Nashville rhymes with Asheville....

Last fall when we were leaving the Richmond KOA, and heading south, the leaves had just begun to change. It was pretty (of course) but I remember thinking, "Thank goodness we won't be around when those leaves come off, I'd hate to have to rake them all up!!"

So, now we're back, and it's spring and apparently those leaves waited for us!! I spent about 6 hours today raking up old dead leaves from last fall and my arms are killing me!!

But my motto is "work hard, play hard" so I thought a good way to top off such a productive day would be to try the Asian restaurant we keep driving by that claims to serve sushi and and boasts a hibachi grill. Plus I thought my sore elbows might feel better with a little therapy (like repeatedly raising a gin and tonic to my mouth!)

Unfortunately it was a little disappointing. I haven't had sushi very often, but when I have, it's been really good. This, unfortunately wasn't. Kinda rubbery and fishy tasting. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up, this restaurant was really more of a Chinese buffet (and we're in Richmond, Indiana fercryinoutloud!!)

I felt kinda sorry for the owner. His english was difficult to understand, but I think his name was Tony. He was really nice and apparently trying to come up with new ways to drum up business. He's doing this "promotion" where nothing is priced, you eat however much you want, and pay whatever you think is fair. For some reason, it was a tough concept to grasp!! I could tell by some of the conversations I overheard that we weren't the only ones having this trouble. I asked him why he was doing it and he said it's tripled the amount of customers they get. I guess the local paper did a write-up. I asked him if he was getting ripped off, and he said that younger people were usually the ones not paying enough, but most customers were being pretty fair.

He was telling me what all they had at the sushi bar and was naming off the rolls, California roll, Pennsylvania roll, and I asked him, "where's the Indiana roll?" He was quite amused by that and said they'll have to start making one!! I don't know what they'll put in it though, corn?? Soybeans??

Even the hibachi part was a self-serve buffet. There's a variety of uncooked meat and vegetables, you take whatever you want and give it to the hibachi chef who cooks it for you and rings a bell when it's ready. It is a rather intriguing concept, and also a pretty gutsy experiment. I have to admire the ingenuity he's using to battle some tough economic times, but the food just wasn't that great and worst of all, they didn't serve alcohol!! Didn't get my therapy after all.

So, yesterday we spent the day in Brown County, Indiana looking at possible properties to buy for our more permanent abode. Last week we looked at a few, all of which were uninhabitable without a lot of work. There was one last week I liked alot with a little house on 20 acres. It had 2 ponds, some woods, a hayfield and a nice sized garage that would make a great studio with a little work. The house was condemned because the septic system wasn't up to code. It was a foreclosure, so we might put a bid on it, but it will be really low and if we can't get it cheap, we won't do it 'cos the house really does need to be gutted and completely remodeled.

Yesterday the properties were a little nicer. Most of them are at least 5 acres. There was one in particular that I liked. Part of it was an old hunting/vacation cabin that was built in 1934. That part would make a great pottery studio and showroom/gallery area. It has an small, old kitchen area, a woodburning stove, and a loft that you get to by climbing a ladder. Wide plank flooring, and that great, musty, old cabin smell!

This is the exterior, the part behind the tree is the older section. The 2 story part on the right is the post and beam section. Don't you love that huge tree??!

This is the old cabin area. You can see the woodstove and part of the loft area and in the back is the old kitchen.

This is the front half of the room. I think some display shelves and track lighting would make it a great gallery area!

The main living area was added in 1999 and is timber frame. It's a great room, a kitchen and bath and a large loft. The things we don't like about it is there aren't any closets or storage areas. I think it was built as a vacation home. It also doesn't have a bathroom upstairs, which is the master bedroom, actually the only bedroom. But it's a very large loft, I think we could build some closet space pretty easily and maybe someday even put a toilet and sink up there. Going to the bathroom at night is something that we need to do more frequently the last few years and I don't like the thought of negotiating the stairs in the middle of the night!!

This is the loft area, I love the window! They have a porch swing hanging up there, you can see part of it in the picture.

After we finished looking at properties, we went into the little village of Nashville to get something to eat. Nashville is the main town in Brown County and pretty touristy. Fudge on every corner!! It was fairly crowded for a weekday, but I think some of the schools are still on spring break and people were there on a little getaway. I picked up some brochures and last night I got online and did some research on some of the local artists, especially potters. They seem to have a fairly well-organized Arts Alliance that promotes the local artisans. I looked at some of the potters' websites and I think I like Greg Schatz work the best. He does gas and woodfiring and it looks like he has a very nice studio and gallery. I think that next time we're down there looking at property, I'll look him up. I want to talk to him and see if the artists (especially the potters) are friendly and welcome new potters to the area, like they seem to in North Carolina. From what I've seen, it looks like they have a close knit art community, but sometimes in that situation, the people can start to get a little exclusive because they're worried about competition. I hope that's not the case. I may have a pretty high standard in my mind from what I've seen among the potters in western North Carolina, but I figure it can't hurt to check it out and hope for the best.

So I guess this is about as close to North Carolina as I'm gonna get for awhile, at least if I wanna be involved with the new grand-baby.....and I definitely do!! I hope we can find a place soon and that it's in Brown County. I really got some good feelings when we were there, the area's beautiful and hilly, there seems to be a lot of art, a few potters, bluegrass music, and restaurants. And Nashville rhymes with Asheville, what more could I want??? Oh yeah, hippies!! Well, I guess that what Nashville lacks in hippie population, it compensates for with hillbilly population!!

