Carrying on........

Can't lie it's been a struggle to get back to the studio.  If it rains the studio is the best place to be but when the sun is out it's a hard place to be.  Besides the nursery opens at 8 a.m. and it's a great place to start my day!  This week I added cilantro, a few more tomato plants, yellow crook neck squash, thyme, lemon basil, a few more kohl rabi and sugar pumpkins.  Still drag'n the hose around.  The calendula and marigolds have all sprouted along side the new rows of peas.  Still waiting to see if the beans are going to come up in the holes of the concrete block in the raised beds and time to put the bird netting over the blueberries.  Studio? 

 Have always found mugs are good place to start.  When I started so many years ago I hated mugs, today I love them and never grow tired throwing them.  

a good start to the week.

and did I mention I love throwing big round pots? 

and speaking of mugs.....   

I bought this lovely mug at the Heights Art Gallery opening a few weeks back.   It had a barn, I live in Ohio, nuff' said.  It was a pretty cool graphic print on clay and upside down.  I couldn't wait to use it.  After a week of use it earned a place on the shelf with my other favorite mugs.  Well until yesterday when the barn mug was moved to the top shelf.  Why?  I wander down in the morning around 5:30 a.m. each and every morning to let the girls out of the coop.  I push the button on the coffee grinder as I flee out the door.  I have done this long enough I can do it in my sleep.  The coffee buzzer goes off 15 minutes later and like Pavlov's dog, head to the coffee pot while grabbing a mug off the shelf.  Twice now I have poured coffee on my feet, this is a rude way to wake up!  My semi-comatose brain knows the barn should not be upside down and I instinctively right the barn, pouring coffee on the bottom of the mug as it runs down my legs and makes a puddle on the floor.  Note to self........ make mugs for my semi comatose state; put the handle on, chip carve the outside so I can fumble for it in the dark and no upside down anything! 

The girls are growing!  They consume about 100 pounds of feed a month and still no eggs.

Yesterday I hung a frying pan over the coop door........ get the hint girls? 

From left to right:  Dill vinegar, chive vinegar and rhubarb cordial.

Gotta say the rhubarb cordial is my new favorite summer drink.  I have made it a handful of times nows and have settled on the following throw together.   

A sauce pan of cut up rhubarb, 1 cup of sugar or honey, a knob of crushed ginger and 1 sliced lime.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.  Strain through cheesecloth squeezing out the very last drop.  Add 2 tablespoons to a glass of soda water or Preseco.  Mint is a nice addition to the glass.  Yum! 

and on another note...... I need to focus and stop doing 5 things at once.  While cleaning up the kitchen, thinking about the pots I was making, loading the dishwasher and trying to catch up on the morning news I filled my rhubarb cordial travel tumbler with soapy water while I carried on.  Finishing up I forgot the tumbler had soapy water so I added my 2 tablespoons of cordial, ice and a lemon slice.  Grabbed my bucket in one hand and headed to the studio.  Drank half the tumbler before I realized I had washed my own mouth out!  YUCK!  I thought the bubbles were just a foamy head on my fantastic drink.....  Hocus Pocus time to focus! 

and a nice jar of pickled beets and eggs ........ 

trying to use up the last of the pickled beets in the basement before I can the ones growing in the garden.  

It's been a productive week :)