Cynthia Bringle's booth at Spruce Pine Potters Market

This morning I checked my camera and sure enough, there was this photo of Cynthia Bringle's booth.  If you have a chance and haven't seen it yet, check out hers and Norm Schulman's retrospective show at the Folk Art Center in Asheville, NC. It's fabulous!

It's raining again and supposed to get heavier this afternoon; but it won't keep me from driving over to Burnsville to see Michael Kline's free 2 hour decorating demo. It was either that or work in the studio. It wasn't a hard choice. I'm a bit tired after a heavy, late, partying, margarita madness night with friends.

The cream cheese horseradish stuffed salami rolls went over really well. In fact, they never even made it to the living room. They were gobbled up while we chatted in the kitchen as I was forming the pizza. The stuffed salami is so easy - mix 1T good horseradish in 6oz (3/4Cup) of whipped cream cheese. Have the deli slice 16 slices of thin Genoa salami. Put some mixture in the middle each piece of salami and form the mixture like a teardrop, with the thicker end more toward the top. Then roll the salami into the shape of a cone and chill. That's it - super simple and really tasty.

I didn't make my chocolate ala torta - didn't have the right sized pan and didn't have enough time either. Fortunately I had bought a frozen German chocolate cake which was very light and tasty. Thank you Pepperidge Farms!

Michael Kline's booth at Spruce Pine Potters Market

Preview

Here are a few pictures of Michael Kline's booth from the recent Spruce Pine Potters market. He has the most amazing wood fired pots, with his unique stain/resist and slip decoration.

I thought I had a picture of Cynthia Bringle's booth, but it's not on the computer. Maybe it just didn't upload from the camera. I'll have to check that tomorrow.

I was up at 5am walking Bodhi and glad I didn't sleep in since the day seems to be flying by and I still have some things to do before friends show up for our regular Friday porch sitting (indoors in this weather!).

My pizza dough is on it's first rise, the salami appetizers, stuffed with horseradish flavored cream cheese are done, and all my pizza toppings are ready.  We have some frozen bacon wrapped shrimp that will be easy; and other than making the margaritas as soon as Jim comes back with the Tequila, and putting together the pizza, when guests arrive, the food prep is done.

Jim squeezed the lemon juice for me before he left for his doctors appointment; but he mistakenly thought we had a back up Tequila, so he'll have to stop and pick some up. Fortunately, they just opened an ABC store in Spruce Pine, so he won't have to drive too much out of his way.

I got some of the herbs that I've had drying, removed from them stems, crushed and into bottles. Right now my fingers smell like Thai basil! My indoor  plants need to be watered, the living room has to be tidied, and the pizza dough needs to be punched down and turned over . Then I can hit the shower, feed kitty and relax for a bit with some paper work while I wait for the pizza dough to finish it's second rise.

Jim just arrived with the tequila - time to finish the margarita mix.

Another Becky Gray booth photo

I found the other photo of Becky Gray's booth at the Spruce Pine Potters Market - knew it was in there somewhere!

Finding time for this soda/salt/wood/glaze/slip notebook project in between cooking, animal and plant care, computer work, etc. is going to take a lot longer than I thought because I'm scanning the recipe notebooks as I go and am adding more recipes to it than I originally planned.

Found out yesterday that one of my fluorescent fixtures is broken so I need to replace it. Since I have to go to Spruce Pine for it, I've made out my shopping list for Friday's porch sitting with friends and will get that food shopping done as well.

Bodhi had one of his epileptic seizures yesterday which lasted a long time. It scared the heck out of both of us, but by late afternoon he had bounded back as though nothing had happened. This poor little guy has had a tough life, being abandoned twice, and obviously abused by his last owner, dealing with the epilepsy as well as his very timid, fearful nature. We just love him to pieces. How could you not! He's so sweet and gentle and eager to please and so needy!