I'm looking forward to the next chapter in the little adventure we've been privelaged to enjoy!!

Back "Home" Again, in Indiana

This morning when I took the lid off the milk carton, it almost shot into the air like a champagne cork. Hmmmm, perhaps I should check the expiration date. MARCH 12!!!! No wonder my cereal tasted funny yesterday!! That's kinda the way things have felt to me lately, not quite right, but you're not exactly sure why. (Well, I'm pretty sure I know why the milk tasted funny.)

When I woke up yesterday morning and stepped into the living area, the window shades were up and it was mildly startling to be greeted by vastly different scenery from what has been residing outside these very windows for the last 6 months. That's the strange part I've noticed about living in a camper. The inside starts to feel like home, but when you move, you have to readjust to the outside. It probably wouldn't be as noticeable if we weren't staying in one place for 6 months before moving on.

We've come across quite a few people who are taking a year or 2 and living in their camper while traveling across the US. Some are retirees, some are semi-retirees, some are our age some are younger. Some have kids that they're homeschooling on the road, others have dogs (actually almost all of them have at least one dog.) Some of them are working while traveling and others planned not to work during their travels, but are going to go back someday.

We've also come across a lot of people who have said, "We've always wanted to do that" and I have to think to myself, "well why haven't you?" I understand that some circumstances could prevent or postpone it, but I think if it's truly something you've "always wanted to do" you'll figure out a way. There are as many possibilities as there are human beings!

I would say that over all it's been a fun year and embracing this lifestyle even just for a year was probably one of the best decisions we've ever made! I know that Steve would continue living this way indefinitely, he loves the freedom and the fewer number of responsibilities that we seem to have. I, on the other hand, am fairly ready to settle down again and have a less mobile home. I still want to take some trips and see more of the country. I'm hoping we can figure out a lifestyle that will still allow us to travel, more than we used to be able to.

But I also want to have my own flower bed and garden and lots more storage and wall space for hanging art and shelves for pottery!! A home that doesn't rock when the wind blows. A kitchen with a little more counter space. And being within an easy drive from that grand-baby that will be here in the next few weeks!

Some of my friends think I was a little crazy to have embraced this nomadic lifestyle. They can't imagine not having a "home" and not knowing exactly where you might be parking your camper next week. Others of my friends think I'm crazy to want to give this up to settle down again. There are aspects about both ways of life that are appealing, and other areas that are not so appealing.

I have to admit, there have been some stressful times. Right now I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. We're trying to figure out where to establish permanent residence and there are so many factors to consider!! Some of the questions include, the distance from children/grand-children; the distance from Steve's dad; whether or not the area will be compatible for making and selling pottery; what kind of jobs will be available for if/when we both need to start looking for more gainful employment. How much can we afford to spend? I think we've decided that we want to avoid going into debt if possible, and we would like to have a few acres so we can try to be somewhat self-sustaining. It's a lot to consider and I'm not naturally a patient person. I would like to get everything figured out asap and it just doesn't seem like things fall into place as quickly as I'd like them to. The thing I have to keep reminding myself is that things do eventually seem to fall into place if I pray alot and learn to be more patient!

I want to get settled so I can get my hands back into some clay 'cos I'm afraid that I may lose the momentum I feel like I gained when we were in North Carolina! But I can always pick up where I left off. I talked with a really nice potter once at an art festival in Columbus. It was last spring at a time when I hadn't been able to pot for awhile. I believe he asked me if I was a potter and I was lamenting the fact that I didn't feel like one because I hadn't been able to produce any work lately. He told me that he thinks a potter is always a potter, if they're thinking about pots all the time. I suppose it's true of any passion that a person has. If you think about what it is you're passionate about every day, you'll remain passionate about it. Sometimes I think it's even beneficial to have a period of time where you're not actually doing the action, but putting lots of forethought into it. I think that visualization can be an extremely positive force.

Eventually, though, you have to actually take all those thoughts and put them to use, or else you're just a dreamer and while I think that a dreamer is a fine thing to be, you're missing out on the whole point if you never actually make your dreams a reality!

Someone named Walter Mueller said, "The difference between visionaires and dreamers is that visionaries make the dreams come true." (I love quotationspage.com!!)

By the same token, I think we have to be careful that we don't become so obsessed with achieving our goals that we forget to enjoy the people and circumstances that we're involved with in the process. That's something I have to constantly remind myself to do, enjoy the moment. There's always something to be gained from whatever it is we're going through, whether that moment seems good, bad, or just plain boring!!

So here's to walking that fine line between being a dreamer and being a visionary. The main thing to remember is to be sure to enjoy the walk!!

A busy week!

I just can't get over how quickly the time passes. Here it is almost the middle of March!!

First, I should mention that the Baby Shower/Reception in Indianapolis for Megan and Dustin seemed to be a success. We were so happy to see family and friends that we haven't seen for awhile. There was a good turn-out, Steve's whole family made it!! We got to visit with everyone and even play a few hands of Peanuts, what more could we want?

Also, besides new baby congratulations to Dustin and Megan, we have to congratulate Dustin for getting accepted onto Pike Twp's Fire Department. He starts training in a few short weeks. He's going to have his hands full with a new baby and a new job!

Here's a couple of pictures from the shower (and I promise not to hold animosity against Curt for dropping my crock pot full of weenies! I'm just glad no one was injured!!)

