Onta clay deposit etc.

Here are more photos of Onta, Japan - stacked wood for the kiln and one of the kilns and the towns clay deposit in the background.

Yesterday I managed to get to the studio and got some porcelain stamps made. Since I can't throw or do anything using chest muscles, this is a good time to do all these other little projects.

Jim had a bad fall yesterday, so I spent the late afternoon helping him with medication and ice packs on the goose egg sized swelling on the inside of his lower, right leg. He fell off the chair while he was reaching for something in our closet and hit a few things on the way down and bruised some ribs and got a few other scrapes and bumps. Getting the ice pack on right away helped a lot and I think the Rescue Remedy I gave him also did a lot of good. He was pretty shaken up after such a fall. Needless to say, he didn't sleep all that well last night and his ribs and groin are very sore this morning. We had planned to drive to Johnson City today, and that's definitely not on the agenda now.

Since we're both still hurting, it's going to be a quiet day watching the US Open tennis. I'm going to get started on cutting the foam core board and attempt to make a light box as per Joy Tanner's wonderful workshop instructions. My new, larger, varitone back drop paper arrived yesterday, so I think my free time the next couple of days will be spent redoing my photo setup in the basement.

If enough tomatoes are ripe, I'll make a pot of tomato soup for the freezer. Tonight we have a cashew vegetable soup to go with the tuna salad I'm making for dinner. This was the light supper since I had planned since we thought we'd be eating a big lunch at the Indian buffet in Johnson City.

Onta, Japan potters, etc.

Here are a couple more pictures from Onta, Japan.

Yesterday we changed our plans (does this sound familiar!); and decided to drive up the Blue Ridge to the Orchard at Altapass for lunch and maybe listen to the music and buy some goodies. We didn't stay long - lunch was mediocre and the music wasn't the best and they're no longer carrying the chocolate licorice that we enjoy; but we did get a little piece of home made chocolate fudge for later, and had an ice cream and then took a leisurely drive home.

When I got home I picked what may be the last of the tomatoes. Seems that potato blight has reached us and has hit most of the vines . About about half the tomatoes were rotting on the vine; but I did get one bag full and will probably make another pot of tomato soup with them.

Last night's dinner was upscale grilled cheese on English Muffins, baked with a topping of gruyere cheese, bread crumbs, garlic and basil. Tonight I'm making Italian sausages, a side of pasta with the fresh sauce I made two days ago and a salad. Fortunately we like tomatoes. Even with the blight, we still got plenty from the 28 or so tomato plants I planted this spring.

It rained this morning, so I headed for the studio to check the pots, which were still too wet to trim, so I worked on my photos, and then went out to pick grapes after the rain stopped, only to find that there were no grapes left! The deer and birds had wiped us out, so there won't be any home made grape jam this year.

The rain kept the workers away, so the driveway grading will have to wait till later in the week.