Nighstand Reading

Pages are flying by my eyes every evening, some quickly, some slowly. For quick reading I discovered a clay related mystery writer, Melissa Glazer and I just read, A Murderous Glaze. Sometimes it's nice to read a book that doesn't require much brain power late in the evening.

At the thrift store I picked up a copy of Howard Ruff's 1979 book, How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years. Little did Ruff know about today's hard times in our country, or perhaps he did, as history does repeat itself. This book is pertinent to today, but I found out he has a couple of recent books out which I have on request at the library.

Another book I found is Windhorse Woman by Lynn V. Andrews. I bet Tracey's daughter, Wesley, would like this book. Windhorse Woman is about one woman's search and education in mysticism. I understand Andrews had a first book, but I happened to get this one at the thrift store, so I'm starting in the middle of her story.

We're also doing research on where to ultimately settle down. Some of the books we are reading are focused on retirement, but the information is very helpful even if you aren't quite ready to retire. The several Gary and I are both reading are Retirement Places Rated, Retire in Style, 60 Outstanding Places Across the US and Canada, and America's 100 Best Places. Some of the categories researched in these books are Landscape, Climate, Quality of Life, Cost of Living, Transportation, Retail Services, Health Care, Community Services, Cultural and Educational Services, Recreational Activities, Work and Volunteer Activities, and Crime Rates and Public Safety.

Our preliminary reading has led us to research the states of Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina further. We plan on leaving California in about a month, once we get organized and do a few repairs, banking and other business taken sorted out. Depending upon the weather we will either take Interstate 40 or the southern route of Interstate 10 if the cold weather hits. Judging from the blizzards in Colorado this week, the winter may be colder earlier this year so we shall see. We really want to stop in Santa Fe as we love that city and several others along the way.

Hopefully next post I can tell you about two characters we've seen briefly in the RV (recreational vehicle) park we are staying. One is Bird Man and the other is Cat Lady, thankfully they aren't neighbors. All my bisque didn't fit in one load, so I will glaze next week and hope to have something to show you then. Stay tuned for more about our travel plans.

A New Leaf

I'm turning over a new leaf starting today. Under the new leaf are many things I used to do which I didn't have time to do over the past six years. I used to sew, cook (gourmet style), read, travel, and had lots of other hobbies too. Many of my previous activities seemed to fall by the wayside. I was so busy installing and taking care of my gardens, remodeling my house, and taking care of my father-in-law who had dementia, I seemed to loose track of everything else.


Here's a lap quilt I found in the hall closet before we moved. It's 4.75 x 3.5 feet and made of flannel fabric which is nice to cozy up with. I started this quilt over five years ago and never finished it. I have it put together, but I haven't finished the edges. I'm sure I was attracted to the material because of the Autumn colors and the natural elements depicted like acorns and oak leaves, and of course, the raven.


Sometimes the underside of a leaf is just as nice as the topside. I plan on turning over lots of leaves in my travels and seeing what I can discover underneath. Stay tuned for more from the traveling potter. Thanks for visiting and please leave a comment and let me know what you're up to.

Part Two, Needs and Wants

Last night I was reading The Modern Cook Book which said: "Begin housekeeping on the cash basis; if you can't pay cash for an article, DO NOT GET IT". This is sage advice for my life which I plan on following. I'll be paying close attention to whether something is a need or a want. My needs are food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. I have three immediate wants which I feel are needs and those are art, friends, and community. I have lots of other wants, but I may not need them. From now on I will think, research, and plan before adding to my wants.

We plan on finding a home we can pay cash for where we can have a food garden, a pond for fish, and hopefully spring fed water. We plan on storing food to last us a year, setting up an art studio, and having transportation methods which are paid off. We want to travel around and have a good time, but we need shelter. We must sacrifice our want for our need by deciding where we will move and finding a place to live first, then we plan to travel afterwards. Along the way we will stop as we can, but traveling can not be our primary focus. We must do this so we don't run short on funds to obtain our needs.

Once we are settled I want to do give back to my community in some way. I'll need to balance my life so no single need becomes all encompassing so I can fullfill my needs and wants. Please read the previous post for part one and some background. Please let me know what you think and thanks so much for visiting and for your comments.

Part One, Skin of Our Teeth

Most people only want to read positive and upbeat blog posts. No one wants to hear the real truth. Life isn't always positive. If I put my head and heart in the sand and don't tell the truth who will I be? This is part one of a two part post, please read both so you aren't left feeling my life is all negative.

