wood firing day

Yesterday, I spent 5 hours helping to get a bunch of pottery (not just mine) ready to be placed in a wood-fired kiln, located at the home of my ceramics teacher from Montpelier Arts Center. I thought we were going to be splitting logs to use as fuel in the kiln, but only one person did that. The splitter is a scary machine. One could easily split something other than the logs! No way am I going to use it. There were perhaps 20 people involved, although there was a good deal of coming and going. Most of us finished glazing our pieces and helped others finish up. I put little 'feet' on the pieces, so that they would not touch the kiln shelf. The feet are glued on (Elmer's glue) and will fall off after firing. I also put fresh kiln wash on the shelves. This makes it easier to clean the shelves of the glazes that run over and get on them.

There was plenty of time to0 for chatting, eating, and drinking. We were lucky that the rain held off until 2 and then only rained hard for about an hour. We worked outside, but mostly under some kind of roof - like a tarp strung from trees. We all got a bit wet and one gal slipped and fell, getting very muddy and wet. Luckily, she wasn't hurt, but I'm sure she felt rather uncomfortable the rest of the day. I didn't stay for the kiln loading. I would have liked to see it, but was just too tired to stick around. The kiln will fire all day today (started at 4 AM). We will take the pieces out on Wednesday. It takes that long to cool off. It's actually two kilns, side by side, made of fire brick. Pretty good size, although not large enough to stand up in. (Not that one would want to!) It will be interesting to see what the fired pieces look like. The wood creates ash that circulates in the kiln and gets on the pottery. I'll post photos of my stuff sometime next week.

I had one of those embarrassing senior moments yesterday evening. Somehow I got my days mixed up and thought it was Sunday. I always call Kate on Sunday, so I called her. I knew that England was changing their clocks this weekend - on Sunday. I thought that had already happened, so I called her at what was 11 pm her time. This would not normally have been a problem, as she is usually up past that. However, she was tired yesterday (from Olivia's birthday party, I imagine) and went to bed early. So not only did I feel stupid calling on the wrong day, but I felt guilty for waking her up. Hopefully, she got right back to sleep. I have done this once before - hope it's not going to be common. Usually I DO know what day it is!

I have not yet finished painting the powder room. Been too busy or too tired to start the second coat. Maybe today after church. I hate unfinished projects, but I need to start early in the day. By mid-afternoon, I'm not energetic enough to start painting. All in all, I think I have a bit too much on my schedule this fall. I'll try to not schedule quite so much activity come January.

Fall is such a lovely time of year to be outside, especially in wooded areas. I'm beginning to really appreciate the color in Maryland trees. We get mostly gold, rather than red, but it's quite lovely. The golden leaves create a glow through the woods. A few trees have orange/red leaves and really stand out. It's more muted than the fall color I remember from NY State, but I enjoy it just as much.

Of course, I never have my camera with me when I see a lovely woods. Maybe I should get one of those phones that has a camera. Of course, I would have to learn how to use it! I still can't remember how to turn the flash on and off on my digital camera. I finally did figure out how to find the numbers of friends that are programmed in my cell phone. (Sarah (Grand-d1) put the numbers in for me, but I had to figure out how to access them!) My friend Deb, who understands computers, changed the font size on my computer - or at least on some parts of the computer. It's way too large and, of course, I don't know how to change it back! I've fixed this blog easily enough, but it's only a fix for this document. I guess I'll always be one of those challenged by the world of electronics. Ah well, somehow I'll get by.