Well, I am still here. I come here to read all your posts, and check on everybody, but I seldom find enough time to actually post anything.

I started taking a couple of classes at the college last winter; Ceramics I quickly turned into Summer Ceramics, and then Ceramics II. I have been seduced by the clay, captured into the bondage of needing to do that every day! I have become a pottery junkie.

This is the first big coil pot I made. Big is great in pottery!

Bobby is an enabler, too. He has donated a nice portion of his shop to set up a studio for me. We have purchased a kiln, have a couple of pottery wheels, and he is busy building a slab roller and an extruder for me, AND a Raku kiln. He is really fascinated with that Raku firing. I have so many tools already, and he is busy making more, making more. Talk about obsessive compulsive!

I call this the 'Fox Pot', but have been accused of making a 'rat pot', an 'armadillo pot' and the latest, a 'chupacabra pot'. No, that is a fox, in my mind, LOL.

His tail is a spout, but what such a big pot needs a spout for is beyond me. My inspiration for this pot was a picture of a pre-Columbian pot, c. 100-500 BC. It turns out the the pot in the picture was a little tea pot, and only 5" tall! My 'Fox Pot' is about 20" tall. He has been pit fired since these pictures were taken, and is black and terracotta now. He is also being exhibited in an Art Show right now, along with my porcelain bird's nest.

I am also taking a Spanish language class, and I really enjoy that. I always wanted to learn to speak Spanish, but couldn't seem to grasp what was going on with it. Now I have a Spanish friend who helps me, and I get to speak the language daily.

Of course, my garden has suffered terribly. We have just finished getting the winter garden planted, so I feel a bit better about it, but my flower beds need an army of gardener's attention. I would hire someone to help me, but right this minute, I don't have time to do it myself. I am looking forward to Christmas vacation, to have some time to catch up on stuff.

AND....I have been watching what I eat, and have lost 25 lbs. so far! I am thrilled, thrilled! Still some to go, but I have it in my head now, and I can do anything once I get my head on straight.

Thank you so much for thinking of me. You made my day!

An afternoon very frustrating....

I have not been here for awhile. Too hot to be in the garden just now, I am longing for the cooler days of autumn.

I have just finished an afternoon of computer training for my husband. He is a very bright and intelligent man who just turns to jelly in front of a computer. "It makes me feel stupid..." he says. I have quit telling him that it does that to everyone.

I just look at him.

This computer is a new HP laptop with Vista in it. He is using an Excel spreadsheet. This is work related, and he is EXTREMELY protective of the formula set into the spreadsheet. He keeps telling me how I can mess it all up if I hit the 'wrong thing'.... Really? I just look at him.

.

Sooooo...I am supposed to teach him all I know about the computer, but I should not even LOOK like I was going to touch his computer....???? He says "Why are you looking at me like that?"...

Finally, we got through two email exercises with attachments successfully. He wants to do that again. Amazing how enthusiastic he gets when something goes right. Amazing how he has just told me that I am a less than adequate teacher.

Amazing that I have not made equally complimentary remarks.

And when we are done, (because thankfully, the computer ran our of juice and shut down), he says that I am a better teacher than he is a student. I suspect he wants clean sheets, clean clothes and food next week. He has to say that.

I am not forgetting his snide remarks. I have a very long memory.

He has had a computer for years. He has a new computer that he got last Christmas. Why has he waited until now to learn something about it?

GRRRRR!!!

AND.....he insists on typing in all caps. I have gently explained that it is tacky, and people will think he is yelling at them. He says he doesn't know how to type....excuses, excuses.

I am going to throw some clay.

Does anyone doubt for a minute why I love 'throwing clay'?

My garden is weedy. I am frustrated by the fact that it is over 100 degrees every day, and was 81 degrees at 6:30 am- this morning. I can't work in that kind of heat, so I just water and water, and it will be o.k. until it cools off.

I hope your garden is flourishing.

Yes, there are herbs in the garden!

Nell Jean at Secrets of a Seedscatterer has a neat poll about herbs we grow in our gardens. Reading the post, the poll and the comments had me chuckling, thinking about some of the herbs I have grown.

Someone asked if dill counts as a herb. Most certainly it does, and there are many varieties. As a matter of fact, most plants will qualify as herbs, although we don't think of them as such. Roses are considered herbs, but I'm not gonna cook my chicken with the leaves.....

Some herbs are such thugs, I have to seriously consider how I can grow them before I will plant them. Oregano is one, as is mint of any kind. Lemon balm is another. I often plant herbs in big containers, and watch how they grow for a couple of years before I will plant them in the garden.

Mexican marigold mint isn't really a mint. We call it Texas tarragon. It will layer, but I don't have seedlings everywhere.

Cilantro is grown in my garden for flavoring the Mexican food I like to cook. I let it flower, because I love the pretty white flowers that look like lace waving in the breeze. It is a cool weather herb, and goes to seed quickly as the weather warms. We gather the seeds and save them as comino, or coriander. I grind them with a mortar and pestal to use in my carne guisada. Que rico!

We have garlic, common small garlic, and the Elephant garlic. (Garlic is a manly crop, as are the hot peppers, so the Man grows them.) Chives with delicate onion flavor, and the garlic chives, with the decidedly more robust garlic/onion flavor are both easy to grow.

Rosemary loves our hot sun, as does basil, and tansy. I tuck the thyme under another plant for protection. Sage is the same. Nothing is as good as poultry cooked with fresh sage and thyme...
or fish cooked with rosemary.

Comfrey is used as a medicinal plant here. It is great as a poultice; mash the leaves and apply to minor injuries. ( See a doctor for major injuries...) I don't think people eat comfrey, but it has lovely little pink flowers and big leaves. AND...comfrey is one of those plants that "Once you have it, you always have it.".....like crape myrtles.

Yarrow, wormwood, and horehound are ornamentals here. I grow them in my garden for the foliage. We can grow the common white yarrow, and the horehound grows wild. The wormwood has a pretty grey/green foliage. They are all thugs, and I have to pull them all about every other year. It doesn't matter one whit to them, they are back with abandon very quickly!

Parsley, curly and flat grows well here. My plants are huge, waiting for the butterflies to come eat them. The fennel too, is awaiting the butterflies. It is 4' tall now and beautiful. I wonder how long it will last if we ever get any butterflies...

The lemon grass is growing so fast now that we can almost watch it grow.

Alas, I cannot grow lavender. It does not appreciate our heat and/or humidity.

But I can grow lemon verbena, and I love it! I speak for large groups quite often, and the lemon verbena is fantastic for calming jittery nerves. I break a piece with a couple of leaves, and keep it in my pocket. The fragrance is very pleasing, and a couple of sniffs just calms me right down. Everybody knows who the speaker is; She is the one sniffing the lemon verbena!