There was still some leftover chickenso I made a chicken salad this morning with grapes, pecans, apples, celery, onion, mayo, etc. and we'll have that as a light dinner since we're planning on having lunch out.

Becky Gray at Spruce Pine Potters Market

Here's the only shot I got of Becky Gray's booth; but you can see more of her wonderful figurative sculptures at: http://www.theartistsshowcase.com/beckygray/

The sun is shining after a lot of rain overnight, so I may just get out in the afternoon for a little walk with Bodhi and  see if there are any mushrooms to be found.

Still dealing with swollen glands, etc., so I'm going to stay out of the studio and continue my glaze/slip recipe project of transferring favorite slip and glaze recipes out of the ten thousand I have, into one notebook for easy reference. That's going to take a day or more to complete, along with a few other little projects I need to finish.

Jim  had to return the light timers because they only took a two prong plug, so I have to get the new ones set up today and get studio and basement plants watered. Some of the herbs I've been drying need to be removed from their stems and labeled and stored. There are always non studio things to tend to.

We'll finish the chicken soup tonight - glad I made a big pot!

Melissa Cadell at Spruce Pine Potters Market

 Here are some pictures of Melissa Cadell's booth at the Spruce Pine Potters Market, and her amazing.sculptures.

This morning I'm feeling a lot better, so I'm going to get in studio time as soon as I post this and take my vitamins. I'll work till around 4 and then come in and start on tonight's dinner - a ziti casserole.

Jim came home from Asheville with sushi last night so there was an abrupt menu change. The new premium Haiku sake was really good, even served cold. After dinner we watched the movie "The Proposal" - predictable, but very cute. That was followed by "Defending Your Life" one of our favorite. I think I stayed awake for the first 20 minutes and then woke up to see the very end.

If anyone has to go to Asheville, from Mitchell or Avery and maybe even Yancy counties, know that Hwy 19 was a  huge  mess yesterday - lots of construction delays, detours on to a dirt road, etc. Take I40 through Marion if you want to avoid it.

Nick Joerling Spruce Pine Potters Market

 Here are a couple of shots of Nick Joerling's booth. I bought one of his wonderful dinner plates to add to our collection.

Looks like it's going to be another lovely, fall day, but maybe a bit cooler than yesterday. I'm going to resist the temptation to do more garden work and give myself a day of rest with a lot of vitamins and liquids.

I'm still feeling like an old, washed out dish rag from this cold and my back has also been acting up, so we'll continue on the chicken soup and mega vitamin therapy again today.

Jim has to take the car to Asheville this morning to get an oil change and I've opted to stay home and finish up some of my  paper work and  computer projects including doing the recipe print outs and updating my desktop computer. The old desktop doesn't have blue tooth technology so I have to take the stand alone hard drive upstairs and hook it up so I can transfer recent files. After the last lap top died, and I lost so much information, I've gotten good about keeping my backups up to date with the help of the stand alone hard drive.

Claudia Dunaway's booth at Spruce Pine Potters Market

Here's the only shot I got of Claudia Dunaway's booth; but you can check out her web site:
http://www.yummymudpuddle.com/claudia/claudia.htm
for a better look at her reduction fired stoneware and porcelain as well as her husband John's work. They have a great sense of humor and their web site is a great read as well as eye candy.

At 5am I was walking Bodhi and enjoying the stars. This morning high 30'sF temperature is much cooler than yesterday 60 plus degrees.Bonnie, kitty, is sleeping in which gave me a lovely, quiet time for my morning meditation.

Yesterday afternoon I took Bonnie out with me and did a bit of garden cleanup. This cold isn't bad enough to keep me from being bored, so I filled another wheelbarrow full of dead headed flowers and weeds and harvested a few cherry tomatoes which are keeping warm under the remay. Bonnie wanted more play time, and since I couldn't get her to come in, she had another hour or so enjoying the outdoors. Later, Jim helped lure her from under the front porch and I was able to grab her. Sometimes she's soooo easily fooled.

