Planting, planting, planting!

I am planting! Vegetables, flowers, shrubs!

Mostly veggies right now, with a few flower seeds, and I have relocated some shrubs that have looked bad for awhile. Actually, EVERYTHING has looked bad for a long while! I cannot stand it any longer.

We have cabbages and cauliflower, and broccoli, peas, and onions. That is all the winter stuff that I will eat, and I have decided that I don't have enough time to take care of things we won't eat.

In a couple of weeks, I will set tomatoes in the ground, with lettuces, and beans. In about 3 weeks I will plant squash, cucumbers and zuchinni. In a month, or 6 weeks, I will plant peppers and okra. That is all I am going to grow. I love to eat all of that stuff.

AND...zinnias! I am going to put zinnia seeds in at mid-March. They are my favorites!

I am still doing 'pottree', as the guy from Louisianna says. He is a fabulous potter, so he can say it any way he wants to say it.

I took a 4 day workshop back in January, and had a ball. Learned to throw BIG pots, in 3 pieces, sculpted the ugliest lady you ever saw, and learned Raku! from the 'Pottree' guy. And I learned that I love handbuildings! I am having a great time.

It felt so good to have my hands in the dirt again.

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.