Kingfisher Cove

Flowers and Fondue (plus other stuff)

Helen left this morning after a two-day, whirlwind visit! What a great time. Monday night (the day she arrived) we had a warm cheese & simmering broth fondue dinner! Oh. Yum.

I also had plans for chocolate fondue dessert, but we were all so full that we decided to have it the next night! We dipped strawberries, fresh pineapple chunks, sliced bananas, pretzel chips, and Nilla Wafers. The chocolate had a little bit of Kahlua in it. Mmmm.

Yesterday, Helen and I went out for lunch and then headed to Olympia to our favorite nursery. It was a wet drive (off and on), but by the time we got there, the rain stopped and it was very comfortable inside that often humid/stuffy nursery. We. Had. A. Blast. We filled the back of her Highlander with flowers and potting soil.

(We look a little pleased with ourselves, don’t we?)

Here’s my haul. We’re waiting on the delivery of a few new deck pots, plus for the #$!&*! weather to calm down and dry up so I get them planted. Might be a while…

I may have to keep my eye out for a few “thrillers,” as I mostly zeroed in on the “fillers” and “spillers.”

We had a pleasant little “Easter,” in that I bought a little ham and we had a nummy little ham dinner that evening. I’d gone grocery shopping for Helen’s visit the day before, and it was a freaking ZOO. And of course, as I lugged my overflowing grocery cart to the back forty to load my car, I got caught in a graupel storm. The windy roads on the island were COVERED in the stuff and it was spookily slick! This has been the coldest and yuckiest April I can recall in a very long time.

Speaking of Easter, here’s Quinn and his dimple and a bunny:

And eggs!

And a goat!

Here’s my latest little bowl! (It was a shallow mold so in between a bowl and a plate)

I’ll be hitting the studio/kiln again tomorrow. (More experiments to come).

Finally, if you have Netflix, I HIGHLY recommend you kick back and watch the documentary series “Our National Parks.” It is astounding. The cinematography is gobsmacking. There is humor, (some) tension, and so many surprising facts about Earth’s creatures of which I certainly had no idea before. Hippos surfing? Yup. It was so pleasurable (and mostly very relaxing).

Every time I saw one of those majestic creatures, I couldn’t get it out of mind how much Don Jr. would want to kill it.

Doing Work, Having Fun!

Getting ready for company and doing a bit of cleaning in between spending time in the glass studio. It’s a decent balance! Playing with the glass is a reward for accomplishing chores. Things will heat up (not so much the glass) this weekend as I get down to the nitty gritty, but for now it’s all good.

It’s been a busy week all around. I’d mentioned that John and I got our 2nd Covid boosters— I had some unpleasant “digestive” issues the following day, which could be attributed to the shot. Or not. At any rate, it’s a relief to feel as protected as possible. We have eased up quite a bit on mask-wearing, though. I’m keeping my eyes on cases here in our area and it’s the lowest it’s been since the pandemic started. When/if it starts to climb, we’ll adjust.

Then, after months of John making repairs and replacing the flooring and tons of other big and small matters, his folks’ mobile home sold. (There was even a bidding war). We are quite shocked at how much it sold for. Mind-blowing. It closed today and holy moly what a relief it is to have that DONE.

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Wanna see some more glass stuff? (heh). Remember how wonky this turned out? I cut out a clear glass circle a little larger than the wonky piece and fused them together. The excess glass made the final result quite a bit bigger (and a bit diluted), but the good news is that it’s now ROUND! No more wonky!

It’s currently in the kiln being slowly slumped into a bowl mold. Meanwhile, all day yesterday this baby cooked. I showed the “before” picture earlier (here it is again):

 

And here is how it turned out!! This was my view when I opened the kiln lid:

Yup, I’m doing the happy dance! Woohoo! The possibilities for this technique are just about endless. My brain is busy coming up with ideas! And I haven’t come close to doing all the suggestions in the e-book. (What a find!)

I’ve done the pre-work on a few new projects and it’s getting frustrating to have to wait for my kiln to cook the project ahead of it. I have another Really Big kiln, but since I hadn’t been working on glass for so long, it has become a catch-all for John’s folks’ keepable stuff from their trailer.

{Clears throat}

When the sailors at sea decide to have a barbecue, they call it a “Steel Beach Picnic.” (Get it? steel ships) The USS Gridley posted this! (Nate’s 2nd from left).

Those are some nice coals!

And finally, another streaming show to recommend. We just finished watching “Severance,” and boy was it GOOOOOD. I don’t know how many times throughout the 9 episodes that I said, “OH MY GOD!!!” It’s just so well done. The other thing I will say about it is that it’s a perfect allegory of every corporate place I’ve ever worked in so many ways.

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lib’er-al,  I.a 1. Possessing or manifesting a free and generous heart; bountiful.  2. Appropriate and/or fitting for a broad and enlightened mind.  3. Free from narrowness, bigotry, or bondage to authority or creed. II.n 1. Any person who advocates liberty of thought, speech, or action.

This and That, Ups and Downs

This is how my little glass plate turned out.

I was frustrated with how thick it is, but other than that it turned out quite pretty, I think. So I decided to try another one just like it, but using a little less clear glass (to hopefully reduce the thickness).

I’m not sure why, but it didn’t turn out right. I’ve been trying to figure out what happened so it doesn’t happen again, and we did discover that my kiln wasn’t completely level. It wasn’t off much, but John did wedge several thin shims under the kiln feet. I’m a little nervous, though, to try again! It’s a lot of time (and, honestly, expense) to get to that final firing and have it fail.

You can see it didn’t stay round, and it looked like it sluffed to one side, likely because the kiln wasn’t level. (It’s the only explanation we can come up with). I hope that’s it and that it’s been remedied!

I did start another (similar) project, but I haven’t gotten very far with it since I had a lot of household chores to do. Working on these projects takes quite a block of time. But I’m curious to see how this one will turn out. I’m using glass “stringer,” which is very thin glass sticks, and sometimes curlies. This is just the first step:

I tac-fused them and need to snip the ends. Then I’ll place them on top of clear stacks of glass like I did before and let ‘r rip. This is from that glass artist’s e-book tutorial and how his ultimately turned out:

It’s like those “sticks” drip! I love it! Or, at least, I love his! I’m still motivated, but that wonky result sure has me scratching my head and feeling some trepidation.

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John and I got our 2nd boosters today and that is a relief. Afterward we went to our favorite diner for lunch, so we made an outing of it. It was SO WINDY and therefore SO COLD. I think it would have been rather pleasant without that awful wind since the sun was out most of the time. And my eyes—both of them—are back to watering profusely. (…string of cuss words…)

We went to our neighbor’s Celebration of Life service yesterday, and while it was nice to see so many people there (lots of extended family, employees, friends, and a few of us neighbors), it was also very sad. So many tears. And my heart keeps breaking all over again for his wife, Mary. And then there was THIS: We didn’t realize that our neighbor had an identical twin. He was there, apparently up from Arizona, and it was DISCONCERTING. They look exactly alike, and they also have the exact same unique voice and inflections! Oh my!

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So, Book Club is postponed at our house this coming week, until Mary feels more up to it. But I’m getting ready for Helen to visit! I’m planning on doing fondue! We will also go to our favorite nursery and load up on deck pot/landscaping plants. I certainly hope it’s not too early to do so because our weather has been schizophrenic! Thunder, lightning, hail, wind. And I’m even seeing snowflakes in the forecast on my weather app. It had BEST be wrong!

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“The worst thing about Trump’s presidency isn’t what we learned about him. It’s what we’ve learned about our families and friends.”