Gay Smith display at Spruce Pine Potters market

Here's some morning eye candy - Gay Smith's wonderful soda fired work on display at this years Spruce Pine Potters market.

Today is going to be a mixture of activity. I was in the studio at first light covering the pots I threw yesterday. After breakfast I have to make a mushroom bisque, then I'll head to the studio for a couple of hours to finish and trim some of those pots.

Since there's a frost warning tonight, I'll stop working mid afternoon so Jim and I can move all the tropical plants indoors for winter. I'll also have to harvest whatever veggies are ready probably beans and peppers. The pumpkins and squash would actually benefit by a bit of frost as will the swiss chard and the couple of leeks that the critters didn't eat. I picked the seasons last ripe tomatoes this week, and I'll be using them in tonight's nachos.

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.

Gay Smith

Here's a nice soda fired vase with Avery flashing slip by my neighbor Gay Smith.

It's a rainy morning; but very mild. This weather will be turning cold tomorrow with some possible snow expected. My cold weather veggie seedlings will have to be brought in for the night until later in the week. Hopefully it will be warming up enough I can plant them soon otherwise they're going to be too pot bound unless I transplant them to bigger pots until the evenings won't turn them into popsicles!

Got some more slips and glazes made and tiles dipped yesterday. Some of the colored slips I was going to use on some porcelains mugs hadn't settled enough for me to pour off the excess water. Hopefully they will be today. I spent part of the day re-figuring some of my cone 10 recipes, like oribe and somebrite for cone 6. Theoretically they should work; but firing will tell.

They ran out of wood for the wood floor in the bathroom and more has to be ordered, so that's a delay since they started the floor at the front which means they can't install the vanity and toilet until the floor is finished!

Since they still had time left I had them make me a potting table for the wood shed, using a double layer of the old, flat, hollow doors. They did a great job of securing it to the wall, so it will be a nice, sturdy table for me to use for re-potting, etc. I am SOOOO ready for spring!

Time to get to work!

Till later,
June

Gay Smith jar

Here's another sweet little soda fired jar by Gay Smith.

Yesterday was cooking, doctors appointment, seed starting and dealing with sub-contractors - needless to say - another "no studio" day. Today I should be able to get a half a day in the studio this afternoon. We're expecting the snow to start around noon, so Jim is going out right after breakfast to do some shopping and other chores and I'll hold the fort with the carpenters, painter and electrician. I was up at 5:00am, got the dogs out for their morning walk, had tea and tackled email. Afterward I mixed up more seed starting soil and prepped a few planters and after breakfast I'll plant some kale, shallots and lettuce.

I started my indoor seed planting yesterday -got onion, parsley, artichoke, leek,scallions, basil and celery planted. Other than what I'll plant today, that will be it till next month when I start some of the other warmer loving veggies like tomatoes, peppers,etc. I find that basil does well as an indoor plant in a sunny window. Luckily I have a greenhouse window in the kitchen with herbs like oregano, thyme, parsley and basil. In fact, I need to pinch and re-pot those few basil plants and get them into a bigger pot. Before I had the greenhouse window I could grow a lot of basil in a single, 5 gallon bucket in front of a sunny window and that supplied us with fresh basil through the winter.

I'm contemplating making a blueberry pie while I'm housebound this morning, if my frozen berries from July are still good.

If I have time after dinner, I'll go through my stash of flower seeds and see if there are any perennial seeds that I can start now. I harvested some day lily seeds last fall, so I might just start them. The problem is figuring out where I'll put all these seedlings once they sprout and are big ready to graduate to bigger pots. I only have 4 sets of grow lights in the basement which are currently being used for outdoor plants I'm over wintering .In the next month or so I may have to move some of those to the studio and squeeze them around the citrus and other tropical trees and shrubs that were too big to move into the basement for the winter. Otherwise I'll have to buy another fixture and more grow lights.

Time to get started on that "to do" list of the day.

Till later,
June