The Shower Cake......

Another shower cake.......

Dustin's ready to eat some of that cake!!

I like all of Steve's family in the reflection of this one!

After a fun week-end with friends and family we came back to Asheville and met up with our geocaching friends, the Flip/Flop Girlz from Cincy. They decided to pay us a visit while Jan is recovering from double knee replacement. She seems to be healing pretty quickly because we went hiking with them at Chimney Rock and also broke a record for the number of geocaches we've found in one day on our drive back from Chimney Rock with the help of the Girlz!! It was an exhausting, but fun day!!

Here are the 4 of us on Chimeny Rock using the timer on my camera!

I took this one from the observation deck above Chimney Rock...the little specks are Karen, Jan, and Steve!! That's Lake Lure in the background.

After spending the morning site-seeing, we geocached the whole way home and managed to snag almost 30 caches along the way. Up until then, our record for one day had been 7!! The Flip/Flop Girlz have found over 2,500 caches and were willing to share their expertise with us rookies!!

Yesterday, Jan, Karen, and I visited Thomas Wolfe's family home. Wolfe was an author in the early 1900s who wrote an autobiographical novel about growing up in Asheville. It's called Look Homeward Angel. I read part of it when we first arrived down here but hadn't finished it. His family was rather dysfunctional and it got to be a little depressing! HIs mother owned and ran a boarding house downtown for many years and that home is now a museum dedicated to Thomas Wolfe. After our visit, we managed to find a few more caches too!

Earlier in the week we unloaded the salt-kiln at the Odyssey Center. It was an excellent firing!! I wish they had been able to fit more of my work in the kiln, but I had to share space with the other students! To see pictures of most of the work, visit my picasa site.

Here are a couple pictures of my favorite pieces! This has certainly been a wonderful opportunity for me to improve my pottery skills and learn about new glazing and firing methods!! The experience has been UN-believable and I'm so thankful that we were able to live this life for the past 12 months!!!

This is a lidded, oval shaped box I made for Steve to charge his R/C helicopter batteries in. It has a hole in the back for the cord to hang out of. I put fish on it to make it more manly than my pieces with leaves.....



This is an oval shaped platter that I put a horse figure on with black slip. I was pretty pleased with the result!

Time for more pottery pix and talk

I've been immersing myself in pottery activities this week. Just a disclaimer about the content of this post. I'll be talking about cones and reduction and carbon trapping and stuff that won't make sense. It may not even make sense to my fellow potters because I don't know enough about it yet to talk intelligently. (Some may argue that talking intelligently is a past-time I've never engaged in!!)

Hold on, need a coffee refill......Ah! That's better! I'm going to have to find a coffee shop that roasts their beans daily when we get up to Indiana. I dunno if Hoosiers allow such high-falutin' behavior, I'll have to ask my son-in-law.

I've made a couple friends at the Odyssey Center. They're 2 ladies about my age (when you're my age, that can mean a decade in either direction, so I apologize if either of them is a lot younger than me!!) Anyways, 2 ladies who work as studio assistants at the center have befriended me. They know that I'm interested in learning all I can about kilns and firing so they offered to let me help them load the gas kiln on Monday and hang out while they fired it Tues. The center has them keep pretty meticulous firing logs, and they're making me copies of several of their logs so I'll have them to refer to when I start learning to fire my own gas kiln. Even tho it's a completely different type of kiln, any experience I can get should be beneficial.

It also offered me the opportunity to hang out at the center all day Tuesday when it's normally not open for students to work independently because there are classes going on. (It's not what you know, but who you know!!) So I finished up some pieces that have been taking forever!

I went in at 6 am to get the ball rolling and didn't get home until 10 pm; it was a long day and I was pretty pooped yesterday! Today we're unloading once it's cool enough.

Since it was still firing Tues. evening I got to sit in on a class that was being taught by a very talented potter from the area, Leah Leitson. She does beautiful work in porcelain and besides being a skilled potter, she's also an excellent instructor (as I've discovered, that doesn't always go hand in hand.) She was also not afraid to demonstrate her methods. Happily, this is the case with most potters, but I've come across a few who seem to be worried that a student will "steal" their methods. I think that the potters who worry about that have a pretty low self-esteem. I agree that there is a fine line between being "inspired" by other potters and actually "stealing" their methods, but most of the potters I know who are still learning (which some would say is all of us) incorporate methods and styles of many other potters into their work.

Let me digress for one moment about taking inspiration from others. Several well-known potters actually encourage others to "steal" ideas. Dick Lehman explains it this way, "If you are going to take someone else's idea or be influenced by another's inspiration, steal it - make it your own. If you take inspiration from another, have the integrity, courage and courtesy to develop the idea, to invest in it, to reinvent it, to make it more than it was." I think he's absolutely right! And ironically, he admits to "stealing" this idea from another potter, Marvin Bartel, who stole the concept from a poet, Nick Linsey!!! Who said, "There's nothing new under the sun?" (I suppose we could argue the source of that quote!!)

Getting back to the Leah Leitson demo, I can't wait to try incorporating some of her methods into my pieces!! And I'll happily give her credit for being my inspiration. She attributed some of her methods to other potters. That's the beauty of it! I wish I had been able to take more pictures while she was working, but I didn't think about it until too late. Here's a fabulous little teapot, I love the pouty spout and the feet on it!!