Last night I re-introduced her to her new fishing pole toy, which scared her yesterday when I tried to use it outside. It didn't take long for her to get the idea and I think it tired us both out playing with it. It's definitely a hit. When it was time to put her to bed for the night, she just followed it right into the laundry room. Thank you Facebook friends for suggesting this toy!

We're going out for Sunday brunch to the new "Knife and Fork" restaurant in Spruce Pine; and hoping their brunch is a good as their lunch and dinners. I'm not sure what I'll do for dinner - maybe the chicken soup again to help with these colds we're both nursing, or a ziti casserole. If I'm not too wiped by later afternoon, I think I'll start another loaf of the "no knead" bread (original recipe this time).

Shane Mickey and Norm Schulman at Spruce Pine Potters Market

Here's some of Shane Mickey's work. Shane and Norm blocked Norm's section of the display, which they shared during the Spruce Pine Potters Market. I love the colors Shane has added to his work recently. They're working  very well with his forms and are a nice addition to his wonderful anagama work.

Sneezing, swollen glands, chills - yep, a day to make a pot chicken soup! Jim's got it too; but he's volunteered to drive to Spruce Pine to buy some vitamins and chicken.

I'm going to do the print out and computer work I didn't finish yesterday, watch the movie I didn't watch last night, listen to music, watch TV, meditate if I can , cuddle Bodhi and Bonnie Kittyl, water plants, make chicken soup and probably nap!

Shaun Ireland at Spruce Pine Potters Market

Here are a couple of photos of Shaun Ireland and his wonderful folk inspired, wood fired pottery. Check out his web site for more photos of his work and kiln. :

http://www.theartistsshowcase.com/

We had a lovely dinner at the seafood buffet at the Eseeola Lodge. I  pigged out on the lobster and stone crabs; but saved room for some of the other goodies. Jim had several trips back to the buffet for extra smoked salmon which he said was the best he's ever had. It was their last night of the buffet for the season; but we'll definitely be back next season.

Woke up with a cold and slightly swollen glands, so I'm playing on the computer, taking lots of vitamins to nip this in the bud, and looking for brussel sprout recipes that Jim might eat.  I found one with orange juice and browned butter and I'll add some pignoli nuts which he likes. Hopefully, I might just get him to at least taste them. The brussel sprouts are ready for  harvest  so I'll probably make them next week with a ham dinner..

After lunch I'll take my stand alone hard drive and head up to my office and transfer files and do some print outs of recipes and other info I want to save in hard copy.

Tonight we're having the leftover potato leek soup, which will be perfect for this rainy, windy day. We have a Netflix comedy "The Proposal"  to watch after dinner. It will be a good night to snuggle in.

Mark Peters at Spruce Pine Potters Market

Here's Mark Peters and his wonderful wood fired pots. If you haven't seen them already, check out some of his throwing videos on you tube.

This past week has just flown by with no time for the studio; but the garden and other things are getting a lot of much needed attention.

As soon as I take my morning vitamins, Jim and I will be heading for the studio to get those plants moved and under grow lights. In the afternoon I'll be taking advantage of this beautiful day and be back in the garden, planting some tulip bulbs and other things and doing a bit more fall clean up.

I didn't want to waste a beautiful fall day working indoors, and I was too sore and tired from all the garden work, so driving over the mountain to Tennessee yesterday and enjoying the gorgeous fall colors, getting some shopping in, followed by an early dinner at Carrabas, turned out to be a great choice.

The days outing was a nice respite from the garden work. I got some more saucers for the plants, two more grow lights as back ups and avoided the temptation to buy more things to plant. I stopped in Pet Smart and got Bonnie kitty a new toy that I'm saving to lure her in next time I let her outside, without a chain, if ever. I also bought a longer than normal lead for her and we'll see how that works. After that experience with her the other day when she refused to come in, I'm reluctant to give her that amount of freedom any time soon.

A nice meditation, followed by "Top Chef", put the finishing touches on a lovely "play day".

