Yoga for neck and shoulders

Found this neck and shoulder video on you tube and thought some readers might benefit from this. I know I will:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiHIs7_iMl8

Had a very aggressive osteo treatment yesterday and found out that fall I took about 7 weeks ago put one of my ribs out of place. It's now back where it belongs! My overnight droopy eyelid, turns out, is just from sinusitis, which the doctor said is probably from all this rain, dampness, etc. For a day or so I thought "boy this body is aging fast. Soon I'll look like the "Picture of Dorian Gray". LOL

Guess I'd do better living in the desert, but Jim's sinuses don't fare well in a very dry climate. Also found out that my thyroid is sluggish. No wonder I've been cold and tired so much lately, with a body temperature of 95F! So she sent me off  with some bottles of thyroid support, barley powder (I need to alkanize this old body (another minor temporary problem), and sea salt for the sinusitis. It was good to know I wasn't falling apart, just needed a good oil change and grease job, and told not to drive this body too fast. LOL

Our plan to go to Asheville today was changed for us by nature. It's raining, rained hard overnight with more rain expected today and through tomorrow morning. There are flood and wind warnings, so we're going to stay put other than Jim making his usual post office run to pick up his USA today and other mail only to find out that it's a holiday. I have the leftover roast chicken for dinner so I'll just make some mashed potatoes and honey ginger carrots to go with it. The rest of the day is going to be for studio time - finally!

Reclaim clay bridges drying

First thing this morning I got out some of this reclaim clay and made a few bridges to help firm it up. It's deliciously plastic and moldy but way too wet to throw anything other than plates and I have enough of those already for the next firing. I also trimmed a  2 lb test bowl I threw with this clay yesterday. Getting my hands on the clay felt so good after a couple of weeks and I want so badly to get back to work; but today and tomorrow are spoken for with doctors appointments and an Asheville shopping day tomorrow.

Hopefully by the time we get back from osteo and lunch, I can get an hour or two in the studio before dinner. Gone are the days when I'd have enough energy after dinner to work in the studio till midnight. These days the only late night time I get in the studio is on  firing days and the few days before when I'm glazing and loading.

We had a nice evening with friends, celebrating Jim's 76th birthday at the Tapas restaurant in Banner Elk. We were happy to find that they had a Lytton Springs Zinfandel, which is one of our favorites; but all things considered, the four of us agreed that the Tapas restaurant in Asheville  is a bit better.

Since we're having a big lunch at the Japanese restaurant today, I might just make a simple linguini with fresh tomato, capers, garlic and white wine sauce for dinner. I think I have enough cherry tomatoes from my one lone plant that is still producing well under the protection of  Remay, for the sauce. We have a Netflix documentary "Earth" to watch after wards and Jim, who is a big fan of  "World Series of Poker", is watching the final tonight. He's been looking forward to this and talking about it for a couple of days. I'll opt for a meditation and some play time with kitty Bonnie instead and maybe watch the very end of the Poker with him if I can manage to stay awake till 11 o'clock.

Studio AKA winter home for some of my tropical plants.

Here are some of my tropical plants. As you can see, some are way too tall to put in the basement. That tall one is an avocado tree. These plants were originally intended to live in a greenhouse I was going to build, and then my sanity returned and reminded me that I don't even have enough time to do all the other things in my life and adding one more at my age was certainly not wise, not even considering the cost of a large greenhouse. I'm looking for someone with a large greenhouse to adopt some of these plants!

Kitty Bonnie aka the alarm clock was very insistent this morning. Fortunately I was already up, just enjoying that morning, twilight time and the warmth of the comforter. By now everyone was awake, including the birthday boy (Jim's 76 today) and Bodhi, who was ready for his morning walk.

Tonight we're going out with our friends Jim and Laura to a Tapas restaurant - Jim's birthday wish. On our birthdays we take each other out for dinner and the birthday person pays and someone else drives.

Yesterday we didn't get to the garden work. A virus alert on my computer and dealing with a my space person who is impersonating Jim, took up all that gardening time. Later I made some Wikepedia changes on his bio. They had his birth date and some other things wrong. It's amazing how some of these days unfold in a way that has nothing to do with my original plans!

We'll get out to the garden for a bit this afternoon and hopefully finish the last phase of the fall cleanup before mulching once we get another sunny day. Between cooking, pet and plant care, garden work, shopping, needing time to heal these torn chest tissues, and all the other little things of daily life, there just hasn't been any time or more importantly, any energy left, for the studio. I'm hoping that I can get in there tomorrow and uncover all those pots and see if they haven't dried too much to slip and decorate.

This morning I need to try to figure out the my space instructions to prove Jim is who he says he is. The first try at the link they provided doesn't work, so this may take a lot of time. We have to make a sign with the my space photo and id, have him hold it, take a photo and send it to them. I think it would just be easier to call a lawyer and have them write myspace to either remove that site or get the person to be a disclaimer at the top of the site saying that they're not the real Jim Perry. Why do people do such things!

