Shaking Off The Cobwebs

We've been Lucky . . .  We had a couple of days in a row at or near eighty degrees.

Sam loved it.

The red trillium have really begun to open up. 

The blood root is actually almost done blooming already. 

I think this is the best our trout lilies have ever bloomed. 

The oconnee bells I divided from Dad's clump are magnificent! 

Trilliums in the shade. 

My baby lettuce seedlings are coming along quickly and the lettuce starts I put out are beginning to take off. 

We've gotten the beds cleaned out, the last of the leaves are gone, and the fountain is back in business! 

Of course there's a freeze warning for tonight . . .

Lunch is over so it's back to the studio.  Today I'm desprueing and grinding the four new bronze ferns.  It's a lot of work too, because I really oversprued them ~ then again I spent so much time working on them that I was determined that they would cast well!

We have lots more in the works.

"It's A Question Of Lifestyle . . . . . . . " or Love's Labour Found, Part II.

Red Coleus

Sunday Morning, September 12th, 2010

As I was saying, it's a question of lifestyle.  Fall always seems to be an introspective time for us.  It's also when we suddenly feel the Season's changing, or beginning to change.  And for us we know that Winter is coming and that there is so much to do before we are ready!

Like eating as much fresh local organic lettuce as we can!

Bowl by Sandra Wells Rolland,

purchased at the October 2009 Guild Fair.

A couple of decades ago my Mom gave me a large envelope stuffed with some of her favorite recipe clippings.  My Mother was a phenomenal cook and baker.  She could cook anything and everything, and she cooked it superbly.  I guess, in a way, I grew up in her kitchen.  I don't really remember helping her that much.  But I was with her, watching and talking and learning a lot more than I realized at the time.

We looked and never were able to find the rest of her recipes.  I thought they were gone forever . . .  Last Fall I found them!  They were stuffed in the back of the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet we inherited from her.  A different manila folder for each type of recipe: cakes, breads, main courses, salads, and on and on.  So many recipes that I remember!  So many recipes to cook.  Oh my, so many taste to recreate.

Pat caught me!

Slicing organic Market cukes by hand.

My favorite large bowl by David Grant, from 2009.

I was in the grips of a Fall Compulsion!  Last year was the first time I had ever made pickles and they were wonderful and fun and I am hooked!  And we'd actually been buying pickles for a month!!!  So now, armed with Mom's recipes I was determined to re-make her incredible Bread & Butter pickles.

Sliced onions and garlic added.



I pressed a beautiful bowl by Tom Turnbull into service for the overflow!

Packed back into David's bowl, salted and iced and

into the fridge for 3 hours.

In the meantime I sliced more cukes for dill pickles

as the brine heated.

A few hours later Bread & Butter pickles heating through before hot packing.

I never knew that turmeric gave them their wonderful color and flavour!

Pat's partial to dill pickles.  Mom's Bread and Butter Pickles have always been my favorites.  After checking some other recipes I changed her recipe by slightly reducing the sugar content.  (No wonder I loved them!)

I also learned just how much work they are.  What an incredible Labour of Love Mom did year after year after year.  She supplied us with pickles, cookies (oh the cookies!), cakes and pies, some of the greatest healthiest meals of my life were made by her.

7 half-pints and 1 pint of Almost-Mom's Bread & Butter Pickles!

9 half-pints and 3 pints of Almost-Kosher Deli-Style Dill Pickles for Pat!

As I said, it's all a question of lifestyle.  It's pretty simple.  What's important?  How do you want to live?  What do you want your life to be?  Every choice, large and small, determines who we are and how we live our lives.

And I wanted homemade pickles back in our lives again!

Sure, some choices and decisions take a little longer to grow to fruition.  But isn't it worth it all???  So, these views are for Terry . . .

Inky and I had an idea, May 23rd, 2010.

Planted June 14th, 2010.

Nearing the end of the Season, September 2nd, 2010.

Because, you know, my Dear Sister Terry is right.

It's a question of lifestyle . . .



The Morning After . . .

We had a terrific thunderstorm last night.  This is what I found when I went out with my coffee this morning . . .

The new lilies have opened up beautifully!

One of my containers in our shady sitting area.

There was a Tiger at the watering hole!

More coleus.

Some of our lilies did survive the Winter.

The first bloom on our new mystery vine opened this morning!

These Dragon Wing Begonia's weathered the storm well.

When I was digging what's now the new herb bed Inky's little Tron friend appeared.

Are they guarding us from . . .

The Chinese Millet bloom ?!?

Special Work

Appalachian Spring

Appalachian Spring has been on exhibit for the last year in Washington D.C.

at the Appalachian Regional Commission.  It just came back home to us last week.

This custom pendant, designed by Pat and Jeannie Tracie, of The Jeweler's Workbench fame, is being delivered today.

It is constructed of 14 K Gold, Sterling Silver, and hand set Diamonds.  The mountains were textured with a .5 mm burr and the background is oxidized with our favorite jewelers' Silver Black.  (As these two photos show somehow the camera's white balance setting is still not right!)