Rain is expected tomorrow, and the next day so I'll finally get some real studio time till the next sunny day when the,  still somewhat messy, garden will beckon once more.

Jane Peiser's booth at Spruce Pine Potters Market

Here's the only shot I got of Jane Peiser's booth at the Spruce Pine Market. If you click on the picture you can get a better look at her wonderful work.

It was exhausting, but I made a lot of headway with garden cleanup yesterday. Bonnie kitty had a grand time - too grand. If I wasn't tired enough from the garden work, I increased my exhaustion level by spending hours trying to coax her back into the house. Finally about an hour or so after dark, I was able to coax her in with a can of her favorite cat food.

The good thing about her tiring herself and us, was that we all slept in till 7:45 this morning - at least two to two and a half  hours more than my usual wake up time and hers as well.

This afternoon we've got some shopping chores to do. I need to get some back up grow light bulbs and more plant trays at Home Depot, some kitty thing at Pet Smart;  and Jim needs to get a couple of things at Office Mart.  Then we'll have an early dinner at Carrabas. We love their mussels in garlic, white wine, lemon and pernod appetizer and often have that with their Caesar salad and skip entrees.

Since we're leaving here in 2 hours and have just finished  breakfast, it doesn't look like there's going to be any time for the studio other than maybe a bit of paper work. 

Will Baker's booth at Spruce Pine Potters Market

Here's a shot of Will Baker's elegant wood and soda fired stoneware, taken at the Spruce Pine Potters Market.

This morning I re-adjusted the basement grow lights and re-arranged the plants. There's a bit of room left under the lights for me to grow one or two small window boxes with lettuce this winter.

Looks like it's going to be a great afternoon for me to get out and dead head the flowers that past two nights of freezing temperatures have claimed. Bonnie kitty has gotten a taste of the outdoors and is going to be a very happy kitty to be out there while I'm doing some of this garden clean up. Since she's gotten a taste of the freedom of the outdoors, she's been moaning and groaning because of her being relegatted to the confines of our bathroom and laundry room areas.

I'll should get some studio time today to re-arrange the plants Jim brought in the other day. Once I move them out of my heavy traffic pattern, I'll set up the grow lights and timers for them.

Since dinner is going to be a simple cheese tortellini pasta with tomato sauce and meatballs (already made and frozen), I should be able to get all the things on today's agenda completed.

The face of frost (winter arrived overnight!)

Here are a couple of pictures taken from my front porch this morning.  28degrees F has taken it's toll on the peach tree and everything else. I'm not even sure the remay covered beans, tomatoes and peppers have survived this freeze. It's going down to 30 tonight; but tomorrow and for the next ten days we're supposed to be frost free. In fact, the daytime temperature tomorrow is going to be 70F, so we'll probably be out doing more garden cleanup.

Yesterday I harvested the tender veggies,covered some with remay, cut more herbs for drying, mulched a lot of plants and dug up some Thai basil and a tender fern and brought them down to the basement  for the winter. After breakfast I'll  re-pot them and put them under the grow lights. I also got the 4 sets of lights set up yesterday, cleaned the potting tables and tidied all the indoor potting supplies. 

In the morning, I tried the new, faster "no knead" bread recipe. It came out alright; but only because I waited 9 1/2 hours instead of the 3-4 suggested before baking it. I'll have to watch the you tube video again on this new method, because I think that I'll have to add more yeast along with the hot water and red wine vinegar suggestions to make this shorter version work. I'm going to pull some leeks from the garden after breakfast to  make a warm vichyssoise for dinner. It's definitely good weather for soup.

Since I harvested more swiss chard, I decided to add it to last nights dinner. I finally found a healthy, chard recipe that Jim would eat and even like! It's made with onion sauteed in olive oil, chopped chard leaves, raisins, salt a tiny bit of water and chopped, sauteed almonds.

 If I have the time, after lunch I'll try to get in some studio time.

