This time of year

It is not all about the pots.
Some days you just need to take a walk.

Make sure you can find some time for yourself to breathe a little and enjoy a site or two.
Cheers,
m

Yes

 Yes, we are open.
I might be working 3 days a week teaching, but that means Mark is here, working and open.

Are we always open on Mondays?
No, there are times that we close on a Monday, call or email ahead.

 Will you be open this past weekend?
Yes, we are open weekends.
This weekend we will open at 9 close at 5.
Sundays, call or email.


Are there times that you have to be closed?
Yes, we are like all people. We have families and that means that there are times that we need to go for many reasons.

Again, call or email if you want to be sure we are here.

Do we have any of Laurie Abela's soaps in stock?
Yes, we do.
We love her soaps and if you have used them you will love them as well.

We have plenty of stock in the gallery and more set aside.
Custom orders.
Talk to us, we can work with you on many items.

We hope to see you out and about.
Come on by.

 We would love to see you.

Now we are talking about Jam

 I have a little book that I bought when I first moved here 1976-1977. This book is put out by the Ball canning company The cover is now gone and many of the pages are splattered  with bits of this and that. In that little book are packed more useful information than many of the books written on canning. It has simple instructions on prep, care, safety and some of the best jam, jelly preserve recipes I have used.

I have early memories of picking fruit with my grandmother, brothers and sisters. After we were done, she would take the fruit and turn it into the best jams, jellies and preserves. I  remember how hot it was in the kitchen and how much I wanted to be in there with her. The kitchen was small and hot and I am sure now she wanted to keep me safe from the boiling water. It would be years before I would take it on my own to step into her role and make the jams, jellies and preserves of my youth. I always use the fruits that are local, in season and as fresh as possible.
The prep part is the major part of the work.
One you have done the prep the making is the easy part.

July is my favorite time to pick up peaches.

Peach Jam
2 quarts of peeled, crushed peaches
1 Tbs. lemon juice
6 cups of sugar
Combine peaches and sugar, bring to a boil, stirring occasionally
until sugar dissolves. Cook until thick; the recipe says 15 minutes, but I cook longer and slower, until it turns a golden color and is more jam like. Be sure and skim off the foam as you go along. Before you pack in jars make sure you have taken all the foam off. Once it is the thickness that you want, pack in clean, hot jars and water bath for 10-15 minutes.
Remove, let them sit for 24 hours before you store them.


The last two days I have been working on Blackberry Jelly.
I extract the juice by heating the berries, straining them and then letting the juice stand overnight. I find that the juice will settle leaving you a nice clear juice at the top. I use that juice for the jelly.
Here is the recipe.
Blackberry Jelly
4 cups of Blackberry juice
I Tbs. lemon juice
3 cups of sugar
Heat juice, lemon and sugar in a pan and bring to a boil.
As it is boiling, skim off the foam.
I boil this until it hits the jelly stage. It takes at least 30 minutes.
I can't give you exact time as I am always checking the jelly stage by placing a bit in the freezer and looking at how it shifts off the stirring spoon. I pack this in hot jars and process for 10 minutes. 

Here is what I found out the other day. I was out of lemon so I did not add it. I had more foam and a sticky mess on the sides of the pan.  I remembered that you could add a Tbs. of butter to help with the foam. I tried that but it was still doing the same thing. On the second round I added the butter and 1 Tbs. of white vinegar. The acid of the vinegar worked to bring the foam down to a doable amount.
Also, I do not use the box pectin. You can if you like, it will save you some time and there are times that I have used it, but your results will be different.

What's Brewing?

 Our son decided that his dear old dad should get back on board with his beer brewing. He started last year by cooking up a batch of beer with him. When the beer was ready to drink and it was so tasty Mark decided he would make another batch, which lead to yet another batch.
Now we are in full swing on the making of beer.

Mark was brewing beer 35 years ago when we first moved here and the only beer you could buy was some low-rent stuff. So low-rent was some of it that it came in a white can that only said, "beer".

When we traveled we looked for beer supplies stores, Sadly there was no internet and you had to do real research to find things. We found 2, yes, 2, beer supply stores.
One was in Norfolk and really they were into baking supplies but they had a small, wee, corner of the store where you could get some beer supplies. Then we found one in Charlottesville, Va. where my sister just happen to live.
Now to tell the truth was this good beer?
Well it was better than the white can variety of beer.

