I finally decided that I had enough new plates prepared for another Raid and I sent the first photo to organizer Mina Totino. So she and her friends Cindy Richmond and Michelle Normoyle came out from Vancouver today.
My own work seems to have taken forever to finish but with some new mugs, yunomis and plates now painted, and some more test pieces for the new glaze and two new slips, I am happy to have visitors’ plates to fill the kiln. I need results!
As usual my guests brought yummy contributions for our lunch. On this grey June day a delicious curried carrot soup hit the spot along with some still warm-from-the-bakery bread, cheeses and an exotic salad assembled by Cindy.
Later in the day we had a cuppa, supplemented by special tea cakes from Batard Bakery and some of my Shroton Flapjacks. I served the cakes and flapjacks on a special dish which I have submitted to a Canadian ‘Dish’ contest. There is to be a cookbook produced which will feature Canadian recipes served on or in Canadian dishes. My modest and totally easy to bake flapjacks are always much appreciated by my visitors – so I hope the jurors think so too!
Here are two photos of Cindy and Michelle having a final look at their day’s work. The plates look pale now, as they dry, but I know they’ll be much brighter and more colourful after the two firings. I’ll leave them overnight and plan to load the bisque firing tomorrow.
On a different topic, my reliable Tiger lilies have all suddenly opened and I am always blown away by their gorgeous bright orange colour. They are descendants of bulbs lovingly brought out to the Coast years ago by my Saskatchewan parents-in-law. As I looked at them the other day the sun popped out from behind the rather persistent clouds and wow! there was a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly checking out the nectar in each of the blossoms. I grabbed my better camera and took several shots. In this one I was lucky to get the whole butterfly and most of the lily in focus and posted it on Facebook and Instagram. The response was so positive, and one old neighbour has even offered to print some cards for me. So if you’d like one do let me know!
