All firing went well!

Hello everyone. Good news! All three firings went well. There was a downpour while we had breakfast. We had to wait until the rain stopped before we went to the garage to open the kiln.

This is the top shelf. All critters including my 'chicken drawing' who was loaded into the kiln late last night, have survived.

Everyone is safe!

Then we noticed that there was someone else peeking. It's Pumpkin! She didn't enter the dark garage, but she had stayed there until we came out.

What are you doing in dark?

 And this is the lower shelf.

Mike threw two bowls. I threw two rabbit cups.

There is a greenhouse next to the garage. I noticed that suddenly lots of tomatoes are ripening! It is Mike's territory. He has looked after veg so well. Look at the tomatoes. They are the best ever. We cook them quite often to make a simple delicious tomato sauce. We don't eat bought sauce. You just don't feel like eating bought sauce once you make your own with freshly picked tomatoes. 

Mike's tomatoes

I made these two last night. Sorry about the quality of the photo. It's taken just now under artificial light

I keep creating without thinking or planning. It's a fun!

Last night's offerings.

Today was the first day of Mike's 10-day-leave. But I have been busy with my day work. Last two weeks were one of the busiest time of the year, for my work. Even so, we went to the studio; Mike is an honourable ceramic student (in Jane's words). I unloaded both kilns, and did a bit more finishing, but had to come home to return to more work. Never mind. I will spend a long time in the studio tomorrow!

Chameleon left Canterbury

Hello everyone. It has been a lovely weather here. The best part is low humidity. In Japan where I am from, summer is dreadfully humid and sticky. Even so, the house becomes too hot with windows closed for parrots and dogs, so I decided to stay at home in the afternoon.

In the morning, I popped in the studio to start the kiln, then went to post office to send the chameleon to a wonderful lady in Australia.

Smiley chameleon

 She came out of the kiln last Friday.

On Sunday I enameled her eyes and fired her again. 

She is flying to Australia.

Yesterday I also showered parrots. They love showers, and I used to shower them frequently until I became student. They enjoyed so much that I will shower them again next weekend. We also washed cage grates in the garden, as well.

Wet Beaper. He is good at whistling and mimicking microwave

Then we found more and more chores to do! I finally turned up the rims of my summer trousers I bought in March! I had thought there wouldn't be any occasion for them this year until recently. I don't like sewing much. I only do, when I have to. It took me about two hours to turn them up. Next time, I would buy narrower trousers! 

We had late lunch in the garden. We cooked tempura from vegetables from the garden. The most delicious one is runner beans, Succulent and tender. 

Runner beans

Fruits are ripening, too. Most cherries were eaten by wood pigeons, but we covered some branches. We should be able to harvest about 20.  

Our fist cherry

We have lots of raspberries. They are Pumpkin's favourite. She jumps from the ground and harvest some by herself. When she lands, there is heavy thud. It's funny! She is a heavy chicken!  ('How rude to call me a heavy chicken!')

Our first this year

Crocosmia is in buds

Lavender is in bloom.

My strange dream and our dinner from the garden

Hello everyone. We had very strong rain overnight. Mike said it was between two and three in the morning. The rain was hitting the window so hard, we both woke up with the noise. This reminded me of Japanese Typhoons. There were so many nights we woke up because of thunder and heavy rain. It was not just heavy. It was violent.

Here are four of yesterday's rabbits. See? They are much prettier! Initially I intended to make chopstick rests (Japanese soft spot!) from them, but after second thought half of them will be brooches. They are from a plaster mould I made. First, I made a whole rabbit. It was so cute that I wanted to make chopstick rests from it. So I cut the rabbit into two and made the mould from a half. Then I decorated them with oxide and clear glaze, and glaze-fired them. Yesterday I decorated with enamel. So I am following the method Imari have been made for four centuries. Bright colours like red and yellow will not survive glaze-firing temperature, which 1260C, or higher. So first, Imari porcelain is only decorated with cobalt blue based oxide and glaze-fired, then they were decorated with red. Then fired at a lower temperature to fix them. Kutani uses a similar method, but they will fire a same plate six times or more because they use so many different colours.  

My rabbit brooches.

I have had some strange dreams recently. One was that Mike and I were in Afghanistan. Mike bought four bags of something from an old tanned man with a turban. I paid him about £20. Next time I noticed, we were in a station, waiting for a train to Turkey. Then suddenly a pilot appeared from a door, so I realised that we were in an airport. I told Mike that Turkish customs might become suspicious with those bags. He went to another room to throw them away. Out of blue, I saw a glaze bucket in front of me. Muted yellow coloured glaze was in it. I started stirring it frantically. I somehow knew I had to glaze some bisque. Then the dream finished. When I told Mike about this, he laughed and said that I had been doing too much glazing recently. He is right.

Mike is harvesting runner beans

Some of tomatoes

Our vegetables from the garden are coming to an end. Still we can make one or two more meals out of them. Today, Mike cooked pasta with bacon and runner beans in tomato sauce, Tomatoes and beans were from the garden (well, tomatoes were from the greenhouse). We have eaten so many tomatoes this year. They are good raw or cooked.

Making tomato sauce - easy peasy way

Our apples are falling. Mike is going to make an apple cake tomorrow! I can hardly wait!

Our little apple tree

    

My favourite walk to the cemetery and Mike's baby vegetables

We are having a storm today, here in Canterbury. It has also rained this week. But we have had sunny spot last Sunday.

I love lime green new leaves!

Mike and I walked Pearl and Topaz to my favourite destination, the Cemetery. I like the tranquillity of cemetery, but also the architecture. It is inspiring and uplifting. Japanese cemeteries have spooky atmosphere. So it was a nice surprise to me to find English cemeteries so serene and beautiful.

The main gate tower

Beautiful Celtic cross

Mike had been busy with his vegetable seedlings. I used to grow some of them, but now he does everything.We like to eat lots of vegetables in summer, especially beans, peas, aubergines, courgettes as well as cucumbers. The intense taste of home grown vegetables are irreplaceable. 

Mike's seedlings