Summer skies…
Beautiful skies around these parts the day before yesterday – very hot, 35*C – just before Typhoon no.11 descended upon us last night and today, bringing lots of rain but thankfully not too much wind. Nice and cool though this evening.
Typhoon clouds…
Jar from the last kiln…
Very wet day today. Lots and lots of rain. I’m glad my woodshed is done and I bolted it to the concrete footings the day before this typhoon came in. Nothing to worry about really, the wind didn’t really come on too strong. And the rain gave this jar a clean!
The rainy season is drawing to a close and time to split some wood before I start making pots. I have a lot of wood, at least 2 kilns worth in log form at the moment, all red pine, and I’m going to get a load split as soon as possible – what with building the roof, moving all the wood around and starting the big split I am really looking forward to getting back into the workshop as soon as possible…
Now the shed is done I’ve been moving all that wood back in under cover – it’s a nice feeling to get the wood out of the rain -there’s nothing more depressing than wet mouldy wood!
Woodshed 2003-2015!
Woodshed 2015~
Well, that’s the woodshed pretty much done and I have to say it’s a big improvement on the last one. Joins up nicely with the kiln and gives me a lot more head room as well as space for all the wood. It felt like slow going at times, but I always try to remember that no matter how long something takes to put together it will almost always last far longer than it took to make. Tibetan sand paintings aside!
This is Mango! She arrived from a shelter in Kameoka just a few days ago. She’s three months old and was actually born in the shelter and has spent the last 12 weeks with her mother and forty other dogs. She probably finds our place a bit quiet for the moment! She’s becoming fast friends with our other dog, Coco, who has woken up a bit having been in a bit of a slump since Maru passed away a few months back, just before the last firing. I’m hoping she’ll be company for me too up in the workshop in the future!
The end is in sight! Stick by stick the roof is going up – the thing about working on your own on anything like this is that there’s no one to pass you something when you want it. I seem to spend a lot of time drudging around going to pick up a saw or move a ladder. When I look back things seem to have come along quite fast, but as the rainy season hits us and the temperature and humidity soar it often feels like I’m plodding around in slow motion…
The rainy season has just arrived and with it the start of the bug and bug eaters boom! The beautiful metallic one I found out walking, the butterfly was on the floor of the workshop one morning and the little frog was 2 metres up a ladder on the top of the wood shed roof!
The other day I found a big wasp trapped in a spider’s web, a little spider there started to move in close, then suddenly the wasp took off dragging the little fella through the air behind him dangling on a thread of web…beautiful, strange and gruesome is the insect world, a real life horror movie.
Got the main posts and beams up for the new wood/baby kiln shed today – thanks to Mr Murakami’s yumbo and the might of Messrs Takagi and Inui. Hot sunny day, not much shade – leads me to thinking what it will be like putting the roof on…
Looking east
May is a beautiful time here in Kasuga – I took these photos on the way to buy a couple of beers, looking east, left of the road, and looking right towards the setting sun. Just after the fields were flooded and before the rice was planted…
Looking west