No knead sour dough

Here's the no knead sourdough I made the other day. I need to tweak the recipe a bit because, initially the dough was way too wet, probably because my starter is wetter than that of the person who posted the recipe. Fortunately, it tasted great, even though I had to add extra flour later in the process.

Enjoying a totally lazy Sunday, so far. We had bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon for breakfast which should fortify us for another hour or so of garden clean up this afternoon.

I'm making a roast chicken, mashed potato and fresh garden beans (the last of the season thanks to the Remay covering the plants) dinner tonight. Before we head for the garden I think I'll have Jim take down some of those pots in my studio so I can photograph them for the blog when I can find the time.

Time to put kitty Bonnie Lass out for a few hours. She loves her outside adventures and so far, we haven't had too much trouble getting her back in around dinner time.

My photo setup

Well, here it is - finally - my new photo setup! I took Joy Tanner's wonderful photo class and learned how to make my own light box and other accessories, as well as how to take better photos, use a gray board and reflectors and diffusers. Next I have to take some test photos; but probably not for another day. The garden calls today. 

It's going to be around 70 degrees this afternoon and I need to plant some late parsley and continue general garden clean up and harvest what I can.  I'll probably be too tired after that to do anything more than make dinner and vegg out over a Netflix movie tonight.

This morning I baked the sourdough version of the "no knead" bread. The dough, from an on line recipe, was way too wet, so I kept folding more flour in without kneading, until it would hold it's shape a bit. Obviously, the poster has a much firmer starter than the one I use. The loaf looks good; but I don't know what it will look like when I cut into it. Even if the texture isn't right, I'll get an idea of the flavor and just adjust the amount of water next time.

We had another lovely dinner at the Knife and Fork in Spruce Pine. I had their stack cake - my first time eating this local cake. The history of stack cake goes back to early weddings in these mountain, where many of the woman brought one cake and then all of the cakes were stacked with applesauce in between. It was delicious, as was the rest of the meal.






 

Hardy calendulas

These calendulas are holding up well after a couple of freezes which have killed most of the other annuals.

Last night's frost got my pepino melon. I'm hoping that the straw mulch will protect the roots so that it may come back next year. I decided not to bring it indoors with the rest of the tropical plants. Frankly, the fruit isn't that great to warrant all that winter care and energy cost to keep it under lights.

Finally got my  photo setup finished, with only one minor correction to get the light box a bit closer to center over the table. I had to change the direction of the table, which then meant moving a heavy sink and cabinet and other things. The whole job took even longer than expected. Even getting the new, larger backrop out of the box turned out to be a chore because of a stubborn cap

After breakfast I'll get back down to the basement to make those little adjustments, get the protective plastic off the backdrop which is already hung and get the reflectors up and get the other lights in position and turned on for a test run.

I have a few more pots from my collection to photograph; but they're sitting high up on a ledge that runs along two walls of my studio. Jim's going to get some of them down so I'll be able to photograph them for the blog in the next couple of days.

There isn't much planned for today other than getting that photo setup tested, going out to an early dinner, do some food shopping and the animal,  plant and house care. Between all these other things and not feeling 100% yet, there doesn't seem to be any time or energy for the studio yet. It amazes me how quickly the days are seeming to fly by lately without my being able to accomplish everything  on my "to do" list - like feeding my sourdough starter yesterday!  In fact, I'm going to do as soon as I get my shower!

The uncarved pumpkin

Am I the only person who still hasn't carved their Halloween pumpkin???? Guess I'll cut it open today and get the seeds out and cleaned up for roasting and make it a Thanksgiving pumpkin!

It's cool and quite breezy so we're going to put off gardening clean up for another day or so. Today's main chore is getting my light box u-bolts moved and reinstalled evenly so it will hang properly. Jim is heading to the hardware store to see if he can get me the wood I need to hang the back drop paper.

Last night we decided to try one of the restaurants in town which, just yesterday,switched to a mainly seafood menu. It's not gourmet fare; but it's inexpensive and everything seemed fresh. Jim also liked their hush puppies and fried clams. I opted for the clam chowder and fried cat fish and both were good.

Tonight I'm making pizza again since I already have the dough and leftover margarita mix.  Well, time to feed my sourdough starter before I start on todays projects.

Japanese cherry tree leaves in the fall

I love the color contrast on these fall leaves of our Japanese Cherry tree. When I planted this tree, I sited it so we get our first peek of the spring blossoms when we woke up.

Up at 5am walking  Bodhi under the stars and feeling the nip of this frosty morning, then coming in for that first cup of morning tea made for a lovely start of the day.