We sold our home by the skin of our teeth. Before we sold our home, we sold Gary's Mazda pickup to pay off the loan to get a car we could pay cash for to lower our insurance and eliminate the payment. We thought we'd be OK. Then our three year old refrigerator broke and wasn't fixable. We lost two refrigerator and freezer fulls of food trying to get it fixed and covered under the warranty and it wasn't covered. We bought a new refrigerator on a 'no payments and no interest for a year' plan. Then our riding lawn mower broke and it wasn't fixable. Our house was for sale so we had to keep the lawn mowed and looking good so we had to buy a new lawn mower.

Late last year Gary's employer cut his hours back two hours a day and his salary back by one third. Meanwhile I was looking for a job and couldn't seem to get one and much of the time my back was too bad to work anyway. If we didn't sell our home right away or in the next month, we'd have to cancel our health insurance to make the payment, utilities, pay for food, etc.

A couple of months ago Gary heard rumors at work the deductible was going to be raised $1000 but then I got a statement it went from $2500 per year to $6000 per year for each of us. I only found out by reading a statement from Blue Shield, Gary's employer has yet to let anyone know their deductible was raised. Everyone found out coincidentally. When asked the employer said "times are tough and we had to raise the deductible". We're already paying $450 per month for the premium.

Gary's employer cut every ones wages and salaries at his company and laid off half of the employees, saying all the while, "times are tough and I'm loosing money". This same employer bought a new car for his wife and paid cash; then bought a new car for his 17 year old daughter with a lift kit and big tires and paid cash; then bought a new truck for himself, then bought a new skip loader and paid cash; then bought two landfills (which make huge profits) and then bought... etc etc. How do I know all this? It's a small town everyone knows every one's business. I don't care how they spend their money, it's theirs to spend, but when they don't pay their employees a living wage and rub it in their face every day saying "times are tough", it's a bit much to take.

Next we tried to sell some of our tangible assets to get a little bit of money ahead and no one would give us even one tenth of what anything we were selling was worth. We were liquidating any of the assets we had to pay our bills. I understood why most didn't buy anything, they were all in the same boat we were. The poorest people never quibbled about our prices, they knew a good bargain when they saw one and just paid us.

Then there was someone who drove up in an $80,000 Mercedes - offering us 1/4 of what was already 1/2 of what an item was worth. They told us they couldn't afford any more, and that we could take it or leave it. I knew these people and knew they had high paying jobs in this county. A couple of other people wanted to know if we would donate to their charity for a write-off. I told them I would love to donate the item, but I needed the money for bills. In the end what we couldn't sell and couldn't fit in our moving van we did donate or give away.

Once we had an accepted offer on our home, we needed money for tires for our "moving van", for moving boxes, and for some code compliance repairs for our house. During that time the stress of thinking our home might not close was killing us a minute at a time. But we were just a little bit better off than many others in our situation. We happened to have some money saved before my back got really bad, and before Gary's hours and salary were cut. We had bought our "moving van" and motorhome in hopes we sold our home.

Before we actually sold our home we did try to sell the motorhome for over six months, but no one would buy it. The economy by that time had gotten so bad no one was buying anything unless it was practically given to them. Since our motorhome didn't sell, we thought if we didn't sell our home, at least we had a place to live and somewhere to store our stuff if we lost our home. Besides going through all the financial stress, the last couple of months I've been feeling really bad about all the people in America who've lost their homes, lost their jobs, lost everything, and don't have a motorhome to live in or a moving van to store their belongings.

You might wonder why I never mentioned anything about this before. I was selfish, I didn't want anyone to know how desperate we were to sell our assets or our home because they might offer us even less than they did. Lots of folks who came to our yard sale assumed our home was being foreclosed upon when it wasn't. Others said, "Gee, I hope you didn't sell it too low, that will lower the value of my home". I guess I'm not the only one who is selfish.

I'm not telling you this for you to feel sorry for Gary or me. We are the lucky ones. I am telling you this for everyone else around us who might be going through the same thing. Your next door neighbor might be at their wits end, at the end of their rope, at the doorstep of homelessness and you might not know it. Please look around you and look for the signs. I've been feeling so bad, feeling so guilty because we sold our home when there are so many people around us who want to sell their homes, who need to sell their homes, and they haven't been able to sell them.

Gary and I plan to rest for a while to regain our stamina and energies and see where we will go from here. I did take a few clay pieces to another studio to be bisque fired and I'll be glazing them later this week, so hopefully I'll have some clay pieces to show you. Thanks for listening and thank goodness for blogging and clay.

