sick with a little gurgling

So what the hell!! I am sick. A little bug went right past my defenses and built a tiny fortress in my lungs. Now, I am not going to blame anyone for my lung guck, but I did have two mini-humans in the studio for lessons last week and I went to the doctor's office for my annual check up. These are excellent sources of pestilence but I am quite amazed that my usually skookum immune system has been compromised.

I went on the group ride from Cycle Therapy with an old friend whom I used to ride with all the time and a newer friend, and we had a lot of fun. The group found two paces that fit people and the slower group rode and laughed and talked and had a coffee afterward.

That night I had an ugly fever and serious aches and pains! Then I spent the day taking it easy and still remained fevered so I packed up the trailer for the market and went back to lie down. We had to take a car trip together but I was back in bed early hoping things would blow over. I felt a little better saturday but found the trip home very hard and had to stand up just the get enough force. Standing up with the trailer sucks and my bike and trailer were flopping in and out of traffic so when I got home it was straight to the shower and then bed.

The fever is a bold attempt of the body to kill the intruders by cooking them as a lot of bugs exist comfortably in a narrow temperature range and get weakened or killed by higher temperatures. It seems to have been working and I am starting to cough up a bit here and there. It's a great sign that some guck is starting to move but I pity the people who go out riding with me once I feel better and have to really clear things out.

On the pottery front, I have to trim a small batch of mugs today and handle them and this week the Sidney Evening Market starts so I have to pack up and plan for that on Thursday as Jamie will be here at 2pm. I am trying to help a few others to make a carpool for the long drive so we burn less gas overall. I am back in the same place as last year in front of Bistro Suisse so anyone who attends this market can find me easily amongst the huge mass of stalls and walkers that flood the main street for blocks and blocks.

Now for a nap and a lot of water before I try to work on the wheel for a few hours. Maybe a slow simmering spicy garlic soup should get started before the nap so hungry dave has something to eat after taking on the lawn. As of now he is tied for first place in the Island Cup Mountain Bike race series with Drew Mckenzie and stayed with the fastest group of pro-stars at the Tour de Victoria with Ryder Hesjedal and put a nice photo on the wall of the two of them.

Well, off to start that soup and nap!! I will not post a photo of what I have been coughing up, you're welcome!! hahahahaa

bisque or pasta bowls

photo is of a fresh 16.5 inch platter

Back in the studio working on the low, wide pasta bowls that people keep asking for. These little suckers have to be thrown flat like a plate with an exagerated amount of clay for the lip and then have their extra wide lip pulled down dry (with the throwing slip removed) so they are stiff enough to stay up. I have two orders for them so I made a bunch of attempts in different weights of clay (800, 1000,1200 and 1400 grams) to see what works and get some practice.

I will finish them glaze and fire them and then let the people who have ordered some have a look and decide what they like or dislike about them. I wrote the weight on the bottoms of them so that when they pick out a size I can work backwards from the finished piece.

This has inspired me to throw some very large platters and even ovalate one of them!! Hope you enjoy the photos and I may have a large platter or two done soon. We'll see if I like the finished product and if the cut and rejoined section survives the process. If not, I have a few very large planters that are in need of a water plate under them.

See you at the Market tomorrow, rain or shine, bike shoes on!!!

okay you're back...NOW GET BACK TO WORK!!!

((the photo is of me looking over the grand canyon))

All the way back from vacation (idaho/utah/nevada/california/oregon/washington) in time to pack up the trailer and get ready to go to the Market. It was a very long drive and I find it VERY hard to sit still and not do anything, so in order to make up for it I went for a nice long run with the fuzzies after hauling my beastly load up Sherman Road so I was really sore the next day!

Sunday was one for the record books ***race dave and i rode our bikes together**** we figured out that the last time we went out on the road together was a year ago when I was taking pots to a student out in Glenora! So, we went to the bike shop (Cycle Therapy, the coolest bike shop anywhere!!) and then out to Black Coffee at whippletree and I really wanted to see how my very good friend, Sandy, who was at the Prawn Festival in Cowichan Bay.

