Miscellaneous Monday

 

Today's pottery sharing...by Robert Reedy!

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From Jess Craven:

Republicans’ “Trump-a-Palooza” was an utter flop, with empty seats, embarrassingly low ratings, the podium literally falling apart, and little enthusiasm from attendees.

An unknown protest group sent Epstein “messaging luggage” to the Dallas Ft. Worth airport’s baggage carousel just as Republican attendees were arriving for the convention. Bravo!

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Gotta stay up to date...wait, nothing new in the last 32 years?

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Yosemite’s brown-colored black bears eating acorns. by Drew Wharton, NPS

There are also black bears in Durango...attested to by frequent garbage cans turned over nearby. They don't have the familiar brown muzzles with dark black coats, like the ones in North Carolina. Not that I've seen any, just videos. 

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Another field of science that apparently has stagnated!

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There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept. -Ansel Adams, photographer (1902-1984)

Food and pottery

 

Much gratitude for the free food from Bounty and Soul each week when a truck comes right to the parking lot at the apartment complex. Most of it is past it's prime, but perfectly good still, and organic a lot of the time. 

I tried making whole wheat sunflower seed bread in the machine the other day. It's kind of strange smelling, more like beer than bread. But I like the seeds, so may try a white bread recipe and just add them in next time. 

While I'm celebrating food, this was a few weeks ago at the Veranda Restaurant with a  cup of "Charleston She Crab" soup and a half a roast beef sandwich. They make fabulous soups. As you can see, I wouldn't stop to take a photo till I'd eaten half of it.

The toaster oven cooked a pound of salmon in a foil pillow, then I added a sauce and panko on top for the final browning...and had 5 dinners from it.

And just to go back in time a bit, to a picnic lunch...French style.

Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass - Déjeuner sur l’Herbe

And related to food, how about making some beautiful pottery?

Julian_and_Maria_Martinez_decorating_potter,_c.1912

I learned how Maria Martinez of San Ildefonso mesa made the "black on black" pottery which was pit-fired. I was studying ceramics for my BFA at the University of Florida in 1983. I made one pot in that style, rubbing the shiny part of the clay with a stone and a spoon.  I made certain when I visited Santa Fe NM in 2019 that I got to see some of her work at at museum store.

OK, I did tend to go off on a tangent...

Sharing with Sepia Saturday -

But I can't find a thing that looks like the prompt that Alan came up with this week. One guy helping by holding tools, while the other works on a motorcycle. Not in my folders, nope, nothing close!

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The packing process starts

An organization stated that it's ..." core mission - to be good neighbors, good stewards, good ancestors."

I want to belong to places like that!

My son Russ flew (in a plane) all the way to help me pack…he lives 500 miles away. As an engineer at heart, he was wonderful at putting the pottery safely into boxes. And climbing the step ladder to take down curtains, and put those boxes on the now clean shelves.

Just because it’s my creation. Doesn’t mean I need to keep it forever…nor have it possibly outlive me. Thus the shards of many pots go to the dump!

The carefully packed pieces now await my finding a new home living closer to relatives…in another state. I’m waiting for an opening for a senior apartment availability. I don’t expect it to happen for several more months.

Our reward for dealing with all the dust that had accumulated on the pottery, and the shelves, and the curtains! - Ole’s Guacamole for shrimp tacos for me! Southwest tacos for Russ. Since he's planning a vacation in Mexico soon, he practiced his Spanish, what would southwest be? Ah, we had to look it up, suroeste!

Yes, we sat by Flat Creek, gurgling away between us and the Motel 8.

I’m proud to say I’ve only a couple of dings in my flesh so far, from jamming fingers and arms against edges of boxes. This is the cost of having a body which is much older than my thoughts. 

Unfortunately Delta Airlines cancelled his flight around noon Sunday, and they cancelled all the other flights from Asheville to Atlanta that day, so he stayed to keep working until Monday noon! My benefit, but who knows what happened to Delta? Nobody so far has said a thing. They were delaying flights into and out of Atlanta due to thunderstorms on Friday when he originally was scheduled from Ohio...it's all up in the air. Ha ha ha. But I want to trust the airline that carries my dear one through the air!

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Are you living life in a way that it will come to a natural end with you in harmony with your inner world and in harmony with the beauty that surrounds? If not, what steps do you need to take?

Heron Dance Journalist, Rod MacIver 

The big pottery give-away

 One advantage of driving up to my son's home in Ohio from North Carolina, was to tote three big tupperware tubs full of pottery to give to them. I have spent 12 years enjoying making it. And I did sell quite a bit as well. But this is really just a drop in the bucket of what I still have.