So to add even more exciting pottery activity going on all around me, we unloaded the salt-kiln Tuesday!! We got some really juicy pots (that's a good thing!) Here's a link to pictures of my work from this firing. As I look closer at some of the pieces, I see some problems, but over all I was pleased with the firing. It's the first time I can remember opening the kiln and actually liking what I saw right off the bat.

Many times potters have pre-conceived ideas about what a piece should look like when it comes out of the kiln, but after you judge it for its own merits, not what you think its merits should be, you learn to at least live with it, if not like it better than you would've if it came out the way you had envisioned it. (I'm sensing that this could be some sort of deep analogy for a life experience, something to do with relationships, but I'm still too tired from my busy week to explore it further and this blog's already too long!)

So I will end this blog with a few pictures from the salt-kiln..............

This is the kiln-opening...if you want to see it larger, click on it.

This is one of my favorite tumblers. I'm doing lotsa leaves, influeced by Suze Lindsay, among others!!

And now I had better sign off so I can go help unload the gas kiln!!! I guess I never did get to cones, reduction, and carb0n trapping. We'll save that for a future post!!

Recent pottery pieces

I finally took some photographs of my second batch of work from Suze Lindsay's dlass. Some of the pieces were salt-fired, and others didn't make it into the salt kiln. We ran out of room, so I glazed some with Malcolm's Shino and they were fired in the gas kiln. The results were surprisingly similar to what came out of the salt-firing.

I've posted pictures of all the work on my picasa site. I've also uploaded pictures of the instructor, Terry Gess, doing demonstrations.

I came up with a pretty nifty method of utilizing some naturally diffused light for my photo shoot. We have a skylight over our bed, so I put the pottery on a large white piece of poster board under the skylight and shot the picturese without a flash. I think they look fairly decent. At least there's no distracting background.

Here are a few examples:

These are 3 faceted pieces I did that were inspired by Davie Reneau, a woman I wood-fired with over the summer....

This is an altered, oval vase that was thrown in to sections, then pieced together, inspired by Suze Lindsay...

These are "Noodle Bowls" that are designed to hold a set of chopsticks.....

I'm looking forward to firing the pots from the second session I'm taking with Terry Gess. I'm hoping to refine my brush working skills and also to develop some forms and throwing methods that are more representative of my own personal style.

I'm beginning to feel more confident about my abilities at the wheel and I'm beginning to recognize particular forms and methods that I enjoy utilizing. Even though I know that every aspect of my work has been influenced by potters I've watched or pieces I've admired, I feel as though I'm beginning to be able to incorporate the various influences into a body of work that I can call my own.

I'm feeling very enthusiastic about the next batch of pots that will be fired in the upcoming weeks!! I feel like I'm on a creative roll right now and whenever I leave the studio, I feel extremely........ satisfied. There is so much inspiration down here, it's wonderful!

Too Many Beautiful Sunsets

I can't keep posting beautiful sunset pictures so I've devoted an album to it on my picassa site. There are lots of pictures of the same sunset 'cos sometimes they start out beautiful and morph to spectacular over the space of a few minutes. Sometimes it's hard to decide which moment is the most beautiful. I guess I can get carried away with sunsets.

When we lived in Laura we hardly ever got to see the sunsets because we had too many trees around. Apparantly I've missed them. When we lived on the farm, you could enjoy them pretty easily. I saw quite a few sunrises when we lived on the farm too.

Last week-end, my boss, Ande, and I visited a local potter who was having an opent studio. Judith Duff's studio is about an hour from here near Brevard, NC. I visited her a couple years ago when I was down here for a woodfiring workshop. She's a fairly well-known potter (among potters, that's about the only place potters are well-known.) I love her style, it's very earthy. She woodfires and also has received grants to research and develop shino type glazes from the local minerals. This type of glaze and firing has been used in Japan for hundreds of years. I admire all the work and research she's put into it. The pots are fired for 100 hours then the kiln is allowed to cool for 7 days to achieve the desired results.

Her work that I admire the most are the pieces that are fired in a huge train kiln that was designed by John Neely. She calls the glaze affect crackle shino (or sometimes American shino) and it has very earthy qualities that compliment her forms quite well. Here's a fine example.....

Ande and I had a really nice time seeing her new work. She had a woman from Asheville there who gave a little demo in ikebana arranging using one of Judith's pieces. It was very interesting.

This Sunday I'm supposed to head up to Bakersville with some of the other pottery students from the Odyssey Center to visit Suze Lindsay's studio. She's going to serve us some chili and show us her collection of work (her own work and that of many other potters.) It should be very inspiring! I'm looking forward to it (and will take pictures!)

We loaded the kiln yesterday at the Odyssey Center and it should be firing today. We'll unload it next Monday which is our last class. Here's a link to the pictures I've taken during the class so far with captions explaining the process.

Hopefully one of these days Steve and I will have time to do some more sight-seeing. I want to visit the Biltmore before we leave and now would be a good time because they have the Christmas lights on display. We'll have to go on a week-night though, because they're booked on the week-ends.

And that brings us up to date. Next posting I'll put up a new recipe that Steve and I are experimenting with for Chicken Makhani (Indian Butter Chicken.) It's very close to what he likes to order at Amar India. It will take a little more research and development, but that's fun (and unfortunately fattening!!)

The weather today is rainy and nasty, which is why I'm piddling on the computer. But that's enough for now!

Thanksgiving, etc.

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone already!!

