Happy --- Sniff -- Birthday Laura!

Laura took this photo earlier in the week of the garden growing at full speed ahead!
 Well it's that time of year when the cabbage trees are flowering, the grass is growing fast, the foxgloves are all purple bells, the flax is in flower, and it is Laura's birthday!

Our cabbage trees are out in flower.
 My birthdays make me older, by months, or even decades as they come around, in fact I declared myself to be 101.5 last time!  Laura's birthdays make her younger, although she says doesn't always feel it!


We have had a busy time.  Last Saturday we were at a craft show in Dunedin, and did reasonably well at what was an enjoyable, friendly, and well advertised event.  One highlight for us both was the live music that played at times through the afternoon, always good to hear enthusiastic singing and Ukulele accompaniment.


 I took a few photos of Laura's craft work just before it was packed up to go into town, these were mostly Christmas tree decorations and were painted in artist's acrylic paint on plywood or customwood (which is a dense board made from compressed wood fibres).


Unfortunately we neglected to take a camera to the craft show, so can't show you the colourful stalls and nice things that were on show there, however, I have put a link on my site to a blog that one of the stallholders has recently started called Backyard Birds- art by Astrid Raats.  Astrid does lovely paintings and illustrations of the birds that visit her garden in Dunedin, and you might like to hop over and have a look at what she does.


I have been busy working away on the wheel for the first half of the week, and I have been making flowerpots, saucers for them to sit on, and planters that hang up on the wall.  It was nice to be back at the wheel after mostly glazing and firing the week before.

Unfortunately both Laura and I went down with colds on Wednesday night. Laura is not too bad now and has managed to go to work, but my nose is running so badly today that I cannot work on the wheel and  have just had to close our gallery door.  I did try working on the wheel yesterday as I had bowls to finish, but it was the sort of process that should be banned under the Geneva Convention, and I am much worse today!  Thank goodness kilns do a good job of sterilizing things!


A week ago today I opened our gallery door two or three minutes late to find an American man called Mark waiting there.  Mark had discovered my blog some time ago when he was interested in cone 6 glazes, and decided to try to find me when he visited our area.  Apparently our local librarian pointed him in the right direction.  It was a great pleasure for me to meet up with someone that reads the blog, it makes the whole thing seem more real!  Mark and I found so much to talk about that he stayed the afternoon, and might be back again to continue our chat next year.  I really hope so!

I have put a tab at the top of my blog entitled "High Fire Glazes", this is the first of several more tabs that I will add that will take you to permanent pages of information.  I hope to put glaze recipes up there of glazes I find of personal use, and intend to add a Gallery of our work --some for sale--- and collect together some of the information that I have gathered about kilns and firing.  The pages will be added to progressively over time, so it will be worth checking back there occasionally to see what is new.

Comments

gz said…
get well soon!

It IS nice to meet online friends, isn't it!! Hope we can make it sometime, but no promises this time!!
Astrid Raats said…
Thank you for the kind words Peter. I hope you and Laura feel better soon. Being creative while sick is not easy but you still do a fabulous job.
Linda Starr said…
Happy Birthday to Laura, her ornaments are fabulous, so sorry to hear you are both ill with colds, the foxglove and cabbage trees are wonderful to see, never saw a cabbage tree before.
Arkansas Patti said…
Happy Birthday Laura. At least feeling a bit better was a nice present. Love those ornaments. You are both so talented.
How nice to meet a blog follower.I was really sorry that we didn't get to meet due to those cranky ears of yours.
Do feel better soon and take good care.
cookingwithgas said…
please give Laura our wishes for a happy Birthday and a wonderful year.
On that running nose...maybe these computer do give us a virus. Mark has been down a week- no throwing of pots are being made here since he has the same condition.
Maybe need a cure for these things....
just be sick- stay home and do nothing. I know crazy right?!
Armelle Léon said…
Happy birthday to Laura, her Christmas tree decorations are very nice !!! Hope you will both get well soon
Angie said…
Happy Birthday Laura ...hope its a chilled day so you can enjoy it and you both are feeling better.
I remember once rolling tissue and using it to stem the flow of each nostril, when I had to get work done ...not a pretty sight.
Love those tree decorations xx
Peter said…
Hello Everyone,
Thank you for your nice comments, birthday greetings for Laura and sympathies regarding coughs and colds! Laura enjoyed hearing from you, and is a lot better than she was. I'm still rather "under the weather" but managed to do some potting on the wheel this afternoon and listening to a book tape helped pass the couple of hours that I could concentrate on the work.

Welcome to the blog Astrid, hope you get some visitors to yours soon, you do lovely work.

I'm off for some hot lemon and honey! P
A very happy birthday to Laura. Her ornaments are beautiful and would be lovely to display year 'round.
I hope you are both back to good health soon.
Unknown said…
Isn't it annoying when you leave the camera behind! There's the experiencing the event and there's the recording of the experiencing of the event. Best wishes to you both.....
Peter said…
Hi Michèle,
I have passed on your birthday greetings and kind comment to Laura, who is delighted to hear from you. You are right about Laura's ornaments, it is nice having them around the place all the time! We're getting better. Almost "normal" day in the studio today, and it was good to be able to do a reasonable amount of work again.

Hi Jill,
Thank you for your comment, and welcome to my site.

I am frequently amazed at how much comes back, both in visual memory, and the memory of words and sounds, when I write things down, hours or days after. Sometimes I find that a camera can hinder this (probably as I don't feel the need to make so much effort to recall things), but a camera also helps me to see, and to study things, so it can help as well!

I am so pleased that you got in touch, as it has been a delight to visit your own blog site, to look at your beautiful pictures, and also to marvel at New York.. you make me want to travel there!

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