Terri Gess's booth at Spruce Pine Potters market

Here's are a couple of shots of Terri Gess's booth at the Spruce Pine Potters Market with  his wonderful slip decorated, salt fired work.

We got a light sprinkling of snow earlier; but not even enough to provide a light coating.   I had planned to dig up and pot a tender fern but if it stay like this,  I'll cover it with an old blanket and wait for a warmer day.. It's going down to 28F tonight, but then it's expected to be above freezing for the next ten days or more with the day time temperatures in the low 60's which will give us more time to continue putting the garden to bed.

In the mean time, this is definitely a good day to bake some bread! I'm going to try the short cut version of the "no knead" bread recipe which I didn't get to make yesterday and I'll have it to go with the potato leek soup I'm planning for tomorrow.  Tonight's freeze will sweeten the leeks which I'll harvest tomorrow for the soup.

After breakfast I'll start on the bread and do the  plant organizing in the basement which I didn't get to yesterday, read the Sunday papers and then do some early dinner prep. I'm using some of our garden veggies (butternut squash and yellow wax beans) to go with the frozen Chicken Cordon Bleu from Sams Club. I always keep a package of that around for those busy days, or when I'm just not very inspired to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

Gay Smith at Spruce Pine Potters Market

Here's Gay Smith's booth at the Spruce Pine Potters market. I soooo want a pair of those amazing candlesticks. Gay's work is  soda and single fired porcelain - unique, strong forms decorated with some brilliant glazes and warm flashing slips.


Yesterday was a heavy duty gardening day. I harvested beans, peppers, winter squash, cherry tomatoes and swiss chard and got the bush beans and peppers covered with remay in expectation of some snow tonight and freezing temperatures in the next couple of days. The beans are still producing, so it was worth taking the time to cover them. I also did a lot of weeding, some dead heading and planted a few perennials.

Jim took most of the tropical plants indoors and carted off my piles of picked weeds and trimmings.  There are still bulbs to plant and more garden cleanup to do, but that will have to wait till next week when the temperatures will be back up to the 60's.

We had another lovely dinner with friends at the new "Knife and Fork" restaurant in Spruce Pine. It's so nice to have a decent restaurant, serving wine, only 20 minutes away!

This morning we're having breakfast out and then heading to Walmart for a replacement iron pot that I need for making my "no knead" bread. The first one cracked the second time I used it. When we get home I have to prep some of the beans for the freezer and feed my sourdough starter. I might even try the new, faster version of "no knead bread" if I have the time.At some point I have to get down to the basement, reset the timers, turn on the grow lights and set the plants on the tables.

Hopefully I'll be able to get some studio time tomorrow, since there's no way I'll be able to find any time for the studio today.

Ken Sedberry at Spruce Pine Potters Market

 Here's a blinking Ken Sedberry tending his booth at the Spruce Pine Potters market. Don't you just love his  colorful, wood fired pots!

With frost expected in a couple of days, we're going to be taken some preventative measures today. I have this wonderful fabric like material called Remay that I'll use to cover some of my crops like beans and peppers that are still bearing. The Remay comes in a couple of weights that will raise the temperature at least 2 degrees which can be critical with these early frosts. My beans are still producing well, so the first thing I'll do today is harvest the beans and peppers that are ready, then cover with the remay. 

We'll also bring all the tropical and semi tropical plants indoors - either down to the basement under grow lights or in my studio.

If I have any time or energy left, I might just do a short walk around to see if all this rain has brought forth any new, or interesting mushrooms.

I'll be ready for a nice dinner out with friends tonight after a full day in the garden.

Suze Lindsay Kent McLaughlin

Here's a shot of Suze Lindsay's and Kent McLaughlin's booth at the Spruce Pine Potters Market - beautiful work, as always!

It's a rainy foggy morning - good time to do paper and computer work. Hosting Clay Club was a lot of fun but I'm wiped this morning. I'll get in the studio at some point to put away some of the remnants of last night's get together; but the rest of the day is going to be spent on the computer and paper work.