We had plans for the annual Wray Thanksgiving Vacation to take place down here this year. Steve's dad had rented a house for the occassion, and we were planning on 18 family members converging on Asheville for the holiday. However, Steve's dad was still on the mend from the by-pass surgery, so only 4 came down, consisting of our 2 kids, one kid-in-law and one possibly future kid-in-law.

It was a lot of fun! Dustin & Megan brought their wii game. We played the games on it, plus did some exercises on the new "wii fit." They had borrowed it from a friend. Getting weighed in front of everyone was rather depressing, especially when the little voice told me I'm obese and have the balance of someone who's 64 years old!!! I think it's a little screwy! I'm not fat, I'm just short for my weight!!

The weather was gorgeous on Turkey Day. Danny and Ainsley got here Wed. evening, Dustin and Megan on Thusday evening. We mostly hung out, cooked, played games, and visited. We took the trolley tour of Asheville on Sat. That was fun and interesting.

Steve fixed a new chicken dish he concocted while taking care of his dad for Thursday evening's meal. We fixed turkey with smashed potatoes & gravy on Friday. Megan and I made a pumpkin pie. Steve fixed donuts one morning and his famous pancakes another morning. We also ate at ihop a couple times, and Mellow Mushroom, and 2 Guys Hoagies and the Fiddlin' Pig. (No wonder I'm obese!!)

I discovered my talent as a ski jumper on the wii fit game and managed to somehow become a yoga master due to my flexibility and balance. (Wait, it told me I'm obese and aged beyond my years - I told you something's screwy!!)
It was a fun holiday that went by too quickly, as always! Danny & Ainsley left early Sunday morning and Dustin and Megan left on Monday. I went to my pottery class Monday afternoon.

I have uploaded some pictures from the most recent salt-firing for my class at the Odyssey Center. Here's a link to where they can be viewed. http://picasaweb.google.com/lorettawray Click on the Salt-firing Album. I also have some pictures from the class. The album's entitled "Suze Lindsay Class..." There are also lots of pictures of Asheville and some of our other camping adventures.

I'm going to add a picture or 2 here from the firing just so this entry looks more interesting! This is a shot of my favorite piece, it's a tumbler, it holds almost 12 oz..........

And these are a grouping of yunomis that I threw from one lump of clay. (The tallest is under 3 inches tall!) The method is called throwing off the hump..................

I certainly have a heckuva time getting photos where I want them! When it looks just right in the preview, I publish it and everything's all wrong!! It's very frustrating! Whadya expect for free???

I think that it's time for me to sign off for tonight.

Back in the Swing of Things

It finally feels like Steve & I are getting back in the swing of things. He returned from Ohio a couple days ago. His dad is recovering quickly from the triple-by-pass surgery and our son, Danny, is staying with Papaw until he's able to take care of himself again.

Later this week, Danny and his girlfriend plus Megan and Dustin will come down here to visit with us for Thanksgiving. The original plans included Steve's dad, brother, sister and their respective familes, but since his dad's medical problems, it has dwindled to just our immediate family. I wish we could go up to Ohio to be with his dad but it just won't work out. We're very thankful that Steve got to spend as much time up there as he did the last couple of weeks. We're also extremely thankful that his dad is doing so well!! We have much to be thankful for as the season approaches.

I've been enjoying my pottery class. Today we unloaded the kiln from our first salt-firing. I will add pictures soon, I'm having some camera problems. I was pretty pleased with my results. Only a few pieces were in in spots in the kiln that didn't get much action from the salt. I have decided that I need to get more proficient at brush work. That's what I'm going to work on with my next batch of pots.

Last week, one of the other students did a hand-building demonstration of a very interesting form. It requires the use of some blocks of wood and thick foam. It's a fun process and I like the results. Here's a picture of the small tray that was made in the demo.....

The weather down here has been extremely cold!! It feels like Ohio! For several nights (when Steve was gone) the temperature was down in the teens - brrrrrr!!!! Fortunately our heat tape is working properly on our water lines and we haven't had it freeze up! We've certainly been going through the propane! I had to have the tank filled twice while Steve was gone. We actually had several tent-campers when the weather was so cold, I couldn't believe it!! Crazy young 'uns!!

We have all the rentals clean and ready for the Thanksgiving visitors. We had some extra cleaning to do over the week-end because the pipes froze in one of the yurts and the occupants ended up in one of the cabins. It's been keeping us busy, I'm glad Steve's back!! Once Thanksgiving is over things will slow down and after Christmas we'll be extremely slow.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and gets to spend quality time with family and friends over the week-end.

Whirlwind week!

It has been a busy and eventful week and a half!

On Nov. 4 I headed up to Ohio to help Julie get things ready at Bear's Mill for the upcoming art exhibit. I thought I owed it to her since I'm one of the featured artists! I stayed with Meryl Tues. night and had a nice visit. Wed. morning I received a phone call from Steve to tell me his dad was in the hospital!!

Apparently he'd been having chest pains and had called his doctor to schedule a stress test. He flunked the stress test and they immediately admitted him to the hospital. I visited him that morning and he was in good spirits and actually feeling pretty well. The doctor wanted to do a heart cath, but wasn't sure when he could schedule it.

