A couple of garden shots

After a late breakfast, we headed for our local banks customer appreciation festivities and picked up more tomato plants. They had a huge selection and I was able to get a pink and red brandywine, Arkansas Traveler, and a few others to replace some the snail and slugs destroyed. I planted the brandywines and one of the beefsteaks in 3 large buckets, hoping they'll be a bit less prone to disease than they are in the garden.
After that I prepped some of the food and made the margarita mix for our Friday night porch sitting with friends and then headed for the garden when Karen arrived.
The garden is pretty well finished. All the mulching is done and it looks wonderful.We got some perennials, and miniature peach tree planted yesterday, as well as weeding and putting down about a dozen more bags of mulch. It was my helpers last day so I got out there to work with her so we could get as much done as possible. Even Jim who hates gardening came out and mulched our mini Japanese garden at the back of the house.
After our fun porch sitting, we stayed up to watch the end of the Orlando, Cleveland basketball game. It was another nail biter with Cleveland, only getting possession of the ball with one second to play, made a 3 point shot to win the game. Unbelievable!
Today will be a studio day to finish glazing those last 3 little test pots and then I'll start wadding. Sunday is a good day to transplant and plant non root crops, so I'll try to get the rest of the veggies planted between the projected thunder storms and get studio time if possible.
I should be able to get my firing in by the end of the week after I batch up a bunch of glaze tests for this firing.

Till later,
June

We have sourdough!

The sourdough was a BIG success. I will definitely be making this regularly. The crust was nice and crunchy from all the water spraying on top of the dough before it went in the oven and then spraying the oven walls and floor every minute or so for the first ten minutes, as well as a cup of boiling water on the floor of the stove. I used bread flour as recommended, but the bread seemed lighter than I remember San Francisco sourdough. Next loaf I'll try a special European flour blend I got from the King Arthur flour web site. I think I'll try this bread as toast this morning.

Yesterday was another woman plans, God laughs day. The lure of the garden on the first sunny day in what seems like weeks, was too much of a temptation. I had a wonderful garden helper, Karin Elder, a local artist and photographer who knows a lot about gardening. She did a great deal of weeding which enabled me to plant 18 tomatoes, a row of sweet potatoes, a couple of Corno de Toro peppers,a few perennials, and doing some weeding as well. She also started mulching some of the veggies I've planted. Hopefully this will keep my weeding down once I catch up with all this garden work.

She'll be starting earlier this morning and should get a few hours of work before the forecast noon showers. I'll try to get the rest of the tomatoes and some other things transplanted after breakfast, and before I head for the studio for the day.

We're having dinner out and then doing some grocery shopping afterwards and have a couple of Netflix movies to choose from when we get home. We watched Frost Nixon last night which was excellent. Langellos Nixon was brilliant!

Till later,
June

First Iris to bloom!

Here's the first Iris this spring. This is one of my two rebloomers. There's another bed of standard irises which are looking like they'll be opening soon as well.

Yesterday was pretty much a "no studio" day other than trimming a couple of bowls after dinner. After an osteopathic treatment I'm too sore to plant or throw pots and anyway, there wasn't time. After the doctors we stopped for a big lunch followed by a Walmart run for some household items, but mainly for 12 bags of mulch which is all we can fit in our car. And of course I bought a couple of other things to plant - a pretty lavendar and white dahlia,and a veggie pack of banana peppers to replace my normal frying peppers, Corno de Toro, which did not sprout for me. I really like them so I may such try to replant some.

By the time we got home, unloaded the car, put everything away, it was time to start supper which was just some tomato bruchetta on olive oil and garlic infused, toasted sour dough - perfect after a big lunch.

Got the last of the two sourdough starters finished yesterday. That one was called North West sour dough and doesn't have quite as sour an odor as the San Francisco sour dough that was finished a couple of days before. It will be interesting to test them in bread recipes to see the flavor difference. I don't think I'll have time to make bread this week since there's just way too much to do; but maybe I can squeeze it in somewhere, since I'm really eager to try my hand at making a San Francisco style sour dough bread. Tomorrow is out since our dog Bodhi has to go in for his spring hair cut which takes 4 hours of our day, so we'll stay in town, have lunch and pick up more mulch and do some other grocery shopping until we can pick him up. If the weather is ok by the time we get home I'll probably put down some of that mulch, since the weeds seem to be very aggressive with all the rain and heat we've been getting. No sooner do I weed an area, than the little suckers are coming right back!

Today is going to be a full studio day after I do a bit of hand watering of things I planted this week and check if some more asparagus are ready for cutting. Jim is taking over the hand watering on the potted plants for me which is a nice time saver. The garden is starting to shape up with more and more perennials emerging.

I'll be struggling with that too soft reclaim clay today and probably just throwing some low wide bowls and plates. I'll probably make a bunch of clay bridges and hope that they'll firm up enough today or tomorrow so I can make something other than bowls and mugs. I already have plenty for this firing.


Till later,
June

Soda fired pitcher by Jason Lactara

Here's a really nice soda fired pitcher by Jason Lactara, a young, talented potter from Florida. It's decorated with flashing and black slips with white salt liner. It's one of my kitchen spoon storage pieces. Good pots should be used! \

The North Carolina tarheels won last night. Jim is a huge basketball fan (in his youth he was a good enough player to be offered college scholarships; but turned those down to go to the University of Pennsylvania instead). It was a late night, but worth it. Monday they play Michigan state for the championship. Go tarheels!

Yesterday I got a later studio start and took some more photos of my pottery collection for the blog; but I still got my full studio day in by working another hour or so after dinner. I did some throwing with the way too soft reclaim clay and finished up a few other pots - trimming, handles, etc. That clay is sticky to wedge, but oh so easy to center and throw low wide bowls and plates. I can't throw it as thin so I'll have to spend more time trimming; but I'm determined to use up all this reclaim before I buy or make any new clay.

I never did get any gardening working done but I did take quick peek to see if any morels had shown up in one of the usual spots - but none were to be seen. The nights are still too cool; and with snow predicted a few days from now, it looks like it will be another couple of weeks before we see any.

After our bagels, smoked salmon and cream cheese Sunday breakfast, I'll be back to the studio for more throwing. I covered some of the things I threw yesterday so I'll probably get out there before breakfast to uncover them and maybe they'll be ready to trim later today.

It's going to be in the mid 70's so I will definitely try to get at least an hour in the garden after lunch to get some sun and plant a few perennials.

Till later,
June