A New Chapter

Gillian McMillan — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 22:59:01 +0000

Today’s blog is intended as an homage to our old home of 54 years and a way of marking an intense six months. We are now getting settled into our new home and I finally have time to enjoy my new studio and assemble these photos to tell our story.

I sent out this funny little lino print when we bought our first house, here in Port Moody in 1971. After 54 years of ongoing care, here it is, then for sale, in the Spring of 2025.

We tasked our realtor with listing the house and finding us a suitable townhouse for our next home. All along we made it clear that we would need space for a study and a studio. We opted to look nearby and have wound up staying in Port Moody.

A main reason for the move, apart from realizing that the house and garden would need more attention than we might be able to manage in the future, was to declutter! With that in mind Alan bravely offered some of his ethnographic collection of masks, prints and books to Heffel, Maynards and McLeod Books. All were good but of course we have kept the favourites.

I have accumulated pots. Over the years I have bought, thrifted and been given pottery and we certainly couldn’t take them all to a smaller dwelling. (Hah, in fact our new home is just as big!) Early in the year I advertised a ‘Second Hand’ sale and, with the help of kindly TriCity Potters I spread some 150 pieces on my basement studio table. It felt very good to see my many treasures go to other collectors.

Knowing that I would no longer have a large enough space to welcome fellow potters to work there, I invited TriCity Potters for two days of plate painting. They made slab plates with my slab roller and then returned a week later to paint them with underglaze. Here they are, fired.

Linda and Maria chose my garden for a sketching day.

Of course I needed to host what may well be the final ‘Raid’ with my artist friends. Karen, Sally, Cathy, Monique and Renee made their usual magic. I shall miss the happy days of painting, conversation and lunch. Perhaps I can find room for a smaller version of a Raid ere long.

Then it was time to really clear out my studio. Martin Peters’ studio assistant Tara Mayer was very happy to buy lots of glaze chemicals and shelves etc one day and later one-time Raider Kate Metten came with her mother to collect more shelves and chemicals.

A retired Burnaby firefighter who took a wheelthrowing class from me at Shadbolt Centre maybe 20 years ago bought my excellent McLennan kiln (it was built for me to put in my new kiln shed in 1999). The little video shows Douglas, Clive and a friend lumping it out to D’s truck.

Watching 5 FB Marketplace shoppers manouvering the vast cupboard through the basement door was exciting!

Rather early on in this venture our realtor Linden MacDonald found us an elegant townhouse in the quiet forested complex of TreeTops here in Port Moody. April was a desperately quiet month for selling a house but on May 3rd we had an offer from a couple who were looking for a heritage house. They plan to leave the exterior of the house as it is, use my kiln shed as a workshop and make my large basement studio into a lovely apartment for the in-laws. We are so lucky!

Friday June 13th was our moving day. Son Mike took the day off work and son Steve flew out from Edmonton that evening for the moving weekend.

Two months later, and Alan and I are feeling very much at home, pictures are being put up, my studio is functional as of a week ago and we are happy to welcome visitors. Just text or email us to make a date and get the address, OK? Our family stayed here overnight before our annual seaside holiday (Rathtrevor Beach for the 4th time this year). Here we are in early August.

moving – Gillian McMillan — Rara Avis

A New Chapter