deborahgowerceramics

Please drop in and say hello.  Even if I can’t speak French I would love to meet you and encourage you to play with some clay with me.

Beinvenue

Debby

I have a bit of a sore throat today lucky I bought a stock of cough lollies from home smile emoticon .  And I am thanking Brigitte – bless her. Look what she brought me today. I was really cold today for some reason and then she turned up at the studio with hot vegetable soup and accessories. I have no idea how she knew I wasn’t feeling too good because I hadn’t said a word. You have no idea how hot vegetable soup warms you right down to your soul when you are cold. It was delicious. Merci Merci Merci Brigitte.

These are my first French students.  The boys had a wonderful time making Kangaroos and Koalas.  I had trouble explaining a wombat though 🙂

Merci boys

Debby xxx

This afternoon I ventured into Pheasant Wood.  It is in this place that 250 Australian Soldiers were buried and lay unidentified until 2009. Then an Aussie school teacher decided to do some research and found the grave site.  After much paperwork I imagine, excavation proceeded and then DNA identification has taken place.  One of ladies at Mullumbimby is presently being DNA tested to identified one of the soldiers Albert Paton.  Pheasant Wood is such a peaceful spot.  And indeed on my first day here I saw a pheasant flying into the woods as if to say hello.  In the wood all you can hear are the birds.  All you can see are trees and woodland.  It is hard to imagine the bombing and the mud and the horrors of 100 years ago.

Debby

Bonjour dear friends  Today thanks to the kindness of Jean Pierre I have some photos of me playing with clay.  Jean Pierre has been helping me with materials  More later my friends

Debby

I was up early this morning and probably so was the rest of the village because I managed to set the alarm to the building off not once but twice – Oh dear. I think I have it sorted now. 🙂

Then I was playing with clay. My most favourite thing to do. I also met a wonderful lady named Beatrice who spoke English very well and we had a chat.

Today was a very good day clay wise. The clay is earthernware, quite soft and is easy to work with.  I understand we have booked the kilns to fire my work so I am praying the pieces dry quickly.  It is always an unknown for me when I work with different clay.  Especially since I have specific deadlines for this exhibition.  I am praying to the kiln gods already 🙂

Hoping you all have a creative day today wherever you are

Debby xxx

It was an early start.  I was up at 1:30 am (in the morning) to go Villes Bretonneau for the ANZAC Dawn Service.  What an emotionally stunning service.  I only have the one picture because it was raining and there were 6000 people at the ceremony.   Before dawn the darkness and the rain combined to create a sense of what it must have been like for the Australian Soldiers one hundred years ago.  Cold and wet.  And as the dawn broke to a new day Commemorative Wreaths were laid to honour those who serve/d in all wars.   The Mayor of Fromelles laid a particularly beautiful wreath and after the ceremony I was able to lay a wreath card from Mullumbimby.

While I was there I said a prayer for Joseph Ambrose Sylvester Halcroft – He was the grandfather of a friend of mine from Mullumbimby.  Joseph died in the first world war and  is buried at Villes Bretonneau and his granddaughter Jo wrote a very special message on one of the Australian War Memorial Crosses.

Mid morning I attended a civic reception with the Mayor of Fromelles, Jean Gabriel Masson at the Town Hall in Villers- Bretonneux. This was followed by a Memorial Service and then the Annual ANZAC Day Concert.

Then to the Hamel memorial

and then to Bullecourt.  AT Bullecourt there was one ceremony at the memorial statues in the town.  After that we walked behind the band and the main party, moving to the sound of Waltzing Matilda and Click Go the Shears and some stirring French tunes.  We walked up to the battlefields and the Digger Memorial Statue.  I liked this last ceremony very much – the school children read poems and participated in the ceremony and there was a wonderful community spirit.

Lest We Forget

Debby xxx

A big hello to the scouts from Bayview NSW http://bayviewseascouts.com/index.htm who were at the Pheasant Wood ANZAC ceremony and the students from Perth Australia who participated in the ceremony.

  This hat belonged to the son of a man who was involved with the research/location/excavation of the graves at Fromelles.  The son served with the Australian Army in Afghanistan.

Debby