Family time...

Bow Lake, Strafford NH

The fair is over for us and now it's time for family and friends in beautiful New England. We have been fortunate to enjoy good weather. Mostly sunny days, with little to no humidity. Today we will pick up my Dad and take him to Wolfeboro, NH to stay with us at my sister's home. It will be nice to have a few days together.

Time to chill...

I think this is the longest, blogger, social media, break that I have ever taken. It sort of felt good to disconnect. The League of NH Craftsmen's Fair is over for us, but still goes on until next Sunday. Today was a day to chill. I visited my Mom and Dad in Dover, NH and enjoyed a relaxing evening with our friend and hostess, Roni Brown, at her lovely home on Bow Lake.

Before dinner, Roni and I decided to go for a quick cruise around the lake on her boat. It was the perfect way to unwind after four days of smiling at people and talking up the pottery.

We always look forward to great lobster prices in August... $3.99 a pound!!!

We had a feast tonight after our boat excursion. Lobster, corn, potato salad, and tossed salad, enjoyed with a bottle of white wine at Roni's dining room table, overlooking the lake.

I will blog more about the fair, once I have decompressed. Right now it's family and friends time!

notes from the gypsy potter's journal...

What a great trip we are having! I should have some pics and maybe a short video from Jeff's workshop this weekend but we haven't had a chance to look at them yet. The days have been long and exhausting, but that means we have slept well. Today was the first day we were able to sleep in. No work for us today. It's a visiting day with friends and family and a night out in our favorite city, Portsmouth, NH, to celebrate Jeff's birthday. It's perfect timing that his b-day falls on jam night at the Dolphin Striker and Jeff will get to play some blues with old friends.

It was cold and overcast when we arrived in NH, but yesterday the weather was unusually warm for March. Almost 80 degrees! This morning I was surprised that there was still a little ice hanging on in the cove here at Bow Lake...

Yesterday I dropped Jeff off at the workshop and drove to Durham, NH for a NH Potters Guild meeting. It was the annual pot swap and I was psyched to come home with a space mug by my good friend Steve Cunliffe...

 The meetings was very well attended, in part because everyone loves to visit at Jane Kaufmann's. She is one of the sweetest women I know and visiting her home & studio is a treat. If it were up to me should would be named NH's living treasure! She just finished a book about her life's journey in the art world. I can't wait to get a signed copy. It should be out in June of this year. I wanted to take pictures at the meeting but spent so much time catching up with everyone that the camera never made it out of the bag. I love North Carolina, but days like yesterday make me feel a little (just a little!) homesick. The good news is, that I brought some Seagrove maps and I think we may get a few potter friends to take a road trip in the fall!

It's creeping up on 11:00 am and I should probably get dressed for the day! Briar (above) and I have been hanging out together this morning while Jeff continues to catch up on some ZZZZ's.
Happy Monday!

heading home today

...and it FINALLY stopped raining and we saw the sun!

kiln deconstruction

yesterday we removed the arch and some of the brick in the sidewalls... this is what the kiln looked like when we started work at noon today....

by 6:00pm it was looking like this... the biggest achievement is the chimney is down!  we are packing all the brick into banana boxes to transport them to seagrove in the bus.  i think this is by far the most exhausting job involved in the move.

we are fortunate to be staying with our friend roni so we are still on bow lake.  jeff and i finished the day with a quick moonlight dip in the cool water... it felt great on my tired aching body.

a memorable memorial day...

while everyone else was on holiday, jeff and i were little worker bees packing the little house on bow lake into the big yellow school bus.  thank heavens for young, strong, james who helped load all the heaviest stuff on saturday.
the hardest part of packing is trying to figure out what to do with your skulls...

doesn't everyone have a skull or two hanging about the house?  this was the tough one to pack because of the long horns...
o.k. so i will admit that the skulls belong to me and not jeff.  when i moved to the little house on bow lake road i took the skulls into the backyard and hosed them off (they were dusty from hanging on the walls of the old place).  unfortunately i went off to work and left them on the back step to dry in the sun.
when i returned that evening they were in the front yard!!!!  what the heck was i thinking... skulls are BONES and the neighbors dog (german shepherd) dragged them to the front yard and chewed on them! this one with the long horns is missing part of it's nose now...oops.
i think the skulls are going to look awesome hanging on the walls of the log cabin.
... we make the next trip to seagrove on june 8th.  in the meantime sophie and i are in the city with my parents.  jeff is bopping back and forth between my parents and northwood.
...and just to squeeze one more thing in.....we are firing the NH potters guild wood kiln this weekend... YAHOO... playin' with fire!!!!

life on bow lake...

in a few weeks i will have lived in my little home on bow lake for one year.
a year passes so quickly.
i have experienced so much in such a short time.  some days it is difficult to sort it all out.
this evening i stepped outside and heard the loons singing on the lake for the first time this season.
...a beautiful, haunting sound.

this is why i REALLY like where i live...

this is the view this week from my front door...bow lake is just beyond the trees... i am surrounded by woods... i can walk naked in the house and not shut my blinds :-)