walking home today

Last night was pottery class ... the pottery wheel wants me to move my hands slower then anything else my hands find to do ... pot throwing is sorta like a lazy eight, 'kept there is mud involved ... my hands are not used to mirroring each other in their movement ... everything else I can think of that I do or have done, asks my hands to work together, but one doing things over here and the other doing things over there.  My mind understands the process, my hands are finding their way ... one day I was alone in the studio and I worked with my music playing loud ... as loud as I like it, and my eyes were shut.  It wasn't a concentration thing, rather a feeling thing.  I like clay very much.  Pottery teacher said clay work expresses earth, water, wind and fire.  There is something quite elemental about it.  Today I plucked a bunch of ginkgo leaves from a tree.  A wonderful tree. The ginkgo tree, Ginkgo biloba, is a living fossil—the oldest tree species known to man—dating back 150 million years  (link to UC Santa Barbara geography dept. for the download on the ginkgo tree)  Some leaves were growing from the truck so I groomed the tree and thought to enjoy the little bunch of leaves like cut flowers.  I arrived in the studio and got my area all set up and then I went to my cubby to see how my pots are coming along in the drying process.  A first pot was wrapped in a plastic grocers bag.  I didn't know you're supposed to leave your pots on the bat for a drying time (to leathery).  That one little pot is looking pretty rough for being handled ... I was thinking about tossing it in to the recycling bucket ... then I thought to press the leaves in to the surface and build up some of the leaf patterns around the rim.  I burnished the shapes in very carefully.  I think it is going to look just right.  I am excited about the pot now ... the teacher who was in working on some of her own stuff said I had redeemed that little messy pot.  I'll take a picture of it sometime soon ... before it is fired.  It's my first pot.

Love love loving the book Mountains Beyond Mountains.  I play it from my laptop ... a little aggravating that I've been unable to load it on my phone, but ... still really fun to be read to.  I haven't been read to since I was a very young child.  I like audio books I think.
 

Now it's the end of the day ... I got all my steps in plus a few extras ... the house is quiet and we are all settled in for the night, just sitting around.  I'm going to make my menu for next week and then the grocery shopping list.

Almost all the books are re set on the shelves ... pictures re hung ... everyone is happy with the new color.  Next up ... paint the master bedroom or the living room, I haven't decided yet.  Two is recommending a true and sorta dark grey for the walls and I am really thinking about it.  We get morning light in there ... hmmm ... she says it will be very chic ... she knows what words will persuade ... and if it's not great, I can easily repaint.