I went to Indianapolis Wed. evening to visit Dustin and Megan after spending a couple of hours at the hair salon getting my locks dolled up for Friday! I stayed with the Canfields (Dustin & Megan) that night and we did some shopping for baby stuff on Thursday morning!! I still can't believe I'm going to be a grand-ma! I discovered the awesome baby store, "Once Upon a Child" where you can buy "gently" used baby clothes and furniture. We bought a little bassinet and are on the look-out for a "Pack-and-Play. I've never heard of this contraption but I've been told by 2 reliable sources that I should have one myself for when I'm baby-sitting!!

I came back to Ohio on Thursday and helped Julie get things ready at the Mill. We worked until 11:30, it was just like old times!! We got up early and finished things before the reception from 6-9. We had a great turn-out!! There were 3 of us who had our pottery on display. Julie, our friend, Rita from Indianapolis, and myself. We had paintings by Evie Mahrt from Piqua, OH. She's a phenomenal painter who does impressionistic landscapes. We love her work!

We had a great turn-out for the exhibit and I got to see some folks I haven't seen for quite awhile. Dustin and Megan came over and brought us Maid-Rites for dinner, yum!! It was so nice to get to visit with old friends!! Julie let me sleep on her couch both nights.

Saturday was spent at Miami Valley Hospital waiting for Steve's dad, John, to undergo triple-bypass surgery. Steve drove all night Friday to be there. He picked Danny up on the way. That was a long day and when we finally got to see him, he was very groggy and sore. We spent Sat. night at Steve's parents house. Steve and Danny slept like logs!!

Sunday we were amazed to see how well John was doing! He was talking a blue streak when I arrived and smacked me on the arm several times. (He always does that when he's in his "story-telling" mode! I thought my arm was gonna be black-and-blue but I was tickled he was feeling so well!) All the kids and grand-kids were there to see him and even though we hate that he had the surgery, I'm so glad everyone was able to be there and we got to spend lots of time together!

I headed out that evening after we all went to dinner. I took Danny home and spent the night at his place so it broke the drive up a little for me. Of course, Danny was no company at all on the drive down 'cos he slept the whole way, but I know he was pretty tired from the whole ordeal. So I figured out I slept in 5 different beds/couches in 6 nights on this trip!! Danny said I should be careful who I tell that to!!

Steve followed me because he wanted to come back to the campgrounds for a few days so we could get caught up with the cleaning. Then Wed. he headed back up north to be with his dad when he got released from the hospital. That happened today but he had a little set-back and had to go to the local hospital to get a temporary catheter. Steve will stay with him until late next week and then Danny will have some free time and is planning to drive up and be Papaw's nurse-maid for however long it takes for him to get back on his feet.

Judging from the way he's bounced back so far, I don't think it will be more than a few weeks!! He's a pretty amazing guy for 79 years old!!

So now Steve's back up north and the ladies are in charge of the campgrounds. Our maintenance man had some vacation days planned to visit family this week, so Ande and I are taking care of things. Ande does 95% of the work altho I did have to help a couple late-comers check in this evening and was standing in the rain helping a guy back his big ol' honkin' motor home into his spot!! Things should settle down now.

Last night she and I went out for sushi!! That was outstanding!! We also visited a little consignment shop in town, what fun!

Here are a few pictures from the reception at Bear's Mill. My pottery will be on display for the month of November. I'm excited about the work I'm producing in my class down here. We're supposed to fire the salt-kiln next week and I need to make sure I get some pieces glazed this week so they make it into the firing!

This is a picture of several of Evie's paintings and some of my pottery displayed on the table. The piece on the pedestal was made by Julie.

Next is a picture of one of Julie's vessels and 2 of Evie's paintings. I think they looked very nice together!

And here's a shot of the 4 artists, pretty hot for ol' ladies if I say so myself, which I do, 'cos I'm probably the only one who will!!


From left to right are Rita Wiley, potter, Indianapolis, Julie Clark, potter, Bear's Mill, Evie Mahrt, painter, Piqua, OH, and Loretta Wray (yours truly) potter, Asheville, NC (well, technicaly, Troy, OH!!)

It was definitely a whirlwind of a week! It felt like so many things happened that it should have been longer than a week!! I believe I put over 1200 miles on my car!! The best part was when I paid $1.76/gal for gas in Indy!! It's still over 2 bucks/gal down here.

I believe I better sign off for now. Keep Steve's dad in your thoughts and prayers, we're thankful that he's getting along so well and that we were able to spend time with family and friends!

When a Picture is NOT worth a thousand words

I've come to the conclusion that pictures just do not do justice to the beauty we're seeing down here. I'll continue to post some, but keep in mind that it's definitely NOT the same as being here! A better camera might help, but I don't think it would be as impressive unless they could be projected on a huge screen!

Sunday afternoon we took a drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway south of Asheville. I think the leaves must be very close to their peak of color. Since we left somewhat late in the day, we were treated to a different play of light and shadows than we've seen up until now. The lower proximity of the sun shining through the leaves provided an array of beautiful fall colors. As we drove through some of the heavily wooded areas, I felt as if we were in a huge church made up completely of stained glass windows. The colors were breathtaking and seeing such beauty in nature always makes me feel closer to the creator.

Our goal was to hike a trail off the Parkway that is supposed to be somewhat "off the beaten path." It's a place called "Skinny Dip Falls" and we weren't planning on participating in the activity for which the falls was named (and were hoping that the weather was too chilly for us to have to observe anyone else participating in the aforementioned activity! We did come across some teen-agers making out but they were thankfully fully clothed.)

