Life, Death, Pottery, Etc.

The pinecone blooms or, to be technical, bracts, are neither as abundant or deep red this year as they usually are. This is due to the lack of rain in the last few months, I am sure. The leaves of their fronds are curled in on themselves and some of the pinecone bracts have given up their will to stand tall and are slumped over on their stems, their color a pale pinkish green. I found a few nice ones this afternoon though, cut and brought them in and put them, with some of their fronds, in the pretty blue vase I bought a few weeks ago at Wag The Dog. 

Perhaps I am rushing things and in a week or two, the reds will deepen. They are beautiful as they are though, whether cardinal-feather scarlet or more of a blushing pinkish red. 

Speaking of flowers, I spent two and one half hours in pottery class painting the inside of my flower bowl. I'm not sure how or why it took this long but it did. I went slowly. And I'm not even finished with that part of the bowl. All I put on today was underglaze and next will come a clear glaze which is what will give it shine. I also intend to glaze the outside of the bowl with a regular glaze in a shade of light green and perhaps I will paint the rim of the bowl with a dark green. The way I pick my glazes and colors is mostly a matter of looking to see what's available and then trying to figure out how I feel about the whole situation. Although underglaze comes out of the kiln approximately the same color as it appears in its liquid state, regular glaze does not. At all. You need to have examples of what the colors will look like after firing and even with those, the whole thing is an exercise in trust and in the ability to accept what comes out of the fire because that, baby, is what it is. 
And it's just a bowl. A funky clay bowl. 

Jessie is doing some really beautiful work. Her ability to carve designs in her pots and mugs is truly amazing and I love how she uses color. She enjoys this process so much and I enjoy seeing her develop her ability to create beautiful and ever more intricate things. 

It was, in all, a very enjoyable class. Everyone was relatively quiet today, the only annoying thing was the sound of one of the class members doing something on the wheel that made the very worst grinding sound you can imagine. Like maybe a cement saw would sound? 
Yeah. Like that. 
But it didn't last forever. 
Part of why I enjoyed the hours in the studio so much was the play list our teacher had on. It included so many of the songs and artists I loved in the seventies from Neil Young to James Taylor to The Rolling Stones to The Eagles. Everyone was sort of singing along as quietly as we could. It was impossible not to. 

My fish spoon rest is as ready to go into the kiln as it's going to get and I swear- I love that thing. It makes me smile. Next week is our last class for this session and my dream is to get both the bowl and the fish all glazed and ready to go into the kiln for the final firing. We shall see. And if not- well, I can finish in the next session which we are already signed up for. I really want to do more and different flower bowls in these next classes as well as more fish spoon rests although I could make fish wind chimes or...fish something. 
I will ponder this. 

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Jane Goodall has died. She died today at the age of 91 which is a good long life but still, I'm sad to hear of her death. What a woman. What an amazing human being. 
The first book I ever read by her was In the Shadow of Man and I read it either right before Hank was born or right after. It changed my life. Here's what I wrote in 2007 right after Owen was born about what I learned from that book about how to be a primate mother. 

I think I learned as much about mothering from Jane Goodall's reports and stories about the chimp Flo as from any mothering book concerning humans. Protect the baby, keep her close, feed her when she's hungry, sleep with her. As she gets older, watch her as she explores, let her try new things, teach her how to hunt for termites. When it's time, send her out into the world to live her own life, stay friends, keep her in the tribe. As long as you are able, keep an eye out for her and her own young's safety, help when you can.
And so forth.

I still feel exactly the same. 

I am so grateful she was on our planet. I think her influence as a conservationist may play a huge role in the saving of Earth if indeed it can still be saved.

In news closer to home, a good friend of Glen's died last night in his sleep. Randy was one of Glen's oldest friends in both senses of the word. He was pretty old and they'd been friends forever. Glen saw him recently and helped him with some things. He's very glad he got to spend that time with him. He sent me this sunset picture just now.

Randy owned a house on Lake Seminole too where he spent the last years of his life which makes that fiery sky and mirror image in the water even more special tonight. Under the photo, Glen wrote, "Hey Randy." 

Going to bed early tonight because I got up early this morning. Maurice, who had slept with me all night let me know she was not happy for me to get out of bed. She's more wedded to routine than I am if that's even possible. And I've got two wild boys coming over tomorrow. Well. They're not really wild but you know what I mean. 

Love...Ms. Moon