A Star is Grown

We have been eating tomatoes everyday for a couple of weeks. We have had some worm issues this year, but there are plenty tomatoes to go around. This particular worm decided to leaves us a thank you for planting all of the delicious tomatoes for them and their friends.

We could not help ourselves, so Mista Tomato engages in a photo shoot.

Mista Tomato on top of Max's soccer ball. The soccer ball lasted all of about 2 minutes. It was Max's first and last soccer ball.

He loved the chartreuse zinnia. "Anything green", he says.

Mista Tomato and the Marguerite Potato Vine.

TT saw us walking around the property from her perch on top of the old chicken house. She wanted a picture with Mista Happy tomato.

Maxwell was not going to let TT gt away with being on the blog with out him. That is the way dogs are when it comes to cats.

Maxwell convinced me that it was my turn too.

Mista Happy Tomato in the tree. He sures does get around.

We found him hiding amongst Bruce's "found" buried goodies. It looks like the picnic table has seen better days. Maybe it is time to replace it?

Mista Happy Tomato is back home. The plums & onions not from our garden :) :)

Mista Tomato was not harmed during any of his modeling career here at Bulldog Pottery, but he did age out of modeling fairly rapidly, and has gone into retirement at Casa Composta. We are sure he will be very influential to many future veggie models that may have a seasonal career here at Bulldog Pottery.

A Closer Look

We love walking through the garden to see all that is growing, buzzing, decaying.... Yesterday a very windy storm came through and knocked down many of the Tithonia, and between the heat and age, the cucumbers will be pulled today. I would like to get some books off the shelves and see what winter crops we can start to plant. Any suggestions? Something I have never done, but I would love to learn. A few years ago we bought vegetables from Christy and Joe and she had such a wonderful supply of greens. We ate like queens and kings that winter. They live in Wisconsin now and have started a pottery called Windy Ridge.

With the camera and zoom we can see fascinating textures, and phenomenas of nature.

The hollyhock after a rain.

The Tithonia with clients

Looks like something that belongs under water. ----a Cardoon flower

Here are the squash bug eggs. Try to get these off of your plant before they hatch into white hungry nymphs.

The squash bug.

Magic

Amazing

The summer garden is in full bloom here at Bulldog Pottery

Ed and Gloria have really focused this year on maintaining, watering, fertilizing, weeeeeding, and making sure the "bad" bugs don't out rival the "good" bugs. Though there are some bad bugs that the good bugs consider dinner so really they are not so bad after all, when you think about. We have had to use some insecticidal soap on a few outbreaks of aphids that the ladybugs just could not keep up with them. Hand picking off the insects that think our plants are their lunch, seems to work just fine. The squash bugs are aggressive, prolific little boogers, and they have taken out a few squash plants. If we can find their eggs in time that really seems to help.

We have flowers and vegetables growing in here.

Here is the garden at the beginning of the summer on May 14, 2010.

then

and now

Glazing-Sieving-Gardening-Playing

Glazing-Sieving-Gardening-Playing

All important ingredients to a fantastic and productive Sunday at Bulldog Pottery

Sieving and making batches of glazes is always one task that comes before every glaze cycle. We currently are using around 45 glazes, but we have had over 100 on our shelves. Glazes go in and out of favor for one reason or another, and we are always dreaming up new colors, and hoping for that one glaze that we have never seen before. Do you remember that song by Huey Lewis-- "I want a New Drug"? This is our theme song during days like today. Bruce and I sing this in the studio, but we sing "I want a new glaze".

Maxwell's job is an important one, and that is to keep a keen eye on his ball which at this moment has rolled under my chair.

Definitely in her element these days, Gloria has become one with the sunflower.

Garden May 24. Tomatoes are in, eggplants covered with row cloth and we are eating chard. Bruce picked shitakes off of our logs this morning. There is a stir fry in our future.

Pots, Garden, and Max

Here are some examples of what we pulled out of the kiln yesterday. We are getting ready to leave this morning for the Pot Hop and Jam in Washington D.C. See the two previous posts for details. Ed and Gloria will be home here at Bulldog to greet anyone that comes to visit the shop.

Yesterday we received notice that we were included in the list of "50 Inspiring Pottery blogs" to read. Check out Graphic Design Degrees to see the other blog authors that were also included. Pottery Cousin Mike the author of Sawdust and Dirt is in there too.

The handled urn is one that we made last year along with the Crab Urn. We switched our display around at the Visitors Center and wanted to bring the piece along with us to the Washington DC home show this weekend.
Ed and Gloria are a team. They have wanted to hang out in the garden for a long time, and now they are in their element. Their house in Blacksburg was in the woods with many trees, too much shade, clay, and plagued by deer. If the deer thought they could get away with coming inside, they would eat the house plants too. There are many positive attributes of living amongst many trees; shade, no mowing, and privacy, plus no mowing. Did I say no grass?

Garden May 13

And Max always ready for another toss.