Medieval Pottery: Evoking Ancient Crafts

Pottery is an art that goes hand in hand with the history of man and civilization. It is said that the first known pieces were found in Japan between 400 and 10,500 BC (see A history of Pottery). Along the way,  a slow wheel or tournette was substituted by the fast potter's wheel around 2000 BC. Potters between XIII and XV had enough tools and skills to produce house utensils and building materials on a big scale, thus developing social relationships around this market and more specialization. But I am not here to write a treaty on pottery. My mission is to attract your curiosity and pave the way to your own research on possible topics on the web. If this happy potter image in a medieval fair in Vic, triggered your intellectual hunger, then the goal has been attained. In case you want to know what the sign says in the background: Taller de fang amb aigua calenta is Catalan for clay with hot water workshop.

Bubble Dreams

This image speaks for itself so I won't bore you with the place and what was happening. Well, it was in Barcelona and there was this man making soap bubbles in front of some kids. I tried to stand behind the man so you could see what that small kid was witnessing and more or less participate in the fantasy. To us adults this may not say much but the mind of a child makes wonders with the most insignificant of things. I wish I could see this way again but it's no use. At most, I can only remember my own childhood dreams, my own bubbles, somewhere lost in time.

One Handed Handstand, Parc de la Ciutadella, Barcelona

Gymnastics is that stuff that always made you feel envious back at school when you saw the guy next to you showing off in front of that girl you had a crush on, easily making a handstand and walking on both hands, doing pull ups with just one arm, the flag, the L-sit, you name it. Still after so many years, this perfect one handed handstand captured today at Parc de la Ciutadella gets on my nerves and reminds me of that insane anxiety for successful mating. Now I know that there are people for everything, some for the muscle and some for the mind. And here I was lost in my thoughts, reminiscing, indulging in my past, bringing back memories...trying to stabilize the camera on my belly, watching the girls across the park drooling and sighing for the wonderful gymnast. By the way, happy Spring for those on the northern hemisphere!