We've been very busy these last couple of weeks.  I spent a few days on some work for the Guild's Board.  It takes time but it really feels good to be able to help such an incredible and unique organization.  We had a great time at the annual Clay Day at the Folk Art Center.  The pots that we each glazed for the raku firing turned out beautifully!

In the midst of all of our work we've been spending the weekends working on the yarden some more.  Despite how much we have to get done, I took a couple of days last week to finish the trellis project.  We had bought two climbing vines at the Market a couple of weeks ago and they've been growing like crazy.  Since I promised Laura P. and Laure S. here are some before and after views.

The view from the bench three weeks ago, new plants being watered in.

The view Sunday morning after even more plants went in and we mulched.

Only three bags of mulch to go!  The lettuce has been replaced with more coleus.

Here's the bench and Inky three weeks ago.  Mandevillas and tropicals behind it.

The bench and new trellis this weekend.

We re-mulched the paths to the wildflower area too.

The two cherry tomatoes still need to be potted up!

After I strolled through the yarden taking pictures I found Inky holding my place!

It's already over eighty degrees today and by now the wax pot should be ready for me to get to work on waxes for the July Guild Fair!  Since the wax needs to be just over 160 degrees to flow well it's going to be a warm day in the office!  But I know that at the end of the day it's going to be beautiful and cool in the yarden.  I just hope Inky and Sam will share the bench with me . . .

Commissions, Theatrical Faces & Night Moves . . .

Okay; maybe I am persnickety.  That's okay though.  Right?  After all, we are self-employed jewelry-artists!

I spent much longer than I had thought I would sprueing this commissioned pendant Tuesday afternoon.  Here's yet more proof of why I think that Pat is The Best Wax Carver in Asheville!

(And, again, this wax was photographed on a sheet of white paper.

But at least this shows the dimensional aspects of this pendant well.)

Our Clients provided Pat with a rough sketch of what they had in mind.  This is her scaled-down design sketch that they approved before she began carving the wax of their pendant.

Yes, I can be persnickety.  When a piece has as much time in it as this one does I'd much rather err on the side of caution.  So, yes, I very carefully over-sprued.  (I'd rather have the casting turn out perfectly and spend extra time de-sprueing and re-texturing parts of the back than I would have a casting fail and Pat have to re-carve the wax!)  I also sprued the waxes of the two rings that Violet D. ordered.

Yesterday we shipped out the faceted forged ring that Sandy ordered.  I got the Parkway Crafts Center order all ready to ship out first thing in the morning.

I poured the first of these two flasks at 7 PM.  After I quenched and put the pieces into the devester Pat and I made a nice summertime-type dinner.

After dinner Pat flopped and began reading a new C.J. Cherryh novel that she's been looking forward to.  Sam and I went outside to enjoy the evening.  I sat on our bench and listened to the frogs next door and Sammy sprawled on his table so he could guard the edge of our yarden.

Last night was one of those times when it is hard to believe that we live where we do ~ just a couple of miles from one of the busiest roads in town.  Our fountain burbled, the frogs sang a discordant off-beat chorus next door.  An occasional car sound off in the distance.  And all was good.

Until it was time to come back inside and put the castings into the new pickle for the night.

Sam refused to come in. We have a family of coyotes somewhere in the scrub woods behind our house, so leaving the Tiger out unsupervised was not an option!  He wouldn't be herded.  He wouldn't come for the promise of food . . .

Sam finally did come running to the sound of a can being tapped with a knife.  Which is how we got the boyz to come in years ago.  Since we didn't have any canned cat food in the house I had to use a can of tuna.  Pat said it was only fair to let Sam and Ink have it since they came when I used it (Inky was sound asleep in the bedroom) . . .

Ink loved it and of course Sam turned his nose up at canned tuna and pouted; until he got a lap to cuddle on!

Sweet Sam blinks.

Quick Yarden Update!

I still need to edit the photos of our newest work. This week is going to be another Fun one with some interesting work ahead of us. We'll be getting some work out to our galleries and we have, lets see, I think it's four special commissions to make! But, before getting to the work, here's what we've been doing for other kinds of Fun . . .

Sunday we went to Painter's Greenhouse for the next stage of their wonderful sale!

We came home with a wonderful mix of annuals, perennials and herbs!

We stopped at our little Ingles so Pat cold pick up some more Begonias.

How could I resist a couple of beautiful young squash plants?

Some of the Basil I potted up.  (Note to self:  Get more Basil ASAP!)

Pat and her Helper take a well earned break at the end of the day.

Inky's a good Guard Mountain Goat! 

Newly potted Dragon Wing Begonia beside Pat.

The new baby banana plant is peaking over the back of our bench.

Baby Squash!

Sugar Snap Pea Blossom; at an odd angle because

I've just started sending the vines back down their trellis.

One of our first Sugar Snap Pea pods!

When she heard we were collecting sedums and succulents for a new rock garden our fiber friend Sandra Rowland gave us two buckets crammed full of this type of sedum!

The others went into the lower rock wall.

The view from the bench Monday morning, after everything was watered in.

An unknown "wild orchid" blooming by our front door.

I bought one or packets of these at one of the big box stores years ago.

Now I have no idea what they are . . .  Except that they look like a miniature White Cattleya Orchid and they come back year after year!