It was worth the possibility of seeing more than we bargained for, and worth the hike to visit this beautiful spot. By the time we arrived, the sun was getting pretty low and we were a little worried that we might not have time to make it down to the falls and and back before darkness set in. We did NOT want to get stranded in the dark. Even though the trail was well-marked and only about a 20 minute hike from the parking lot on the BR Pkwy, we hadn't brought a compass or flashlight, had no phone signal, and the trail itself was a little hard to discern because of all the leaves on the ground. We wouldn't have been able to see the markers once it became dark. So, that added a little air of adventure to our hike!

The trail head for the falls is located at mile marker 417 on the Parkway. There's a small parking lot with an overlook that provides a view of Looking Glass Rock, which is an interesting mountain peak that stands out because of its bald surface.

Here are some shots of the falls.................(I still haven't quite figured out the alignment features of this site and apologize that the pictures don't always end up where I intend for them to be!)

As we drove back to the campgrounds, we were treated to some beautiful views of the mountains being touched by the setting rays of the sun. I know I said pictures don't do it justice, but I have to give you a taste of it.....

If you want to see more of the photos I've taken since we've come down here, you can visit my Picassa Web album at http://picasaweb.google.com/lorettawray The photos on this page are full size, a little better for viewing. I always downsize them to post on this site.

There are also some pictures from my pottery class with Suze Lindsay posted. That's been fun and interesting and I'll post more about it later!

FYI, I'll be heading to Ohio tomorrow for a few days to help get things ready and participate in an exhibit at Bear's Mill on Friday, Nov. 7. My pottery will be on display along with the work of 2 other potters (Julie Clark and Rita Wiley, both good friends of mine) and a talented painter, Evie Mahrt. I'm planning to run over to Indianapolis to visit Megan and Dustin on Wed and Thursday and then will stop at Danny's on the way back to spend the night Sat. It will be a busy week, but I'm looking forward to it!

Pinching Myself

I told Steve that I have to keep pinching myself today to make sure I'm really here! Wow, it's been a great couple days!

Last night we had a very enjoyable bon-fire here on the campgrounds. It was topped off by 2 campers who are also bagpipe players! I LOVE the bagpipes and these 2 were pretty good at it! (There's nothing worse than a lousy bagpipe player!!)

This morning the weather was beautiful! We walked the dogs down to the pond and I remembered to bring my camera along to snap some pictures

The leaves are changing and the mountains are beautiful right now. The dogs really enjoy our hikes, even though it's been cool. We just bundle them up in their little doggie coats!

Today I started my pottery class at the Odyssey Center in Asheville. It's a truly amazing place and I'm so excited to be able to take a class there. My instructor is going to be Suze Lindsay. She wasn't able to attend the first day of class. Normally that might be upsetting, but her husband, Kent McLaughlin, subbed for her. He's a prolific potter also, so I sure wasn't complaining!!! It would be like attending a Paul Simon concert, but he couldn't be there so Art Garfunkle filled in. Well, maybe not exactly like that, but you get the idea!! (I think this is when I started pinching myself!)

I was so nervous!! I know I didn't have any reason to be, but I was!! My stomach felt all knotted up!! I felt better once I actually got to get on the wheel and most of the class had left for the day. Then I got to talk to a couple of other students and te instructor. It was more laid back then.

The facilities are amazing. I've taken pottery classes before, but never had such wonderful resources available. There are about 15 wheels, a slab roller, an extruder, a gas kiln, a soda kiln and several electric kilns. Not to mention that HIghwater Clay is just up the road and sells hundreds of ceramic tools, plus clay and glaze chemicals!!!!! Too cool!!! (pinching myself again!)

Here's a shot of what I call the "Wall of Fame......" Other potters will recognize work from many well-known potters....................

Ok, so to top the evening off, (how could it get any better??) Steve picked me up from class and we ate at a BBQ place called the Fiddlin' Pig. Not only was the food DEEEE-LICIOUS, but they have LIVE bluegrass music every night!! Tonight they had a local band called Cane Creek. They had mandoln, fiddle, guitar, bass fiddle and banjo. They were awesome!! What was even more amazing was that the girl on fiddle was 14 years old! She could really play! And the kid on guitar was maybe 15. He played like Doc Watson! (My arms were black and blue by then from pinching myself so much!!)

So, I came home with my head full of pottery, my tummy full of BBQ and my ears full of bluegrass music!! What a full day! I think it's just a taste of things to come!

HAPPY TRAILS!!

Observations and ramblings

Today was one of the best so far! We planned a drive to Spruce Pine, about an hour northeast of here to visit a "Potters Market." We thought we would do some leaf-gawking and hopefully a little geocaching too. The trees north of here are beginning to display their fall foliage.

The Potters' Market was pretty phenomenal. There were about 30 well-known potters exhibiting in a huge warehouse. It reminded me of the Christmas bazaars Meryl & I used to go to, only it was ALL POTTERY!! And these were rock-star potters. We talked to Mark Peters for a few minutes. I think he eventually remembered that I had participated in a woodfiring at his home/shop a couple years ago. Actually 2 years in a row. You can see Steve & I in some of the photos on this page. I hope I can remember some of the forms I saw today so I can use them for inspiration when I start my class in a couple of weeks! We drove past a lot of places we had visited when we were in Bakersville for the workshop.

