‘Raiders’ were here again on Monday May 25th. They were Mina Totino, Marlene Madison and Eric Metcalfe this time. Eric had asked for two of his usual oval plates to be prepared with sage green and yellow. The other two requested several of the new squarish plates each, left white.

I don’t know what I did to hurt my back but on the morning they arrived I hurt and as the day wore on I became more and more uncomfortable. In spite of that it was a fun day, with a splendid lunch of potato salad, cold cuts, smoked salmon and cream cheese, breads.. oh my! Alan and I are spoilt on these days.

But my guests strongly advised me to see a chiropractor the next day. For the first time ever I did, and Dr Joan was a great help, explaining that I had acute inflammation of my lower vertebrae and where the hip connects there, what to expect and how long it would take to heal. With ice packs, extra-strength ibuprofen and her help I had about four days of horrid pain but gradually it improved. Now, more than a week later I am able to do most things, except load and unload my kiln and pull weeds!

Now I really don’t know whether it was wedging clay for the plate fabrication or trying to unscrew stuck underglaze jar lids, or what? So it’s a bit of a worry about how much to do. I had Al help me load the painted plates and the jugbirds I terra sigged and they bisque-fired next day while I did nothing at all.

Now I’ve managed to get them all glazed, local potter Pauline Doyle helped me load them (thanks so much for that, Pauline) and tomorrow morning I’ll be taking them out from their glaze firing. I guess Al can help me do that, plus I’ll be asking him to take photos for me.