 It was drinkable.
And, it was more work.
Move to now and we have real choices in the making of beer.
New and improved yeast and hops, plus beer supplies can be found with the stroke of the key board. And, we have beer supplies now readily available 10 minutes from the house. Really! Closer than the 25 we used to drive to buy the low-rent stuff.  

The beer Mark is making now it not just good, it is pretty darn good.

Beer.
Tasty stuff....

 You know how much we love this pond of ours because I have been taking pictures of it for years. This past week the weather was so warm and the pond so still that I had to get some of those reflection pictures that I love so much.
I look out on this water daily and marvel that I never get tired of seeing it.
There really is something healing about living around water.
The same but different everyday.

Lovely winter trees and clouds....

We have started preparing the pots for glaze. It is time to check the levels of the glaze buckets and replenished as needed.

There is a rumor that winter rolls back in tomorrow.

Stay warm,
M 

This is what January looks like

 January in the south can be capricious in nature, cold one day and 65 the next. Between yesterday and then today it was hard to walk over and go in the studio to work.
Sigh.
I hate to go throw when it is 30 degrees and I hate to go throw when it is 65 and the sun is shinning.
Do I detect a pattern here....?

I really do enjoy what I do it's just that sunshine can all my name so easily.

Instead I had lids to trim and here is my easy set up for some quick trimming.
I use a piece of plastic pipe that I bought at the local hardware.
This works just great to drop the lid in and trim it up.
 
 We also have a large collection of lids that we drop inside the lids to steady them as we are trimming.

 Sugar Jars in waiting.

 This was part of my walk today. The sun was so bright and inviting that I left work early before lunch to walk up to the mailbox.
The shadows were great company and decided that they would come along with me.

On the way back with the mail, no bills today (yeah) , I cut around the pond and walked through the area of the farm where the original house stood.
As I looked up I saw the side of the old grainery and it made me think of all the people who would have walked through that area of the farm when it was part of the yard for the house.
It is one of the few buildings left from those days. The barn that was just past this building is long gone. We had it removed after a tornado came through one year and knock it off its foundation.  

I still enjoy having this building here even though we don't use it as we once did.

So January is shaping up.
Pots are being made.
Walks are happening.
Bread is being baked.

Life and sunshine.
Cheers!

M

Winter Light

 Mark and I on many days look at the way the light hits the trees and pond.
When we go from those hot and humid days to the crisp days of fall and then run them right into the frosty days of winter you can just see the air change in front of you.
Yesterday was warmish and the wind was blowing like a man man beating the tarp around the kiln as I was getting pots sanded and ready to load in the electric kiln.
The wind was making me jumpy as it beat the tarp and acted like it could pull the tin right off the roof.

 I am use to it being fairly quiet around me while I work so I was keenly aware of the noise of the wind.

Once the front went through we were left with one of those cold winter to be days here and since the wind blew off the day for us we were left with that crisp morning air.
A tad chilly but chilly and calm.

 It has been an interested December full of the emotion of the past week.
I hope that like this wind we find some calm in the day.

Does this bit of sun looks like it is there just waiting for a cat?

Later,
M

This is not my August

What a week this past week has been with the best weather.
 These are not our dog days of August but we would like to thank who ever provided them for us.

We started out the day with a apple picking over at Jeff and Michèle's place, which is just around the corner from us. While they were sleeping we filled two 5 gallon buckets full of apples. The plan this year was to peel, core, slice and dry. We have some really great dried apples to munch on now.

On the drive over there we thought that today would also be a great day to float on the pond late in the afternoon.

We grabbed a beer and went out.
Mark grabbed 2 fishing poles and I grabbed the camera.
 

There were these nice clouds just following us around.

The great fisher man and that hat!
Sexy huh?

The water for the most part, when we were not moving it along, was so calm.
I really like the reflections in the water that the trees and clouds provide.

No real fish were caught on our outing, but we did catch some down time and just floating and relaxing.
It seems we do not get enough time to go out on this pond of ours.
We are either working or it is too hot this time of year.
Then fall we get to busy.

