Sun! At Last!

Spring, or perhaps I should say early summer, has arrived.  At last we are having warm, sunny days.

Yellow flags, white flags, and poppies are in full bloom.  At last we are having a good year of poppies.  I covered them during the last week of rain because they are so fragile that one good shower reduces to soggy masses of tissue paper.

Due to the continued rain, chill, and most particularly the various caterpillars the gardens, pond and pool are in a sorry state.  Now to play catch up!

We had many praying mantis egg sacs last fall.  Two days ago we found babies had hatched from one of them.  I managed to get a shot of this little guy before it took off.  This is a much enlarged photo.  It was about one quarter the size shown and almost transparent.

As always, thanks for stopping by........*s*

Thursday

The sun came out this morning after yesterday's chilly, gray, windy, cloudiness.  It felt like we were going backwards to March!  It was a shock and a let down after Tuesday's 80F. complete with swimming.

I put the fish out on the pond rocks a few days ago.  I will probably move them around a bit as summer progresses.  I have to remember to take my camera out with me when I take Winter out in the early morning.  The light is much kinder to pottery at that time!

There have been some questions about how I mix stains into clear.  Below are two examples.  The small one on the left is Mason 6131 Titanium-Iron; the one on the right is Mason 6134 Red-Brown.
My clear is Spectrum 700 which has a light green colorant in it so the glazes have a greenish tinge to them.  I mix entirely by eye.  I want the look of strong tea with milk in it.  I don't generally bother to test  anymore because it always seems to work.  I use this mainly as a liner glaze for teapots and covered jars.

I tried to get a picture of the hummingbirds at the yellow flags.  The blossoms started popping yesterday.  I think the hummingbirds showed up within an hour of the first one to bloom.  The buds really do pop open once they reach a certain stage.  It happens so quickly that you can turn away for seconds and when you turn back you will have an open flower.

NOTE!  Yellow flags are incredibly invasive.  If you do grow them there should not be any access to ponds, streams, rivers etc.  They should be disposed of by drying and composting.  It does no one any favors to discard them into a local waterway.

We've been experimenting with making pizza with a garbanzo (chick pea) flour crust.  It's based on Socca, an Italian flatbread.  We put the toppings on and baked it in the oven.  I think it might be better to pre-cook it for a few minutes before doing the toppings.  Cooking it on the grill should add to the flavor.

Enjoy the day, and as always, thanks for stopping by.........*s*