2018-02-28 - Wednesday - Many things

The May Apples are starting to pop up. I'm always pleased to see that they like it in our yard.

Wednesday night I went to Clayworks and did the slip transfer on the cut rim bowls. Not too bad. I may have to do more of this in the future.

On the way out I noticed that tree again. I checked; it is a Bradford Pear. I'm not a fan, but it sure did bloom nicely this year.

I stopped at the store on the way home and was completely grossed out (again) by the latest Oreo flavors. Please make it stop!

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2018-02-27 - Tuesday - Josh Copus workshop, day 2

I wasn't planning on attending the second day of the Josh Copus workshop, but I couldn't resist going back.

Tuesday was more of the same high energy presentation with lots of fun stories thrown in --and pizza!

I want to thank Josh for the workshop, Denny Gerwin for the program at Queens and Molly Bloomer for heading up the art club and inviting me to the workshop.

Josh demonstrating decorating bricks.
(Molly is taking photos, top left.)

Denny manning the pizza oven.

Lots of goodies.

Denny's got the dough.

Josh is going strong with a new group of students.

That evening I went to Clayworks and made some larger Empty Bowls with cut rims. I'm planning on doing some slip transfer on the rims.

When I was leaving I noticed this tree out back. I'm not sure what kind it is; it could be a Bradford Pear volunteer, but it was striking in the artificial light.

I mean, just look at it.

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2018-01-19 - Friday - Not much snow

There wasn't much snow left on Friday. It goes away pretty quickly here.

I am always struck by the amount of lichen we have around the house and it really popped against the snow. Beautiful stuff, that nature.

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2016-09-02 - Friday - Power out

Friday night we had a storm and the power went out. It's always a major inconvenience when you lose power and you never know how long it will be out, so we were feeling a bit gruff.

I went down to the main street to see what had happened. Apparently a tree came down on a three-way nexus of power lines and we were on one of those legs.

Watching the workers seem to take forever to get anything done didn't help my sour mood any. I stood across the street with my arms folded fuming, wondering when the lights would come back on.

It was during this rumination that I realized the reality of the situation: I was suffering what was actually a pretty minor inconvenience and these guys were risking their lives. They were the ones out in the rain in the dark in a cherry picker trying to cut limbs off power lines and then reconnecting them.

I couldn't watch TV.

Wow.

So, I did the only sensible thing: I went to Clayworks

...and the power was on when I came home.

Thanks guys!

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2016-09-01 - Friday - Tree

Today our neighbors lost a major piece of their tree. Luckily, their three small children were not out playing when it happened.

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2016-06-22 - Wednesday - Pots and things

Wednesday night I threw a couple of rings of test tiles and a textured vessel. Next, I messed around with a Nick Joerling-style closed form that I stretched and stretched until it was so thin it was having structural problems. I was getting ready to squish it back in the bag when I Z-folded it and noticed it looked like a horse head so I made eyes and nostrils and pulled up some ears. Not sure about it, but I'm going to see if I continue to like it.

On the way home I was struck by the large moon hanging over Monroe Road and tried to get a photo of it while driving. I couldn't capture it well enough for my liking, but I did get some shots.

Setting up the camera I snapped the dashboard
and like the green glow.

There is the moon, but it's not showing
up as well as I would like it to.

This tree on Sharon Road always makes me think of the
1970's Fry Guys from McDonald's commercials.

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2016-03-14 - Monday - Stump and kiln unload

Monday the guys came back and finished trimming the other trees. The stump grinder came and took out the stump of the maple tree. His machine was completely remote controlled and he did a good job with the stump and the larger roots. Unfortunately, taking out the roots created quite a mess. We knew it would, but we wanted those roots out of there.

Monday night Kim and I unloaded the gas kiln at Clayworks and we were very pleased with the results. One of our artists put a saggar filled with sawdust in the bottom of the kiln. The burning sawdust introduced a lot more carbon than usual into the kiln atmosphere and the pots came out very juicy and rich.

The back stack.

My pots.

A juicy drip of beer bottle glass.

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2015-03-25 - Wednesday - Binkley, mostly

Wednesday I cut the grass and marveled at the lushness of our lawn in the spring. By July the fescue goes dormant and gets dry and stringy, but right now you could take a nap in it.

Binkley doesn't really like to have his picture taken so I had to work at getting one with his head up. He's been a part of our family for almost fourteen years now (June 20) and at seventy-five pounds, he's messing up the averages. His body is slowing down, but in many ways he still thinks he's a puppy. Like when he jumps around the den and shakes his toys, even though it sometimes throws him off balance. Since he's slowing down I've been trying to spend some extra time with him on a daily basis. It's easy because he's good company. I hope he feels the same way.

This almost makes me wish I could graze.

Mr. Binkley --the Binkster.

I was talking on my phone in the Harris Teeter parking lot
and I saw this tree all lit up. Pretty striking.

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April 25 - Thursday stuff

Lots happened on Thursday.  Will Baker finished the salt kiln during the day before I got there.  I'm looking forward to getting the gas line run and seeing the first firing in it.  It's a beautiful sight.

Speaking of beautiful sights, the asphalt in the parking lot looks pretty amazing in the sunset light.

The tree out front was not salvageable after the storm damage on Friday night.  I guess there is a balance there:  we built a new kiln and something else had to go.  We and the squirrels are going to miss that tree.

It was a big one as you can see from my ever-present ball point pen at the top of the log.  It's interesting that the latest rings are a much darker color than the rest of it.  That dragonfly in the middle of the log is pretty interesting too.

I tried to throw with some fairly hard phoenix and had to give up when I pushed it off the bat.  I decided to re-slake it and try something else.

We had a visiting possum on the patio.  It seemed a bit confused but eventually found it's way out.

After all that hard clay it was good to have some nice soft orangestone which allowed me to get some pots made.

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2010-03-11 Thursday - The Flu 2010

I was fortunate enough to catch the flu this week so I have had some time (some of it lucid) on my hands.  Most of my time has been spent sleeping with the strangest dreams (even by bizarre dream standards), but I have been up and about the house at times.  I am now kicking hard back towards the surface and hope to be past this soon.

All this moss and lichen, is this in some primeval forest?

Nope, it's our front yard.

As soon as you get the camera out

everyone wants to get into the act.

Fast Christmas Tree

Here's our Christmas tree as it streaked through the living room. It moves really quickly, just like the holiday season. Just when you realize it's Labor Day, you turn around and another President's Day is in the history books. It's like the earth is revolving faster and faster on it's axis and we're lucky if we can catch Christmas like a brass ring on a carousel. It sure explains my dizziness.

I used the high speed setting
to catch this picture that
almost looks like it's standing still.

I turned on the flash and grabbed this rare glimpse but it scared the tree so badly it spent the next three hours hiding under the dining room table.

I won't do that again...