Polish pottery and dog walking

You might be seeing more posts in the future saying we walked at Willsmere.

Why, you might ask. (Or you might not.)

It's because a new shop has opened in the vicinity of the park, just at the right distance for the humans to have some afternoon tea or a light meal before or after our walk. How convenient!

It's The Cup and Mug, selling gorgeous pottery from Poland, including the lovely dinner dish Penny eats from every day.

We have bowls too. Here's one of them.

a dog waits for the command to eat

Penny has always waited for a release command before starting her food, and she will also allow us to take the bowl away during her meal - probably because that only happens when we are adding to her meal, because we've forgotten something that was supposed to be in the bowl.

But she sure gives us those 'puppy eyes' to tell us to get on with the job if we make her wait too long.

I can't usually get such candid shots of her, because she doesn't like the big 'eye' of the camera pointing at her, and usually turns her head away. I got this clear shot by using a phone instead of a camera.

I've mentioned previously that I really like this new bowl, which I bought from The Cup & Mug, because it's solidly made, and easy to keep clean. 

You can see how it didn't move shift on the floor when Penny changed position to clean up those pesky little bits of food that escaped down the side of the bowl.

humans deserve nice food bowls too

Penny has a gorgeous bowl for her dinner, so why shouldn't I have one too? Yesterday my friend who imports Polish ware had an open day, and I decided the humans in our household deserved bowls as nice as Penny's one. You can see my friend's lovely tableware at her Pinterest board.

So, when Penny and I came home today from our exciting trip to the beach, she crashed on the couch to sleep the afternoon away (and, hopefully, to let her sore paw recover), but I was hungry. It was a temptation to just have a slice of toast, but I looked at my nice new Polish-ware bowl and I was inspired to cook a proper meal.

 Fry up some home-grown garlic - yumm! Add some chopped fresh tomatoes, some Arborio rice, water, celery, a shake of pepper, race out to the garden and grab some rainbow chard and cavolo nero leaves, and presto! you have a meal. Oh, and I mustn't forget the fresh beans my neighbor gave me the other day.

Isn't the bowl lovely? I bought a set of bowls, all in different patterns. I don't think they have to be identical, because the overall 'blue' style is consistent.

a Christmas gift for Penny the dog

Just yesterday I was boasting that I had never bought a Christmas present for Penny. 'She's a dog!' I said to a friend on the phone. 'She doesn't even know it's Christmas.'

I will admit I have sometimes bought gifts for other people's dogs. But we all know they are really gifts for the humans, so they can have the joy of sharing them with their beloved companion.

But pride comes before a fall...

I've succumbed. I just bought Penny a gift.

A friend has set up a new business importing Polish tableware to Australia and I've come home with a pottery bowl for Penny.

Here's the story:

Hmmm...what's this in my eating spot? Is it edible?


No, it seems to be something shiny and hard. Not food.


Beats me what it is.


Nope, still no clue. Seems to be shaped like my old food bowls, but no food smell here.


Oh, well. At least this paper looks quite interesting.


Note from parlance - the tableware is gorgeous. When my friend gets her website organised, I'll post a link to it for any Australians who would like to check it out. (I don't ever do advertising, but when a close friend has made the brave move to set up an import company, I just have to give her all the support I can! It's all hand-painted pottery from a small family business in Poland.)