January 16, 2013

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Since last writing, we've enjoyed lots of events and activities with family and friends including Christmas, New Years, holiday parties, birthday, and quiet evenings at home! Now that it's mid-January, we're talking about gardening, summer, longer days, and more quiet evenings at home.
Have been knitting, reading, throwing pots, and doing way too much eating. Time to regroup.

Three hours in the studio tonight. Opened a new bag of porcelain; threw half a dozen mug forms and made a ruler out of the new clay so I can determine shrinkage percentage when this clay body is bisqued and then glaze fired. Kiln is loaded with work still needing to dry more before being fired. No reason to rush it. Plus, it would be nice to fit in a piece or two made with the new clay to see how it fires in comparison to the previous clay -- in the same firing.  Always testing and learning.

Donated a large platter to Willow Winter Carnival to be raffled.  I'm told this is the major fundraiser for Willow Community Center, which is certainly a good cause.   Went to Wednesday knitting group today, received large fresh eggs, returned lots of gardening books to the library and checked out Far From the Tree, then emptied our stuffed PO box.  Car had a dead battery when I tried to head out, but that was quickly resolved by the man of the house.  Hmm -- suppose I left an overhead light on -- again?   Think that may be.

Dry deck to studio... but not for long!
The above freezing temps earlier in the week have disappeared, the snow is falling once again, and we're at 18 degrees here tonight. That's much better than the 20-30 below temps throughout Nov. and Dec., and much, much better than the mushy melting that closed schools, made navigating tricky, and caused us to cancel an Anchorage trip last Monday.  Here's how things looked Monday:

Outside garage...ice with water on top
 The metal roofs cleared during the warm spell, but are now snow covered once again.  The onsite operator of the garden tractor with snowblower had another workout today. He's learned that this particular vehicle only likes level areas, however, so there's still shoveling and the push snowblower.  Winter maintenance can fill up the day for one who wants to stay on top of things.  The photo to the left would be a challenging puzzle. After recently completing a difficult 1,000 piece puzzle, I'm more observant of subtle shading in photos.  No more puzzle challenges for awhile! Would like to get some other things done -- like making pottery!

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