Mountain Mornings

We live in the high mountains of NC, at the northwest corner hard against the Tennessee and Virginia borders. Color begins to come to the trees about the last week in Sept. and these next few weeks, when we're lucky and have good weather, are my favorite.

The air gets cool but not cold at night. Friday morning it began: woodsmoke in the hollers as everyone lit the woodstoves for the first time. (we didn't, our house is an older post and beam and has heavy insulation in 6 1/2" thick walls.) I love the smell of the smoke rolling around...the way our geography is shaped lends itself to catching smoke and fog and holding onto it for a while, till the sun gets up above the ridges. So our morning walks are usually in a light smoke scented dense foggy mist, like something out of a movie. And everything you see is done so thru a scrim, so you don't get the details but outlines and suggestions. Very mellow and slow.

By 10 or so the sun is up and things began burning off, and by noon the air and sky are brilliantly clear and sharp. These days its still nice and warm, 70 to maybe 80. It is a good time to be outside.

I'm a morning person, and like to see the world wake up. First thing in the mornings are about the only time my mind isn't racing around. Before the time change, I'm usually up before it gets light, so I watch the sunrise before going for a walk. I think that time between just waking up and the finish of our walk is my best part of the day. It's still slow and calm, with minimal noise and confusion. This morning, the owls were crazy loud in the predawn dark. I've noticed them being much more busy this past week in the evenings and wonder if they're making winter plans. Occasionally we'll see one, usually a big barn owl hurtling through the woods after some unfortunate meal or another. We hear the hoot and screech owls but rarely see them.

My work days have a different rhythm in the fall- less students, for a longer time. This results in a more agreeable pace. There's time to meet people, connect, and explore things in some depth and texture. Also, I'm able to get into a little of a studio routine, though most work has to take place in the evenings. I started preparing for my fall making cycle: cleaning up around the kiln, organizing my shop. I'll make stuff in the evenings, spending the late afternoon doing things like scraping shelves, and readying the kiln. Weekends will be for glazing and loading. Hopefully I will have a full kiln load (or two!?) ready to fire by late Oct. Since my big kiln is outdoors, I have to think about the weather a bit. Anytime after Thanksgiving, and you can almost bet on wind and snow, which makes for a long day and nights work, not to mention tricky carrying of stuff to and from the kiln.

This weekend was taken up with life maintenance, and self education on the intricacies of rss and podcasting. I have it sort of figured out, though still some unanswered questions. I hope to be able to do a few little videos during this work cycle to share and show what a day in the life of this clay artist can be like. So we'll see.

Hope everyone has a great beginning to your week. Go slow and enjoy it. Ghandi once said "theres more to life than increasing it's speed." This is a healthy fact, contrary to all apparent evidence and the incessant external motivations to do/be/have more. So, let's just say no to everyone and everything that tries to whip us into an unnatural frenzy and stage a quiet revolt. We might all be better off if we do.