I think I will juts have to put in another day like this soon!
 It would be good for the soul.
Work is waiting that kiln will not glaze and fire its self.

Oh, just one more.....
M

What's cooking

I can not tell you where the days go right now. We have been working on so many things, and reading books, that we find the days slip by so quickly.
Mark found someone to mow around the pond and on the driveway and this has added not only to his work load but it is making us look less neglected around here. For the past 4-5 years with all the stuff that was happening here we just did not have time to keep all the green stuff cut back.

 So Mark starting doing some talking and found one of our neighbors works for DOT and things were slow right now for him. Yeah- and Good lord I want one of these for our tractor.

Look at how pretty the driveway is becoming! Really- you need to oh and ah since I know how much time,( and money) this takes.
It is almost as good as getting a new kitten!

I unloaded the tiles this past week and decided that I was sticking with the Red Rock or Red stone. I used a white clay body and besides finding it a bit dull there were two tiles that warped like potato chips.
Ugh- they of course had a ton of work on them and the are rocking and rolling. I am still licking the sting over those two.
There were some good things like this house number.
I had a couple form Pinehurst ask me to make this for them.
This is their house number and they wanted to be sure it could be seen from the street.
I think it will work great.
I hope that they will send me a picture when it is all put up.
I was also glad we broke up that yellow with some weeds and another color.
Bright!

This is one of the tiles out of the last kiln- picture is terrible but I love the colors in this one.
This is where I really enjoy those premixed commercial glazes. Fun with glazes I should call these.
Sometimes they work really well.
Even though they are expensive for tiles you just don't use that much.

I also make some tiles form some of the scraps and loved the way these came out- terrible picture, I think the camera needs some work, it has been doing some strange things....like double exposures.
Anyway these are being shipped to a customer today. They did not get left in the store but 1 day.
They are not real large but will be fun to hang in a place that needs something.

In wrapping up this week there are many pots drying for the next kiln load in the Big Gas kiln, that we have never named, but now I am thinking Henry would be a good name for a kiln that has worked hard all it's life being faithful and just trudging along.
So what's next? More pots, more tiles, more firing, more driveway and more books.
Cheers!
M

PS- and you thought there would be a recipe in here didn't you?

Blueberry and Blackberry Galette with Cornmeal Crust
( disclaimer one- I had no blackberries---)
Crust:
1 ¾ cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup raw organic sugar
¼ cup cornmeal
¼ tsp. salt
½ cold ,cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 buttermilk- or in my case milk

lightly spoon flour into measuring cup and level with knife.
Combine flour, sugar, cornmeal into food processor and pulse to mix.
Add:
Butter- pulse 3-4 times or more in my case.
Add milk to just hold together but not wet.
Chill- I did over night.

Filling: Combine in a bowl toss well to coat.
4 cups of blueberries
2 cups of blackberries- I only used the 4 cups of blueberries.
½ cup of sugar- I used 1/4th
3 TBS. flour
2 TBS. lemon juice
2 TBS. milk

I added a TBS of orange liqueur, cinnamon and chopped up orange rind

Preheat oven to 350
Roll crust into a 15 inch prefect circle
(Not really I just threw that in.)
I rolled this on a pastry cloth I have using light flour on top.
Flipped it over onto lightly flour dusted wax paper.
Continued to roll using light flour on the rolling pin.
Then flipped it over on parchment paper to bake and place that on a baking sheet.

Place the filling on crust leaving about 2 inches all the way around the edges.
Fold edges inward to center, pressing gently to seal.

I baked for 30 minutes then brushed the pie crust with 2TBS. Blackberry Jam heated with about 1 TBS. orange liqueur.
I poured the extra on the berries.
Baked another 30 minutes.
Let cool and serve. 

Light and the end of a day

Ever since we were pottery students we were taught to clean your area because there was someone coming behind you.
So these are Mark's tools at the end of the day.
All ready for use.
Now where are mine?
I am not as good as he is in the department and I am sometimes taken by surprise at the mess I leave behind me. I tend to walk in and think who was on my wheel last night while I was sleeping?
Darn elves.....

There was the best light after the rain last week.
I love that fresh light look that it gives everything.
It looks like promises yet to come.