I haven't backed up my documents in a long time and it's time to get them on the stand alone hard drive and then transfer them to the old desktop.

Since we didn't get the usual Clay Club turnout due to people having to set up in Asheville for the Southern Highland show, I actually have leftover ribs and barbecue beans for tonight. Jim will be happy for the leftovers since he opted to get out of our way and have dinner out at the Inn at Little Switzerland. He said he practically had to crawl coming home because of the heavy fog on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Michael Hunt and Naomi Daiglish

Here's some photos from the Spruce Pine Pottery Market - these are of Michael Hunt and Naomi Dailgish's wonderful wood fired work.

It's raining again - what else is new! LOL

I spent 2 hours chatting with my friend McKenzie who called from Florida and now I'm making a check list of what I still have to do to be ready for Clay Club at 6:30. Things are pretty well ready to go other than cooking my ribs and reheating the barbecue beans and getting the wine opened and the sodas in the cooler.

Since Jim doesn't want to hang around during the meeting, so he's opting for dinner at the Inn at Little Switzerland; but he is hoping there will be some leftover ribs for him to have tomorrow.

Time to get to the studio and make sure I'm set up for tonight.

Spruce Pine Potters Market - Ron and Maria Slagle's booth

Here's a shot of Ron and Maria Slagle's booth at the Spruce Pine Potters market. Ron is an amazing, all round artist; and a great guy and fabulous cook as well. His functional wood fired work is accompanied by his equally wonderful, and often whimsical sculptures. Ron makes the kind of pots you can have and use forever and never tire of them. Ron gifted me with one of his chicken sculptures recently. How did he know that I've been wanting one of those! If you're ever in the area, stop by his barn gallery and view all this work for yourself. Bet you can't buy just one!

Today is going to be a play day since it's the only non rainy day till Sunday and we want to drive North and see if we can see some of the lovely fall colors. I also have to do a food shopping stop to buy some ribs for tomorrow night's Clay Club meeting at my studio.

When I get home I need to harvest more beans and get them and peppers covered with Remay in preparation for those 30 degree temperature arriving Friday night. If I waited, I'd be doing it in the rain - not fun. Then I have to clean and prep the yesterday and today's harvested beans for the freezer, feed my sour dough starter, make dinner, and if I have any energy and time left, I need to tidy my gallery.

Spruce Pine Potters Market - Linda McFarling

Here's that last shot of Linda McFarling's display at the Spruce Pine Potters Market. I don't know why Blogger had such problems yesterday; but trying to upload those 2 photos yesterday took me about 2 hours.

Today is a full studio day. I got in there for a while yesterday to pull a couple of handles and finish a couple of mugs and move all the raw pots off one of the ware carts and slab roller which is going to be used as the food table for Wednesday's Clay Club's meeting and pot luck. Today I'll be sweeping, mopping the floor and do more tidying.

My studio is pretty crammed full of equipment and tools but I think I'll have enough floor space for all of us to move around freely. After we eat and mull around a bit, we'll go into the house to see some of the pots in our private collection.

Since I'll be in the studio most of the day I'm just going to make a quick, easy, pot sticker dinner. It will be a nice light, comfort food meal on this rainy day. Tomorrow is the only non rainy day this week, so Jim and I are going to drive north of Banner Elk to enjoy the fall color, have lunch and pick up some things at the Mast General store.

Spruce Pine Potters Market

I decided to give blogger one last try to upload these photos before heading for the studio. Seems it only want to let me upload one photo per message, so the other one will have to wait to after dinner. Linda's lowered the copper content of the Shaner Oribe and I love the color better than the original which has between 5 and 6% copper.

Spruce Pine Potters Market - Linda McFarlings booth

Here are some photos of Linda McFarling's booth at the Spruce Pine Potters Market. I had to drag myself away from here booth to avoid temptation. I already have half a dozen of her wonderful pots!

