Robin Hopper Pitcher

Here's a really nice pitcher from my collection by Canadian potter Robin Hopper. Robin lives outside of Vancouver and if you're ever in the area it would be very worthwhile to visit his studio. He has a wonderful Japanese style garden that he's been working on for years which is an extra plus in addition to seeing his shop and gallery which include his domestic ware as well as his one offs.

I actually got a few hours studio time in yesterday between taking the dogs to the vet, doing lunch, walking the dogs and meeting friends for an early dinner. The job I wanted to finish was cataloging and storing all those tests tiles covering the slab roller and I was able to get that done and finish the note taking and had a little time leftover to trim a pot before I had to come in and get ready for dinner at the Japanese restaurant in Burnsville.

The new vet did some blood work on our 12 year old Lhasa, Shanti. She thinks that his balding tail and thinning body hair and swollen stomach may be a disease that is treatable. If the results of yesterday's blood work indicates a problem, we'll have to take him in another day for a round of testing that takes 8 hours to completion. We came home wondering why the other vet never tested him for this since that balding tails and other symptoms have been obvious for over a year! The younger one (4 years old today), Bodhi, came through his physical with flying colors; but Shanti the 12 year old is definitely showing his age with some clouding on his eyes and dwindling energy; but he still gets around pretty well, especially when the smell of food is wafting from the kitchen!

Jim and I found it somewhat ironic that our dogs get a yearly physical and we don't!

Today will be close to a full studio day. I'll quit around 4:30 to come in and make a new pasta dish from my new Italian cookbook - linguini with clams casino and then relax for the evening going through some pottery notes while we watch the Brit Coms - our Saturday night ritual when we're at home.

Six hours is about max for me in the studio these days. I'm hoping that once I reach the one year anniversary of my hip replacement surgery that I'll get my energy up to the pre-surgery level and be able to spend more time in the studio and garden. I've ordered a great many plants and seeds the past couple of days, including 2 American persimmon trees I ordered from ebay this morning, and I'm going to need that elevated energy this spring to get all those things planted!

Some of the things I planted in our lower meadow died from the poison exuded from some of the black walnuts trees down there and persimmons are one of the plants that aren't affected by those toxins so I'm going to give them a try.

Till later,
June