Yesterday and today friends and fellow potters gathered to once again load the anagama kiln for another spring firing. This time, our mural, made last year and featured on the blog, will finally get fired. Hope all the pieces make it through so we can install the mural on a prepared wall on the outside of our home during the warm days of summer.
The decks and bird feeders are filled with squirrels (looks like momma Douglas brown had 6 babies this year, and the big grays have returned too) grosbeaks, Stellar jays, chickadees and rosy finches as well as lots of chipmunks. Watching the pecking order provides constant amusement for us when we sit at the dining table.
The garden is taking off now that we are finally getting some warm weather (April was colder than February), and my mason bees/orchard bees that I bought 6 six cocoons of this spring are already laying eggs for next year! Finding another hole filled with cocoons in the mason bee "home" always amazes me. This little solitary (non-hive) bee that lives only a few weeks spends most of it laying eggs, eggs and more eggs, in between pollinating raspberries and other fruits. Nils is enjoying radishes (the only vegie I don't eat) and we no longer have to purchase greens for salads. The raspberries are covered with blooms, as are the strawberries.
My trips to Portland where I act as caregiver for 2 days a week have been alternated with productive, art-filled days which allow me to re-center myself. The plus is that the Goodwill bins have been filled with goodies like they were a few years ago, so I have lots of new materials to work with and inspire me. I packed away 2 big boxes of things that had been sitting around way too long knowing that at some point they will seem new to me again. Photos of new work are coming soon.
Watching a loved one suffer through cancer while remembering my own bouts with illness and surgery and recovery last year makes me treasure each moment and take in each thing, good or bad, as part of my experience. We learn and grow from all of it.
Love each day!
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