Blogger.com is having problems this morning. It took forever to get one picture uploaded. I have two other shots of Linda's booth, which I'll try to get up after dinner.

We saw some incredible work at the market. It took a lot of restraint to not deplete the family coffers; but I did buy a Nick Joerling plate to add to our collection. I took pictures of many of the booths which I'll post this week.

Mark Peters wife Erin, who is a fabulous cook, had a lovely lunch menu, so we had a light lunch there before heading home to get my bush beans processed and in the freezer. After that I had to do some computer work and before I knew it, it was dinner time. After dinner I watched the Brit coms followed by Poirot and Jim opted for the football game.

Sunday mornings are for lazing around and reading the papers and watching the gardening shows; but I'm going to get in the studio after breakfast and finish my organizing and tidying. I'll probably work till around 3 and then come in to start dinner prep - small pork roast, roasted garlic and rosemary potatoes and yellow wax beans. If I have time I might make some stewed apples to go with it..

Some of my little nature's treasures

I was inspired by Joy Tanner's picture of her studio collection of shells, etc, to take a picture of my little treasures - sea shells, bits and pieces of driftwood, eucalyptus pods, and stones. We potters, I think, tend to be scroungers of natures bounty. My husband gets a kick of my posture when walking in the woods or on the beach, because my head is always down looking for those little treasures.

Yesterday I got in a bit of studio and garden time before heading out to dinner. I finally got the rest of the garlic dug up and replanted and planted the crape myrtle which took forever since I was digging through 8" or more or gravel from the old driveway. From one hole, large enough for 3 gallon plant, I wound up with 3, 3 gallon buckets of gravel to dispose of from the hole! My late bush beans are coming in with great abundance, so I'll have to prep some of them for the freezer this afternoon. The only studio time I got yesterday was cleaning a wheel and washing a bunch of bats, so I'll try to get in there this afternoon.

After a nice lunch Thursday at the new "Knife and Fork" restaurant in Spruce Pine, we went back there for again last night for dinner, which was lovely. We will definitely make it part of our regular dining out experience.

This morning we're going to the Spruce Pine Potters market. Their menu is enticing, so we'll definitely have an early lunch there before heading home.

Karatsu Japan Plate

Here's one more of the Karatsu pots. The picture is terrible, but I liked the form and decoration enough, that I thought readers might enjoy it. The feeling of this pot reminds me of Michael Kline's beautiful work.

It's the coolest morning so far this month; but the sun is shining and it looks like it's going to be a beautiful day to be out and about.

The doctor said Jim tore some ligaments in his lower back. That was the good news; but the bad is that this sort of thing takes 7 weeks to heal, so he has 5 more weeks to go. She gave us both an anti inflammatory cream prescription which we'll get filled today. Fortunately, I'm a bit further along in my healing; but at our ages, the last thing you want is to have both partners hobbling around with injuries! It's not conducive to getting anything done requiring a lot of strength or mobility, as in Jim's case.

We're off to the groomers later this morning, then need to do some shopping, pick up our prescriptions, have lunch, pick up our clean dog, and head home.

Don't see how I'm going to squeeze in any studio time today, unless we get home before 3. Then I might be able to get an hour or two of studio time before dinner, which is leftover almond chicken.

After breakfast I need to get some potted plants indoors and under the grow lights in the basement. Jim can't carry anything right now and I can only manage 3 gallon or smaller pots at this point. This chore is going to have to be spread out over a few days. My potted avocado tree is at least 8' tall now. Fortunately the studio is over 11 feet if I have to keep it till I can find another home for it. ! I need to find someone with a greenhouse who wants a free avocado tree. Any takers?

It's going down to the low thirties early next week, so I am going to have to get all these tropical plants and fruit trees indoors, and tender veggies like the bush beans that are still producing, covered with remay, in the next 3 days.

Japan - some pots from Karatsu

Here are a couple of pictures of pottery from Karatusu. The fish bottles were freshly decorated, unfired.