Our plan was to circle back on the Blue Ridge Parkway and take in the scenery and do a little geocaching. Unfortunately, we discovered that he Parkway was closed near Mount Mitchell and we had to take a detour. Steve was a little miffed because he had checked the website for areas that were closed and couldn't find any. The bad thing about driving through the mountains is that when there are detours, they can add many miles to your planned route. So that's basically what happened. We ended up spending the whole afternoon figuring out the best route back to Asheville. I'm not complaining too much because we were treated to some gorgeous scenery, but we didn't have time to do any geocaching so that was a bit of a bummer.

And we ate lunch pretty late which made us somewhat cranky because we weren't sure where we were going! We ended up eating at a little greasy spoon type diner that offered "all things fried" on its menu. Well, I had a burger, which wasn't deep fried, and was actually pretty tasty. And Steve got a milkshake that taste like homemade ice cream. So, healthy it wasn't, but tasty it was!

As we were driving up highway 80, we saw a rickety little suspension bridge (for pedestrians) that spanned a beautiful rocky creek. I hollered for Steve to stop and we took some pictures. Well, he took the pictures from the middle of the bridge because I couldn't bring myself to walk out on it. My apparent fear of heights just wouldn't let me walk out there. That and the sign warning that the bridge could only hold 4 people. I mean this was AFTER our meal at the
greasy spoon diner. I didn't want to take any chances!

The road names are so interesting down here. Names like "Tater Town" and "Shake Rag" just make me smile! I find myself wondering who came up with them.

When we got back to the campgrounds we just kicked back and relaxed. We did a little laundry and on my walk to and from the laundry room I was treated to a most gorgeous sunset. I snapped a photo of it at one point. The photos just are not doing this place justice, but at least I can look at them and remember what we were treated to. I call this photo "Heaven Came Down."

A little while after I took this photo, the sky turned deep red and Steve and I watched it fade away. It was one of those moments when you don't want to say anything because it feels so holy that talking seems almost disrespectful. We came back to the camper and had a little campfire and ate dinner. Then we folded laundry and we'll probably be heading off to bed soon. The end of an extremely enjoyable and relaxing day!

The Adventure Begins

Really, our adenture began several months ago, but I've decided that I would like to start keeping an account of our travels and adventures. I thought this might be an easy way for friends and family to see what's happening with us, if they're interested. So, I'm going to try to post pictures and happenings on a somewhat regular basis. We know how this usually goes, you start with good intentions and make daily posts for about, mmmm, 2 days, then maybe twice a year. But ya gotta start somewhere.

We arrived in Asheville, NC this past Sunday. We spent the summer at th KOA in Richmond, IN workamping there while in the process of selling our home. Here's a link that tells about workamping if anyone's interested. http://www.workamper.com/ I wish I had kept a journal of what we did there, so better late than never, I guess.

When we were in Richmond, I remembered a show I had seen on RV TV about a beautiful campgrounds in Asheville, NC. We weren't sure where we were going to spend the winter, but we decided to contact this campgrounds to reserve a site for a couple weeks in the fall on our way to wherever we were working for the winter. When the owner heard we were workampers, she offered us a job for the winter at Campfire Lodgings. http://www.campfirelodgings.com/ After talking it over for about 5 minutes, we accepted and here we are.

We both love the mountains, and the view here is simply breathtaking. I'll try to figure out how to post pictures soon. It's also the pottery capital of the WORLD, so I'm planning on taking some classes in Asheville. I just signed up for a class with a rock star among potters, Suze Lindsay. http://www.forkmountainpottery.net/ It starts in a couple of weeks.

Yesterday we started our training for what we'll be doing here at Campfire Lodgings. In addition to RV sites, they rent out 3 vacation cabins and 3 yurts. This page tells what our yurts are like http://www.campfirelodgings.com/yurt.asp

We got a tour of the facilities yesterday and the Yurts are very cool! 2 of them have bathrooms and they all have heat, AC and TV. Plus cable and wi-fi. They're very "zen" if ya know what I mean! The Cliffhouse is very different than what I imagined. It's not your typical cabin rental in the Smokies. What I mean by this is, that most of the cabins we've rented when we came down here are newer and even though they're really nice, they don't have a lot of character. Some of them you could even tell weren't extremely well-built, just thrown together as cheaply and quickly as possible to start renting them out. The Cliffhouse was built in the 80s as a residence. It was built by the father of the current owner of the campgrounds. I believe he was in some area of the concrete busiiness which is evident by all the beautiful rock masonry in the cabin. He also scavenged and imported lots of items he used for decor so the cabin has a funky, eccentric feel to it. It probably isn't everyone's cup of tea, but Steve and I thought it was pretty cool!

The other 2 cabins are smaller and were built as rentals. They don't have quite as much character as the Cliffhouse or the Yurts, but they're cozy and feature all the necessary comforts.

We'll be responsibe for the housekeeping of all these buildings, including the laundry. In addition, we'll be responsible for cleaning and maintaining the bath house.

The campgrounds has some nice hiking trails and a secluded little pond. Yesterday we saw a family of wild turkeys while we were taking our tour. We haven't seen any deer or bears, yet!!

The city of Asheville seems like it will offer lots to do. It's a pretty artsy area so it's going to take Steve a little time to get used to all the dreadlocks and various other bohemian fashion statements. But it also means there are coffee shops EVERYWHERE and music and art galleries and studios. Plus, the hiking/outdoor activities are countless!!

I think we're going to enjoy our stay here!

And now I'd better sign off because we need to go help clean the Cliffhouse!