Yesterday was another one of those man plans, God laughs days. Since Jim had to make a dump run he suggested we take that country drive I've been suggesting and off we went, ignoring the other "to do" chores I had planned for the day. It was too beautiful a day to waste hanging out in the basement working on my photo setup. We had a lovely drive turning on to untraveled mountain roads, a big lunch out and by the time we got home we were tired and not good for much more than a nap for Jim and some computer work for me.

Today will unfold, probably like yesterday - with good intentions and lovely distractions. But I am hoping I can find time to set up my light box, or maybe just give in to procrastination once more.

My latest no knead, same day bread with the faster but not too fast rise

This new method that I contrived yesterday, (only because I was too tired the night before to start my bread), worked out great. The bread didn't have the same large crumb (bakers term for the holes in the bread), but it looks good, has a wonderful crust and tastes great - even worked well for toast this morning. The best part was that it was still a "no knead" bread; but I made it with an 8 hour rise instead of 19, which is what Jim Lahey.s original method calls for. I added 3/4 tsp of yeast instead of 1/4 and added 1/4 tsp of red wine vinegar. This is  my amended version of the 3-4 hour version Mark Bittman of the New York Times came up with. His short version (3-4 hrs) called for 1 tsp yeast and no red wine vinegar. I think if I can get the instant yeast, which I'll order today, I may even be able to shorten the time. I'm looking forward to playing around with these no knead recipes some more, especially interested in trying the sourdough version some time, as well as his latest  no knead pizza dough which I'll make after I use up my current batch of pizza dough.

Looks like another gorgeous fall day, so we'll probably be getting out in the garden to do more cleanup this afternoon. It would also be a nice day for a little ride. There's so many roads in our own little town that we've never explored.

Right now I need to head down to the basement and move some tables and chairs and get some boards up so I can get my photo setup finished today. That chore is long overdue. 

Jenny Lou Sherburne at Spruce Pine Potters Market

 Here's a shot of Jenny Lou Sherburne's booth at the Spruce Pine Potters Market. Her colors are delectable and I love her forms as well. There's a lot of time and work in these pieces.

Wow is it foggy out there this morning. I think it's going to be a good day for baking bread!

Yesterday the plan was to get the light box setup but one of the workers used the board I bought that was part of the setup, so Jim is heading out this morning to get me a replacement. Today's activity will be baking bread, and getting a lot of nails in that board which will be used to adjust the height of the background paper. Once that's done I'll move the table back in place and hang the light box. Pottery is going to have to wait a day or two because we also have garden cleanup to do if and when the sun comes out.

We have some leftover pierogis that I'll make for dinner again with some tomato bisque, which I'm taking out of the freezer as soon as I post this, so dinner will be easy. 

Michael Kline decorating demonstration at Crabtree Creek Art Gallery

Here are some pictures of Michael Kline taken yesterday at his demonstration at the Crabtree Creek Art Gallery in Micaille, NC. Michael brought a lot of his bisqued pots to decorate for the demo, as well as a good group of fired pots.

Michael has devised a unique mixture of liquid wax resist and oxides for his beautiful brushwork, which is then covered with a white slip and fired in his wood kiln with a light salting at the end. As you can see, the results are some pretty spectacular looking pots!

Driving home from Michaels very generous, decorating and informative, as well as entertaining demonstration, I saw all the children in town dressed in their Halloween finery. What a joyous sight that was. I smiled the whole time on the way home. There were Princesses, Harry Potters, and assorted other characters and fashion plates parading down the main street with their bags of candy. All the businesses in town were participating in making a safe and Happy Halloween for the Bakersville children.  It was pure Americana, worthy of a Normal Rockwell Saturday Evening Post cover.

It rained hard overnight but had stopped by the time I walked Bodhi at 4:30 am. On this hazy, cloudy Sunday I think I'm going to see if I can find the right sized board in my scrap pile to create a support for my light box. If I hang it from available supports beams in the basement, the setup will be too close to the utility sink, so I need to nail a board on both beams and then hang the lightbox on had it so it will be better positioned. If I don't have the wood for that project, I'll try to get some studio time this afternoon. Most times, Sunday morning is for lazing, enjoying a leisurely breakfast and then reading the Sunday papers.

Dinner is just going to be some simple sauteed fresh potato pierogis that Jim got in Asheville the other day. They're not as good as my home made with my moms recipe, but they're better than the frozen ones that are generally available.  Making them is an all day process so I'll have to find time once the garden is finally put to bed to make a batch. I have 2 baskets of potatoes from this years planting, so we will have plenty of potatoes for the next couple of months for pierogis, potato pancakes, potato leek soup, etc.etc.

Time to think about breakfast - buckwheat pancakes this morning.