The path down the drive from the house...follow me it begs, let's see where we can go and what we can see.
Ever since I was a kid I have loved the promise of a good path...

Christmas is coming and I am still packing.
Best get to it.
M

The true signs of fall are when the poison Ivy shows its color. We know that the trees will be close behind. Can't you see why this would fool someone into thinking what a beautiful vine, I need me some of that. It does call you for better inspection and you might just want to touch, don't!

 

On another note I have a banjo that belonged to my sister lee which I have to sell. 

Spread the word if you know any one who might be interested. 

Leave me a comment and I will get back with you.This is a great banjo and needs a good home.

I am working on some things that will tie me up for a few days but I hope to be back to what I do after that. So, cheers and keep on blogging. I will check in on them as I can. I will also do a post about the tile mirrors when I get some real time to pull that together.
later-M

A day for sweetness

I am working on Sugar Jars.
What is it about the wee jars that we love to make, well, me anyway.
Sometimes I hit one just right and it all looks great and other times I am a hair or two off- that elusive shape of just round enough and just the right opening.

Then there is the lid....
I like to make this lid that we learned from Virginia Shelton that is common for this area.
It is a right side up lid that is opened all the way to the bat, thrown and closed up at the top to make the knob.

I really like this lid but there are days that I go too Tall and it is toooooooo much for the jar.
I like them better when I keep it lower to the base and have a nice balance in the lid to body.
Can you see the one in the middle here? Not my favorite lid to body.
I prefer the one on the left .
To me it has a better balance.

Yesterday we had a nice rain or big storm depending on where you were.
We don't know we slept through it all and woke up to puddles.
The wet seem to bring out some of these animals that have been hiding form the dry heat.
This toad was happy to hang out all day.
He would give me a bit of an eye but he was not willing to give up his place.
I suspect that there was some good eating going on here.
I hope so since I was bitten by black flies when I went to get water for throwing- little buggers.
It itched for hours!

   

The wet ground made it soft enough for this turtle who had come up from the pond to lay her eggs. She will spend several hours digging with her back feet to make a hole deep enough to lay her eggs. She then covers it all back up nice and tight.
I went later to look and see where she dug and you could not even tell she had been there.
There you go turtles have very small carbon foot prints...!


Time to beat some heat and go place some bamboo poles for the beans to climb.
Cheers!
M

Tuesday- the day that follows Monday

This morning I was going to go right in the studio and get down on those last tiles for the back splash.
I knew right where I left off and thought I could just knock those out.
But to tell you the truth after loading the kiln yesterday, which makes for a long day, I was moving slow and dallied around in the house until about 9:30- then I had to take a walk up the drive to place the open sign out.
It was a beautiful day today and that always makes it harder to head inside. 

 After getting back from my walk I kept thinking about how I wanted something to hang earrings and pendents on.
I looked and looked online last night.
I would find something I wanted and the cost was right but the shipping would be a bit too high.
I could buy one for under 15.00 but then the shipping was 10.00- that just raised the price to 25.00.
I decided I was going to cut some twigs and see if I could make something.
As I was playing around with the twigs Mark comes in and gives me some advice, shows me how to use his drill press- pretty cool- to drill the small holes for the wire.
I put them both together and then realized I could have used the drill to drill holes all the way across...
Well this just means I get to make another one-right?
Don't look too close.
I hope to get a little better on the wrapping.

I do think they hold some promise.
I used some fishing stuff to hold the pendents but I think I need to work on how I want that to work.
I would like to be able to just clip off the pendent if someone is interested in buying one or trying one on.
I think I want to look at a larger size.
Mark says I will have to go on to the deep sea fishing stuff to get a larger clip thingy- escapes my brain what these things are called right now.
Again shows some promise.

I did glaze through the afternoon and then played some more with these before I headed in.
Mark is out there firing the gas kiln and me- I am going to stretch out and pretend I am doing something important besides checking my eye lids for holes.

BUT WAIT!- I have to tell you that Connie Norman has posted an interview with me out on her blog.
Thanks Connie!
It has been such a pleasure to meet another potter/blogger.
I have admired Connie's work for some time now and getting to meet her, if only  through email for now, has been great.

Cheers!
M