After the five family members looked at everything, they took turns choosing their favorites to go home with the three daughters, or stay there with parents. Of course they will all get to use the ones at home! And I suggested that they also could use them for Christmas presents.

This sunflower vase was pretty hard for me to let go of.  But I like that it will be enjoyed by Audrey and her roommate in their apartment.

None of them had read Louise Penny yet…but these are later editions of the series, so they may find some of the earlier books about Inspector Gamache. They all had to talk about Greta Thunberg, and I recommended the other 3. I do hope someone looks at them before they donate them to the little library down the street. I almost took back the big volume of "Eve" because I still love it. But this was such a good exercise for me of letting go...!

I’m glad the Monarch outside wall hanging will stay here, perhaps to decorate the patio.

Everyone took Christmas ornaments as well, often to be gifted to friends.

Some of these were more difficult for me to part with than I expected. But at least I know where they will live for a while.

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I drove home today...a day early so the impending snow storm wouldn't interfere with my travels - it's due to start in Lexington tonight where I stayed last night. Here in Black Mountain we'll probably have some frozen rain...so I'm happy to stay home. I had a "check engine" light come on in the car, and have an appointment on Thursday for my favorite mechanic to work on it. Whew, so glad it let the car keep on going down the road the last 300 miles! Today's weather and traffic were great!

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Today’s goddess:

A Balzi Rossi goddess figurine is 6.1 cm high, made of green steatite and dated ca 24,000-19,000 BP (22,000-17,000 BC), Upper Paleolithic period, Gravettian culture.

Thanks to The Mother Goddess on FaceBook.

Ceramics as art

 The art which inspired the floral designer...

The continuation from Art in Bloom in Black Mountain Center for the Arts 2025 is June 27-July 25 • Art from the Garden Plein Air Exhibit in the galleries. These paintings/drawings were created during the garden tours this year by local artists.

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So to continue to the Asheville Art Museum for a current exhibit by Indigenous artists.

I admit, I was a bit weary by the time I looked at more photographs, mostly black and whites, but the huge photo collage by Ms. Guiterrez did catch my attention.

But in the permanent collection could be found this:

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Today's quote:

Whatever our individual troubles and challenges may be, it’s important to pause every now and then to appreciate all that we have, on every level.

Shakti Gawain Today's Old Photo: Camping in 1991 in the Smoky Mountains National Park! (me actually!)

Cleaning up the balcony

  

An empty pot, made in 2009...don't know what I'll plant in it.

I swear these orchid blooms are just dead flowers sitting on that stem...they opened last winter, and I put them outside with all the other plants when it got warm enough!

Our balconies are really really tiny...so it's just a good place to put a few plants...if I remember to water them, since most are under an overhang.

Letting in the cool morning air (until 9 am)

All the rest of the landscape crew is missing for the last 2 weeks. Here one of the two white guys has dumped and spread the rest of the mulch. I wonder if the Hispanic guys are hiding from ICE. These times are scary.

Barry Bernstein, pottery, 1949

Bounty and Soul brings a lot of fresh produce and day old bread, and even eggs, to distribute to the senior residents here once a week. I only want bread at this point. I've enough veggies that I should be cooking them up. Anyway, I love this sourdough, which had expired a few days before I received it, and it went into the freezer.  

The sources of day old groceries may remain, but the grants for Bounty and Soul, and Mana Food Bank are expiring June 30. That pays for the guys who deliver, and the gas in their trucks. Many volunteers keep things working, but I don't know if they'll still be in existence after the end of this month. Elders are known as being food insecure. Just look at what I had for dinner the other night...no don't!

At our local grocery, I got 4 chocolate croissants that were only $2.98 rather than double that usually. And then I had coffee with friends and paid about $5 for one croissant there! It's helping the economy I figure. I get the chocolate, and a decaf Americano to drink with it!

I received this lovely bracelet last Christmas but lost the details about it. I think someone may have identified the black stones as lava rock (as they have a bit of rough finish, as well as are very light.) Good energy anyway. Seri said it is restful and energizing and absorbs negative energy.

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Another piece of art which I haven't found a good place to post.

Today's quote:

We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.

Paulo Coelho

Our political situation certainly is giving us many unexpected events. I'm not pleased, most of the time. I've always believed that people power is so much more reasonable than political powers. That's supposedly what the Congress does.