Goings On

Not much pottery since the Mt. Mitchell Crafts Fair a couple of weeks ago. The kids started school the following week. Should I be freaking out that my daughter is in middle school? I'm not. I spent the next weekend in Maine with my sisters. We had a ball! Canoeing, swimming, laughing, laughing and laughing!

I expected to return home and get right to work. However, life often throws you a curve. Ben wrecked his electric scooter the day after I got home, hurting his right knee, elbow and hand. Fortunately the hand was just sprained and not broken, but he was home from school for 2 days while we waited for X-ray results. He is right-handed so had the perfect excuse not to do his homework. He has spent the weekend making up assignments.

News from the home improvement desk: The window-well is complete! Hooray! A finished project! They don't happen often around here so there is definitely cause to celebrate. Now that we can uncover the hole, the basement is flooded with light. It will make our eventual family room so much nicer. I don't see checking off that particular project for some time.

I decided to cripple myself weeding the garden today. I try to limit myself to only one or two of the beds or tell myself I'll stop after a few wheel barrow loads, but I got a little obsessed. Most everything is done blooming, but the sedum is starting to get some color. The bees are already loving it. Blackberry bushes have invaded one end of the garden, and poison ivy has the other end covered, but the middle looks divine. I ran across this praying mantis while working.

I'll be back in the studio this week. I haven't got any shows lined up for this fall except the TRAC Tour in December. Initially I was regretting this, but I think it will give me a chance to build up my stock and investigate some new ideas rather than working under deadline pressure. I've got several shelves of cone 6 work ready, so I expect to glaze fire by mid-September. Then hopefully another cone 10 firing by the beginning of October.