Yesterday I got the rest of the kiln shelves cleaned and stored, took down the bag wall, cleaned out the kiln, set up the new "T" brick formation in front of each burner, which will be in lieu of a normal bag wall, got the rest of the kiln furniture cleaned and stored, re-swept the kiln room, cleaned one wheel, drilled a bunch of bats and swept part of the studio.

Jim is taking my osteo appointment this afternoon, since his pulled back seems to have gotten worse in two weeks. While we're out I need to stop and get a bunch of paper napkins, plates, etc. for the Clay Club meeting at my studio next week. Hopefully we'll get back in time for me to get an hour or so in the studio before dinner. I still have a wheel to clean and some clay scraps and reclaim to deal with and lots of little things to tidy up.

It's leftover beans and cornbread tonight, which will be a perfect light supper after a big lunch at the Japanese restaurant.

My ebay stamp purchase

I won the bid on this antique, wooden stamp on ebay yesterday. Anyone know if that's Tibetan or Chinese, or???? writing in the center. I thought it would be nice on some slab pieces with a transparent glaze like Amber celadon, etc.

We're getting a bit of sun peeking through after a rainy night. Yesterday we had a lovely drive over the mountain to Tennessee to do some shopping. There are hints of the great fall color to come and I think in a week to ten days we should be close to peak color.

Jim and I had a large lunch at the Indian buffet and then make several shopping stops at Home Depot, Sam's Club, Ross for Less etc. He got the squeegie he wanted and I got the replacement disk for my angle grinder so I can finish cleaning my kiln shelves today and a few other items for the studio. I was hoping to work right after breakfast, but the morning has slipped by with letter writing to family and catching up on emails. Since I'm still sore from hand scraping those shelves two days ago, I'm not feeling terribly motivated at the moment; but I will head out there as soon as I post this and take my morning vitamins.

Today's studio time will be finishing scraping kiln shelves and moving them into the studio and taking down the bag wall and cleaning out the fire box. Dinner is going to be easy - roast chicken dinner leftovers. After a big lunch yesterday I opted for buttered, salted popcorn with parmesan and cayenne for dinner, so we have two leftover meals for tonight and tomorrow night.

Japan potter using coil throw method

Here's a potter from Southern Japan(may be Kyushu). Many of the potters here were of Korean descent. Their ancestors, I was told, wound up being the spoils of war, kidnapped and brought to Japan for their skills. I put the photo of one this potters finished pots first, followed by a series of shots showing the process.

This is one of those strange starts to the day! A headache woke me around 3:45am, and while reaching for the bottle of Tylenol, I knocked over a glass of water, waking up Jim and our critters. The water landed on the side of the bed and into my slippers, which are now a soggy, cold mess. Is this sounding like a Rube Goldberg cartoon, or what! LOL The good news is the Jim and critters went back to sleep. The bad is that I'm still awake. It's going to be a long day unless I can manage to sneak in a nap at some point.

Yesterday I got the kiln room swept and got half my kiln shelves cleaned; but ran out of energy since my grinding disk was too worn to do the job and I wound up hand grinding them which didn't make my back or shoulders happy. Tylenol and I are becoming good buddies lately! I did manage enough energy to make a nice roast chicken, mashed potato, green beans and corn on the cob dinner. Everything but the chicken was from my garden. I won't have to cook tonight or tomorrow since I have plenty of beans and cornbread leftover and enough leftovers from last night chicken dinner.

After dinner Jim and I took turns with our latest toy - a Max Pro massage. That is one powerful, deep massaging tool! John from Crimson Laurel Gallery recommended it highly and I was able to find one on Ebay at a great price. Between that and Tylenol, I think Ill be able to keep this worn body fairly comfortable with all I ask it to do.

I need to get a replacement disk for my angle grinder so I can finish cleaning those kiln shelves. So a trip to Johnson City is on the agenda this morning.