Cynthia Bringle's booth at Spruce Pine Potters Market

This morning I checked my camera and sure enough, there was this photo of Cynthia Bringle's booth.  If you have a chance and haven't seen it yet, check out hers and Norm Schulman's retrospective show at the Folk Art Center in Asheville, NC. It's fabulous!

It's raining again and supposed to get heavier this afternoon; but it won't keep me from driving over to Burnsville to see Michael Kline's free 2 hour decorating demo. It was either that or work in the studio. It wasn't a hard choice. I'm a bit tired after a heavy, late, partying, margarita madness night with friends.

The cream cheese horseradish stuffed salami rolls went over really well. In fact, they never even made it to the living room. They were gobbled up while we chatted in the kitchen as I was forming the pizza. The stuffed salami is so easy - mix 1T good horseradish in 6oz (3/4Cup) of whipped cream cheese. Have the deli slice 16 slices of thin Genoa salami. Put some mixture in the middle each piece of salami and form the mixture like a teardrop, with the thicker end more toward the top. Then roll the salami into the shape of a cone and chill. That's it - super simple and really tasty.

I didn't make my chocolate ala torta - didn't have the right sized pan and didn't have enough time either. Fortunately I had bought a frozen German chocolate cake which was very light and tasty. Thank you Pepperidge Farms!

Michael Kline's booth at Spruce Pine Potters Market

Preview

Here are a few pictures of Michael Kline's booth from the recent Spruce Pine Potters market. He has the most amazing wood fired pots, with his unique stain/resist and slip decoration.

I thought I had a picture of Cynthia Bringle's booth, but it's not on the computer. Maybe it just didn't upload from the camera. I'll have to check that tomorrow.

I was up at 5am walking Bodhi and glad I didn't sleep in since the day seems to be flying by and I still have some things to do before friends show up for our regular Friday porch sitting (indoors in this weather!).

My pizza dough is on it's first rise, the salami appetizers, stuffed with horseradish flavored cream cheese are done, and all my pizza toppings are ready.  We have some frozen bacon wrapped shrimp that will be easy; and other than making the margaritas as soon as Jim comes back with the Tequila, and putting together the pizza, when guests arrive, the food prep is done.

Jim squeezed the lemon juice for me before he left for his doctors appointment; but he mistakenly thought we had a back up Tequila, so he'll have to stop and pick some up. Fortunately, they just opened an ABC store in Spruce Pine, so he won't have to drive too much out of his way.

I got some of the herbs that I've had drying, removed from them stems, crushed and into bottles. Right now my fingers smell like Thai basil! My indoor  plants need to be watered, the living room has to be tidied, and the pizza dough needs to be punched down and turned over . Then I can hit the shower, feed kitty and relax for a bit with some paper work while I wait for the pizza dough to finish it's second rise.

Jim just arrived with the tequila - time to finish the margarita mix.

Another Becky Gray booth photo

I found the other photo of Becky Gray's booth at the Spruce Pine Potters Market - knew it was in there somewhere!

Finding time for this soda/salt/wood/glaze/slip notebook project in between cooking, animal and plant care, computer work, etc. is going to take a lot longer than I thought because I'm scanning the recipe notebooks as I go and am adding more recipes to it than I originally planned.

Found out yesterday that one of my fluorescent fixtures is broken so I need to replace it. Since I have to go to Spruce Pine for it, I've made out my shopping list for Friday's porch sitting with friends and will get that food shopping done as well.

Bodhi had one of his epileptic seizures yesterday which lasted a long time. It scared the heck out of both of us, but by late afternoon he had bounded back as though nothing had happened. This poor little guy has had a tough life, being abandoned twice, and obviously abused by his last owner, dealing with the epilepsy as well as his very timid, fearful nature. We just love him to pieces. How could you not! He's so sweet and gentle and eager to please and so needy!

There was still some leftover chickenso I made a chicken salad this morning with grapes, pecans, apples, celery, onion, mayo, etc. and we'll have that as a light dinner since we're planning on having lunch out.

Becky Gray at Spruce Pine Potters Market

Here's the only shot I got of Becky Gray's booth; but you can see more of her wonderful figurative sculptures at: http://www.theartistsshowcase.com/beckygray/

The sun is shining after a lot of rain overnight, so I may just get out in the afternoon for a little walk with Bodhi and  see if there are any mushrooms to be found.

Still dealing with swollen glands, etc., so I'm going to stay out of the studio and continue my glaze/slip recipe project of transferring favorite slip and glaze recipes out of the ten thousand I have, into one notebook for easy reference. That's going to take a day or more to complete, along with a few other little projects I need to finish.

Jim  had to return the light timers because they only took a two prong plug, so I have to get the new ones set up today and get studio and basement plants watered. Some of the herbs I've been drying need to be removed from their stems and labeled and stored. There are always non studio things to tend to.

We'll finish the chicken soup tonight - glad I made a big pot!