Studio Baby Birds and Schedules

Goats do Roam white wine in a Riedel stemless wineglass, "The Night of the Infernal Machine" from season two of the original Wild, Wild, West tv series for my background music. The day is almost over, and I failed for the second day in a row to get a kiln load in. That makes me two days behind--with no spares to use to catch up. It sometimes happens, and there's nothing to be done except to be flexible, and to recover as best I can. I did get two shipments out today, and I will have the pieces Jeff Manpearl commissioned for his new work for the Buyer's Market show done and read to ship on Monday. I will not be in the studio to ship them, that duty will fall to the lovely and capable Becky (the assistant), who will continue to work while I am in... MONTANA!

Yes, I have two more days in the studio and then J and I are on a plane heading for the wilds of Montana to celebrate my father's 80th birthday with the family. Sadly, we won't be able to be there for the actual birthday--we have to come back on Sunday the 20th. But we'll be there just before the birthday, and, heck, when you've made it to 80 what's a day or two either way?

The photo is from the studio news of the day Tuesday. I mentioned that I was afraid the cheeping in the chimney would end badly, and it almost did. Tuesday afternoon J had a playdate with an old friend and I brought her mother over to show her the studio. We walked into the gallery room to find baby birds all over the floor in various stages of fledging, and the sound of a lone peep emanating room the chimney. I rounded up the stragglers on the floor and got up into the chimney where I found the last of the hatchlings clinging to a brick and peeping for dear life. A few phone calls later and I was on my way to a local vet that acts as the go-between for the wild bird rehabilitators in the area. Turns out I had five baby chimney swifts, and I left them in the vet's capable hands, a meal already being mixed up for them. The chimney swift woman was to pick them up by 7:00 and they would become someone else's problem!

I have enough problems of my own--chief among them a dearth of firing time. On the other hand, the former studio basement is on its way to becoming a finished part of the Griffith manse--and the future home of the great loom that now lives in our dining room.

Tomorrow is another day in the studio during which I will celebrate my independence from the basement and the cube--two fates worse than death. Happy 4th everyone.