to that.  And then life moved on.

During September I killed two birds with one stone, I headed out to see The Geffrye Museum of the Home which was lovely and had been on my to do list for quite some time whilst at the same time allowing my inner potter to revel in all the shapes and glazes at the pottery exhibition, Ceramics in the City 2015 as part of the London Design Festival.  A lot has happened since September and paper work and notes have long since been misplaced, but it would be a shame not to at least have the tiniest of glimpses.

And whilst looking around the various rooms devoted to the history of the domestic interior. I came across this marvelous painting.

With the inscription,

A Life Well Spent, 1862 – Oil on canvas, by Charles West Cope

This young mother is depicted as the Victorian ideal – surrounded by her well-behaved children, she is usefully employed in the economical task of knitting socks.

So fishing my knitting out of my bag I thought it only right and proper to spend a little time in the beautiful gardens of the museum working on a sock of mine.