A Day I Have Very Much Enjoyed. Mostly

Although I did sleep rather poorly last night due to the anxiety that comes with knowing there will be an alarm going off at some point, after I got up and got dressed and started drinking coffee, it wasn't bad at all. And this is always what happens. I got to see the sky go from gray and black to living color and that's a nice thing to see. 
I swear though, when the alarm went off, Maurice resettled herself more firmly on my legs and did that magic trick wherein she made herself weigh about three times her normal weight as if she was doing her best to keep me there. 
Animals can do this. Isn't it crazy how much more a dog weighs when he knows a bath is in his immediate future? 
At least mine did. 

Pottery was really, really enjoyable for me today. The different sort of flower bowl I've been working on for weeks showed itself to be ready to go into the kiln and although it is no work of art and it doesn't display much in the area of skill in ceramics, it is all in one piece and I don't hate it. 

It's rough but I'll do some sanding after the first firing before I glaze it. 

I have to tell you that I am deeply intimidated, posting pictures of my kindergarten efforts knowing that Barbara Rogers might be reading my post. Barbara was (is) a REAL potter and practiced her art for many years. She even has a blog called "Alchemy of Clay."
Check it out. 
But I can just see her looking at these pictures and cringing, rolling her eyes and saying, "Oh, Mary." 
But that's okay. 
What I truly enjoyed today was working on a different bowl, this one made in the pattern and shape of one of my fishes. I took my time, carefully thinking about exactly what it was I was going for. I had no pre-plan, and actually, only came up with the idea to make a fish bowl after I got to class. And this is what it looked like when I set it on the shelf to dry. 

The tail is a handle so that you can steady that bad boy bowl when you're eating your gumbo out of it. And because I wanted to make a handle. 
I see now that the bottom fin is a sin. A fin sin. A sin fin and I may try to get back into the studio before next Wednesday to try and remedy that situation. And if not- that is okay. 
I also got a few more ideas while I was working on this one and that's a good feeling. 

I can't wait to use my new glazes on both the flower and fish bowls to see what sort of magic they produce. 

But really, the best part of the class was that there were only six of us, not including our teacher who was busy with kiln duty, and we truly carried on a conversation for most of the class, talking about everything from glazes to different types of clay to husbands and careers and places some of us (Lizzie!) have lived and traveled to and plan to travel to. I love that part of it so much. We support each other, we make each other laugh, we give each other inspiration, and some of us are comfortable hugging now. We are learning each others' stories and of course, that is one of my most favorite things in the world to do.

Here's Ms. Jessie who worked on a new textural technique. I love it! 

And then Vergil met Jessie and me for lunch which was really fun. Lily couldn't make it because she was trying to get things DONE on her day off. 
Sigh. 

It's raining this evening and has been since late afternoon. It was definitely warmer today although I was still cold, it will continue to warm up although we are looking at a few more below-freezing temperatures in the next week. I finally uncovered the limequat and baby olive trees I'd covered a few weeks ago, afraid I'd find completely dead trees which was very much a possibility. However, I do believe both plants are going to make it. 

Yes, there is definitely going to be some trimming before it's all over but I see leaves that still look green and juicy. 

I'm not going to get a blade close to them until I can truly see the damage. So that was heartening. 

Mr. Moon is fine, albeit very disappointed about a canceled fishing excursion on Lake Seminole due to the rain. I believe he'll be home tomorrow. 

Let's all have sweet dreams tonight, okay? 

Love...Ms. Moon

P.S. Right when I was getting this post ready to publish, our lights went out which normally wouldn't be a problem but the generator did not come on. I got a text from Duke Energy about the outage and Lloyd looked dark. Vergil was out here working on processing some wild hog meat so he checked things out and there was nothing he could do and I sent him on home and told Mr. Moon via phone I was fine and I was. I made a sandwich and had a terrific headlamp and was planning to go to bed and read when I got another notice from Duke saying all the power was back on and it looked like it was but OURS WASN'T! WTF!?
I checked the breaker box and the main switch was flipped to off and so I tried to flip it to on but that fucker did not want to move. Glen consulted Vergil and I was told to try again and I did and it worked and we have power. 
It's possible Vergil flipped it to off when he was trying to figure out the generator or, well, whatever. 
I now feel like Wonder Woman and I'm going to bed.