We stopped at the top of a rise so I could take a photo of the country.
There were lots of Prairie Sunflowers (Helianthus petiolaris) in bloom along the way.
The road eventually dumps you back out on Hwy 260 in the little town of Linden. We drove back through Show Low and then stopped at Pintail Lake on our way back north on Hwy 77.
There were still Cowpen Daisies (Verbesina encelioides) in bloom there—as they were back in June.
And Dakota Mock-vervain (Glandularia bipinnatifida) too.
Even more surprising there was Spread Globemallow (Sphaeralcea hastulata) in bloom. We had a different variety of Globemallow in bloom in Sahuarita back in March.
Here and there I spied a few James Wild Buckwheat (Eriogonum jamesii).
All along the edge of the road there were this plants with what looked like little white flags flying. They turned out to be White-flower Skyrocket (Ipomopsis longiflora).
The white flags are the partially opened flowers. Here’s a shot of the fully opened flower.
Mixed in among these were Wright's Bird's-beak (Cordylanthus wrightii).
The kiln over at the pottery club had been on the fritz off and on all summer. Our fearless leader, Eleanor, had replaced the relays, the thermocouple, and the coils and each time the darned thing would work for 2 or 3 firings and then die again. Finally this week, she talked to the super-tech at the Skutt Kiln factory and they gave her a suggestion which wasn’t in any of the manuals. And thank goodness it worked. The first firing after that repair came out of the kiln on Sunday August 18th.
People make everything under the sun in our studio from birdhouses to corn on the cob holders to plates and bowls and tiles.
There are spoon rests, little planters, and a pile of pieces for some wind chimes and yes, down on the bottom shelf there are a couple of Christmas trees made with coil construction.
Here are some of the things that I had in the kiln—the SW Elf has been busy doing work for Santa.
There’s a Gecko on a tile.
Seashells in a jewelry dish.
A gecko on another jewelry dish.
Hearts on a lavender jewelry dish.
And an assortment of refrigerator magnets that I made on a lark.
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And orange and red to the west.
Saturday I had been recruited to be a contributor to the Juniper Ridge Resort Facebook Page so Monday when I spied a bunch of folks working in the glaze room I took a photo of them.
Tuesday morning was Ladies Fun Golf Day. I had planned to head down to the Pro Shop to take photos but it turned out to have started earlier than I thought. Instead, the event came to us. Starting at 8 am there were ladies in costumes trying to tee off with a tennis racket at the 15th tee. Needless to say even those with tennis experience didn’t manage to get a golf ball over the lake and onto the green.
Yes, the Grease Pink Ladies had pink satin baseball jackets and fancy wigs.
They also decorated their golf carts (they were the only ones).
And they had candy cigarettes to complete their outfits.
The Cheer Leaders posed for me and then went through their cheer.
The Village People had performed in full costume (YMCA of course) at the pro shop but some of them had traded their special headgear for sunhats by the time they reached us—An Indian, a Policewoman, a Cowgirl and a Construction Worker (who had a hardhat and a tool belt back in her cart).
The next group said they didn’t have costumes so I guess this is considered normal golf gear.
Then we had the Doctors and Nurses in scrubs and white uniforms.
And the ladies in evening wear—at least they didn’t have to wear heels.
By this point it was in the upper 80’s and the ladies were beginning to look a little wilted. But the fairies’ wings were still perky.
The Cougars were dressed for the weather and had their own coach. Don’t you love the pom poms on the shoes?
I don’t know what this team’s actual name was but I called them the Bling Team for all the shiny fun stuff on their shirts.
Last up at our hole were the White Rabbits. Their ears were back in their carts but most of them still had their tails on.
They were ready to head back to the clubhouse where the men (who had had their Fun Day the day before on the front 9 of the golf course) served them mimosas and chicken salad on croissants.
Wednesday August 21st, we had a class at the pottery studio learning how to put stained glass (to be melted) into our pottery pieces.
We glazed our pieces and then placed glass in strategic places in the designs.
To frosting on the cake another load was ready out of the kiln.
I had an arty fern in a jewelry bowl (the photo doesn’t do the glaze justice it’s really interesting).
And a dragonfly in a blue jewelry bowl.
And one more of by silly salad plates.
There was a second one of these that said “Romaines of the Day” but it had blisters all over it. We think it was because I scraped the dregs from the bottle to finish it.
We fired it again and the blisters went away and then the plate looked like it had leprosy.
So I’ve reglazed it with an entirely different glaze (which is a super gamble) and we’ll see what I get.
Eleanor went out of her way to load the kiln with as may of our glass projects as she could get into the kiln and a few days later here are some examples of what came out. There were hearts with glass centers a plates with glass bottoms.
Crackled glass in the bottom of a free-form bowl.
A little blue ocean in a seashore themed bowl for a granddaughter.
Glass on the rim of a bowl. Each piece was individually placed and then it melted however it wanted.
Here’s another plate with glass that went one direction but not another.
And here’s a framed heart with glass in the center.
I made a series of small bowls to test how glazes would interact with the glass. Here’s one that came out fairly well. Low fire glazes don’t run very much and it’s taking me a while to get used to that. I’d hoped that the blue would run down into the black but it stayed put.
We all enjoyed playing with the glass but it does have it’s limitations. The resulting product isn’t food safe (because of the fact that the glass crazes) and you just never know what the heck it’s going to do—and your piece better be perfectly level or you’ll end up with a puddle of glass that’s off center.