Friday 26 March 2010

The Strangest Post I'll Ever Do!

I thought long and hard about not doing this post
because I don't want you to think I'm loosing my marbles.
But I just wanted to share today's experience with you.
I was working away in the workshop yesterday morning
when John Leach came to visit me.
John was doing the rounds promoting his Picasso Exhibition
see poster now up in my showroom.
John Noticed my postcards of his Grandfather Bernard Leach on the walls by my wheels.
John started telling me stories about Bernard from
when John was an apprentice at St Ives. We chatted for some time and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

About 30 minuets later I was sat at this wheel throwing 1pint jugs,
I had made three when from the corner of my eye while I was concentrating I noticed the showroom door open and a slender figure in a dark suit walk in.
When I had finished my pot I looked up to talk to the visitor
but there was know one there!
I thought nothing of it until I started throwing the fourth jug and I felt as though I was being watched.
So I stopped in mid pot,
went and got a chair and sat it down next to where I felt I was being watched.
I said " Here you are Bernard have a chair".
and I went back to the wheel and carried on.
Later in the afternoon I was listening to the afternoon play on Radio 4
it was called
"Scummow"
About a man in Cornwall who could see the dead.
By this time I was beginning to question my own sanity.
But I carried on working.
to add to the days oddities there was a young Buzzard out side my workshop
all afternoon hunting in the garden and fields.
He kept swooping down in front of the window and sitting on this post.
So That's it.
It feels daft writing about it.
But that was my Thursday.

14 comments:

cookingwithgas said...

I have met John great guy.
Seems you had a visitor.
Sounds like offering up a chair was the right thing to do.

Tracey Broome said...

I had similar experiences after my dad died. I had a "visit" about 30 minutes after he died, once outside the funeral home and several times later that month.Birds are often mentioned along with visits from the dead. A sparrow hit my kitchen window and died right before my mom called to say my dad was dead. I was listening to NPR yesterday about a woman that has written a book about life after death. She talked about her grandfather coming at night and sitting at the foot of her bed after he died. Too many people have these experiences for there to not be something to it. I think the chair should just sit there for future visits! What an interesting day! Maybe your place has spirits, wouldn't that be cool!!

Ron said...

Cool story. The only visitors I have are in my head and they are very judgmental. I'd be happy to have a spirit now and then. The chair does look sort of funny on the other side of that railing, like you are in a cage. Well anyhow thanks for sharing. Is that a buzzard or a hawk? Just wondering, it looks like a beautiful bird.

Anna M. Branner said...

Working as an artist can be a pretty solitary past time....glad you had company. :)

Christine--RHP said...

sounds cool--glad you offered him a chair. Next time he's there say hi from me.

Hollis Engley said...

Yikes. I'm with Meredith; offering a chair was the right thing to do. And I live near Buzzards Bay, named by the early British explorers for the great number of ospreys fishing there. The word "buzzard" means one thing on this side of the Atlantic and another in the UK.

Gail said...

What a wonderful tale...One never knows...I am sure that there are many who have had similar experiences, I know that I have.

Sheila said...

Not strange at all. I live in a home that was built in 1874 and is on the National Historic Registry. We have spirits in the house, friendly and not creepy in any way.

One of our granddaughters has been "spooky" (for lack of a better word) since she was a baby. When she first visited she told us that some old people were talking to her in the stairwell. She described their conversation in great detail and it seemed in synch with what we knew of the history of the house and the original owners. This was right after we bought the house so there had been no discussion of spirits or ghosts before that time that she might have overheard.

Later on she was writing something on a notepad and hiding it when someone would come into the room. I asked her what she was doing and she said she had to write a letter to the people who used to be here. Later I asked her if she had delivered the letter and she said she hid it in the garden for them.

Right after my mother died, my sister and I both had birds repeatedly visit and tap on our kitchen windows.

Hannah said...

How bizarre. Offer him a brew next time. Like Ron all my visitors in in my head but I merrily chat away to them all day, them and the cows and the birds and the snowdrops and well anything else that doesn't run away really.
I heard that play too. Coincidence?

DirtKicker Pottery said...

Seems like John brought you more then just a flyer. What better company for your new shop :) Give my best to Bernard.

Paul Jessop said...

Blimey doesn't feel so weird after all.
I've had this sort of thing happen before but this is the first time I've ever told anyone apart from Marion.
Now I don't feel such a fruit cake.
Thanks for all of your very interesting comments.

Trish said...

Paul..what an interesting day you had! - a gift, I think.
and a treat to have John Leach (and Bernard) just drop in for a visit..I 'met' John at a workshop he gave at the University of Alberta, Edmonton in the early 1990's. I remember that he 'spoke to my heart' in terms of how he talked about his pots and the country life style. I also remember that he brought some pots for sale, and for some reason I thought I could not afford one at the time. What WAS I thinking! :)It was a pleasant day.
Good job on the studio..lookin' fine, indeed. T.

Kitty Shepherd said...

Nice story, and dare I say it...the same thing happened to me with a live legend at Wenford Bridge.

It was 1978 I had gone to meet Michael Cardew, I was 18. I arrived (difficult journey, and 400miles) I was told he wasn’t there. I was so disappointed but his housekeeper said I could look round the pottery if I liked. I stole a knob of pale clay and with his large signature stamp I pressed the scrap to indent his mark and then slipped it into a match box. All the while I could hear pipe music being played. I stayed for ages, to have the whole place to myself was a great thing, I could poke into everything. I was so engrossed reading bits of paper that when I turned round to cast my gaze elsewhere I was really startled to see a tiny old man standing in the middle of the room. It was “he”. He talked to me for a bit and showed me other things, then I turned to say something and he was vanished. Magical, or what, and as I left the pipe music resumed.

Ron said...

Thanks for clearing that up about the buzzard Hollis.

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