It was POURING, not a nice island rain that is refreshing and brings out the mossy smells that we all moved here for, nope, the kind of rain that runs down the back of your neck off the rear tip of your helmet and causes and small pile of water if you hang up your bike gloves after you get home!!

If any of you know or love a serious cyclist with a very expeeensive bike or two, you will know how hesitant they are to get the silly/shiny thing(s) wet. It was a fun ride but my face and the jacket I stole from 'equipment dave' were plastered with a sooty road grit that was hard to remove.

The best part of the rainy sunday was going over to our new friend's, Dave and Sandy, who opened the bike shop that we rave about, house for dinner. They live out in Mill Bay in a bright warm house that was so beautifully built and yet so inviting that our dogs found a place to lay and destroy at least three small stuff toys and spread the inards everywhere.

Since we've been back I have been on a few rides (with aching legs) and a run and today I planted out all the baby tomatoe plants that I didn't have to heart to kill (i was supposed to thin Franziska {my clay friend)'s seeds to one per block so instead i careful teased each one out and saved them) they are all in pots on the west facing side (the really hot side)of the house. I also set up an experiment with some pepper plants that I grew from seeds from fresh peppers that turned into part of my left arm (i think that's how digestion works,no??) they too are on the hot side in a big tub and the rest will go in the huge garden.

Part of the planting out was to replace all the dirt that was in the pots for fresh stuff with a little less moss and a little more life to it. This process starts with taking the composters apart and rebuilding them with new hot(nitrogen)/cold(carbon) layers that drop about 10cm a day when they are working well. I moved them and dug them out, careful to put back all the red wiggler worms that I could find and then blending half and half with the old "potting soil" that I have been acquiring. Lots of bending and lifting on the old lower back!

Speaking of the garden, our lovely friend, Trevor, of Cowichan Rentals, brought me a big ornery rear tine rototiller and I spent the evening tearing off my old callouses and building up a large row of new blisters, and yes i was wearing gloves the whole time.

Well, off to bed and another busy week of pots, meetings, and cycling! By the way i did 9 huge loads of laundry from the trip and folded the last load off the laundry line this morning.

PS my back is aching from all the lifting and tilling!! hot water bottle anyone??hahahaa

utah, hot

Well, here I sit in the shade of our big tent, the one we bought when we used to camp a lot and wanted to start car camping after so much backpacking had soured 'hike dave' a bit. It has a tiny awning with tiny poles and the big pink maui towel is providing shade for myself and the dogs.

Race dave is out for a spin to do the run course, it's a 2 lap course so about a 20km ride to spin and feel the bike. It might go without saying for some of you but i am finding southern utah a little hot! We are paying close attention to the sun so that we don't get burned and i am trying to maintain the dogs at a healthy temperature. The lovely yard kid left the hose sprinkler on so the dogs could play in it fetching the ball! I was a little concerned that they would forget and let the built in sprinklers go while our tent is directly between two of the water heads!! (they assured us they would be turned off while we were on the lawn)

Contrary to the popular stereotype, we have had very sweet interactions with the locals we have run into south of the line. The first walked over to our little picnic area outside a big mall and told us that he apologized in advance for the sound his vehicle would make in disturbing us once he started it. How sweet was that? Then we met a guy who worked at a tire shop and was on a break when he stopped to look a little closer at our tire. He said that there was something wrong with them because there was a black mark around them so I checked the pressure and saw that they were WAY over pressure from when we had switched over to the summer tires a week or two ago!! I was very unimpressed with the shop, strangely enough these are the same guys who mounted our $200+ winter tires on backwards right before we drove all the way to calgary!! Needless to say, we should have checked them and they should have put them on with the correct pressure or at least something close.

I am going to tidy up the campsite (with positively the nicest grass I have ever pitched a tent on) and get into a swimsuit so that we can take a dip in the pool when mr aero helmet gets back from the run course.

I must also say that the mugs (the second attempt) joined the bowls for Hilary and Patti Abbott of Hilary's Cheese and went home saturday afternoon and I have just received my next dinner set order so that gives me a task to focus on when we get back from our little road trip.....and talking to ameri can s---nicely!