The World Series

When youngest son was just a tyke, he developed a love for the San Francisco Giants. He played some baseball when he was growing up, but mainly he and his late father, Dan, were fans. Of the Giants.
Eventually, and through a circuitous route, he ended up in Hollywood, working in television. There's a connection here. He has a lot of friends down south and through them, he got himself and his stepdad, Chris, some great seats at today's first World Series game of 2010 - between the S.F. Giants and the Texas Rangers. I'll be perusing the crowd during the game...their seats are above the Giants' dugout. Go Giants!!

...Oh, and we unloaded the kiln this morning, before he left for the nearly 3 hour drive to S.F. It was a good firing.


EDIT: And they won this first game 11-7! 3 to go!

Chico

He's a little dog. No more than 11 or 12 pounds. But he has the proverbial heart of a lion. His self-appointed job is to keep the wildlife in the bushes and on the hill away from us and his voice resounds throughout the canyon. Today, while hiking with Chris, he annoyed a coyote and set him to running.Chris got a good look at the coyote as he traversed the deer trails - an animal as big as a German Shepherd. Chico kept his distance.
When I express my fears that the coyotes could grab him, Chris states his belief that our little fearless dog is smart enough and fast enough to stay out of coyote range, and that not curtailing his or the coyote's freedom is important. There's room enough here for all of us.

10/10/10

Another Sunday. We're working in the studio today, getting ready for the holidays.
Yesterday we went to a memorial for a much-respected man who recently died. He had
a big family, children, grandchildren, friends, even someone he'd known since grade school, and their spoken remembrances of him were heart-warming. What more can we wish for than to be remembered with love.

Hemp

Now that it looks like California may legalize growing of marijuana, or hemp, it occurred to me during my morning ablutions that when the nation's economic sh.t hits the fan, we could be in deep do-do.
There's a lot of "trash" that goes along with growing of the medicinal weed. Couldn't that debris be turned into toilet paper?? Just asking.

Focus

So much is going on. Will the Giants win the pennant? Distractions.
I think I may have mentioned that I'm going to be participating in an all-women art/craft show at Fort Mason in San Francisco in December. However, Chris will be able to help me get my booth set up, luckily. Since we'll be in the Bay Area, he'll visit his folks during the show.
Our line of pottery has focussed on his wonderful animal sculptures for the past 25 years or so. I do make functional ware, but this upcoming show is inspiring me to stretch out. I've been experimenting with some new shapes and glazes. As always, I'm taken by the Japanese aesthetic. Yesterday I was in an art trance looking at old Asian textiles. Woven silks and woolens. There were so many references to nature...the way water flows, the beauty of falling leaves, sunlight on fields.
I like their focus on lovely items of every day use.

My concern is that today's hard-working artisans who make beautiful handmade wares survive.