Pots in progress

Here are some of the pots I got dipped yesterday. Some are decorated already, others just dipped in slip that I need to decorate today. There's another couple of days of work ahead to complete this phase. Hopefully by the time I'm done the first pots will be dry enough to get in the first bisque.

I'm dragging a bit this morning from a bit of stomach upset, getting to bed after 1 am because of getting the new lap top set up and having to deal with the fact that the new laptop which arrived yesterday afternoon, is missing some of the programs and services I signed up for with the original order. So I had to go through both lists and write the person who took the latest order. They also sent me a back up battery which I never ordered, since I doubt if I would ever use a 9 lb laptop as a portable computer and would not have any use for a second battery.

I'm uploading software to this new laptop before I head to the studio. I thought I'd get in at least 6 hours work until I have to make dinner, but with Jim out to the dentist, and dealing with our rescue dog who is terrified of rain and thunder, I guess I'll have to wait till Jim gets back or the rain and thunder stop, before I can get to the studio. Dinner is pizza again and it should be easy since the dough is already prepped, so I just have to cut up the toppings.

Yesterday I took a quick stroll around some of the property but no morels to be found. Tomorrow morning I have a helper coming who can get some of the berry bushes, elderberry and boysenberry bushes, etc. planted They've been sitting in temporary pots, are sprouted and desperately need to get in roomier quarters.

By the weekend I should be able to get some garden time to plant the rest of my veggie starters and do some weeding and mulching. The weed seeds are just loving all this rain! :-(

Till later,
June

Hawaii Big Island

Here's another photo of the Big Island in Hawaii. This was on the other side of the island from our hotel. The view is spectacular, and to the right of this view, is another great view of a canyon.

Yesterday was a great day for a plant fix. Two of my friends and I got to the wholesale nursery only to find that it's closed on Monday and Tuesday. My friend Laura got on her cell phone and called them, did a great whine about how long it took us to get there, and they took pity on us, opened the gate and off shopping we went. The place is huge and we managed to fill 95% of the back of Laura's Explorer; but since they didn't have some of the plants we were looking for we headed for Lowe's hardware where we all found the plants we wanted, plus some paint Laura needed and more grow lights for me. At this point the car was stuffed to the brim - plants everywhere! Fortunately the rain didn't come until we were on our way home and by the time we got up the mountain the rain had stopped.

When we got back to Bakersville,transferred all those plants to our other cars, I drove home, and unloaded. It was windy, cool and damp -not looking or feeling like a time to plant plant potatoes so I took a short computer break, and hoping it would warm up a bit,and then went out and planted some beets which only took a few minutes.Then I re-planted some of the seeds like serrano chiles and some cosmos that never sprouted.

No sooner did I finish that, when Jim called from downstairs to say that my new Dell XPS laptop just arrived. So I uncrated the two boxes from Dell and set up the computer to make sure it worked and started dinner.

The new laptop case is really cool and there's a nice, mini, digital screen just above the keyboard that flashes a clock, date, then cpu and ram information, and countdown and stopwatch numbers (I'm not sure what you do with those!)

Now I have to figure out why the wireless mouse and keyboard aren't working, as well as figuring out Vista, which seems like a total mystery to me! I need to get an idiots guide for Vista, for sure! This laptop has blue tooth and that has something to do with the mouse keyboard setup but the instructions don't bring up the button the book says it should point to, so a call to Dell is probably on the morning schedule. I've paid extra for 30 days of calls and I will definitely use it! The color on the new computer is a bit faded looking so I need to figure out how to get the color as intense as it is on my desktop.

I'll play with this laptop until after breakfast at which time I need to get into the studio and see if some of the pots I uncovered earlier are ready for assembling, trimming, etc.

There are also a lot of software and documents to load on this new laptop. This is not going to be a one day project for sure!

Late afternoon I'll head for Johnson City to get myself an idiots guide to Vista, do some food shopping at Sams club and make another stop at Home Depot for a couple of things. Tomorrow is going to be sunny and in the high 70's so I'm planning on using the whole day to just plant. Showers are forecast for part of the weekend so that will give me some full studio days.

Till later,
June