Travel Repairs

Our treasure bus rear end needs work (maybe just grease - keep your fingers crossed) and our trailer (which we had to get because we have too much stuff) needs axel repair. Meanwhile we're resting up from all the packing and moving. More later.

Windows

Harmony, California, population 24, was worth the stop we made several years ago. The first window is in the post office and the second photo is of the Harmony Pottery Shop. Several potters sell their ceramic work there and the shop is one of the few remaining businesses left in the town. I like how the inside pots are visable and the outside scenery is reflected in the window at the same time.


The town of Harmony is south of Cambria where one of my blogging buddies Patricia Griffin's ceramic studio is located. There is a new state park nearby called Harmony Headlands which contains the native Indian thistle, Circium brevistylum. I wonder if Patricia has this thistle illustrated on her new indigenous and endangered series of pottery? I'll bet she does; I need to take a trip to the coast to see her new work after we close on our house end of this week.


One of the reasons I take photos of windows in old buildings is because the buildings are often torn down or remodeled and the windows are destroyed. As progress often goes the third and fourth windows have gone the way of remodeling and are no longer in Harmony. I entered the third photo in the Sierra Foothill Artists show two years ago and received honorable mention for that photograph which I have mounted on canvas.


Perhaps you recall this next ceramic window I made in the Spring with white stoneware and black mountain clay. This window is the first of a series of windows I have plans to make and I already have hundreds of drawings and sketches for them. My intention is to show windows from two different perspectives, with the viewer looking in the window and the viewer looking out the window. For me windows are a look into the past, the present, and the future. Windows can be mysterious and thought provoking and seem to have the power of drawing out the imagination of a viewer.

Do you ever have an almost uncontrollable desire to make things in clay? I do. It's almost as if I am somehow driven to make certain pieces. That's how I feel about the windows I want to make. I can hardly contain myself and posting these photos of windows has brought that feeling to the forefront again. It's almost as if the windows are in my arms straining to get out. I can't wait to get moved so I can start on all the clay projects I have thought of over the last few months, especially this one.


I was inspired to do this post on windows after reading a post by a new blogging friend Barbara's blog, The Inquisitive Magpie. Stop on over there and see why I was reminded of these last two photos I took years ago, both of which are also inspiration for ceramic windows I want to make.


Enough about windows for now; as you can see I could go on and on with my ideas. One more day and we'll be in our RV full time, so stay tuned for more adventures with the soon-to-be traveling potter.

Bronze Vase

Can you help identify this bronze vase? A friend gave the vase to me for helping to price items at their garage sale. At the time I said, "Are you sure you want to give this to me?" and they said, "Yes". All they knew about the vase was that their relative had collected Asian art. I thought the vase was beautiful but quickly set it aside and got to work on the garage sale. Later I discovered the vase was a real treasure.


When I first looked on the bottom of the vase I thought the mark was paper. Later when I examined the vase I saw it was a chop mark impressed into the metal. The vase is quite heavy about 20 pounds and measures 9.5 inches tall and 12 inches wide at the widest part and the top opening is 5.75 inches. The four handles flow subtly into the side of the vase.

I originally assumed the characters on the bottom of the vase were Chinese, later I was told the characters are Japanese. Someone from the Asian Art Forum translated the chop mark to the words below, but they were hoping someone who knows the Japanese language could make a better translation. They also felt the vase was made in the late 19th or early 20th century.



I believe the chop is eight Japanese characters impressed into the bottom, although the translation I was given only has six words. Do you know more about the chop or characters?

TO - ISLAND
TEI - ESTABLISHED, SETTLED
DO - COPPER
KO - FRAGRANCE, INCENSE
KAISHA - COMPANY, CORPORATION
SEIZO - MANUFACTURE


If you can help me in any way with more information about the vase I would appreciate it. The first photo is more true to the color of the vase, I lightened all of the other photos to show more detail.


I forgot to pack a couple of items, one made of cast iron I need help identifying and also a grouping of tiles, so I'll be posting about those coming up real soon. We have one and one half days left in our home and then no telling what the future holds for us, so stay tuned for some traveling adventures sure to come.

The Modern Cook Book

Look at the gem I uncovered in my household filing today while I was doing the last of the packing. The Modern Cook Book, with over one thousand recipes, promises hours of good reading and recipes while I am traveling along the back country roads of America. The book was compiled by Mrs. T. J. Kirkpatrick and was published in 1890 by Mast, Crowell & Kirkpatrick in Springfield, Ohio. Here's what was written on the inside first page with pen and ink.


This book is worth it's weight in gold just for the wonderful illustrations throughout the book which are crisp and very detailed.


I know Meredith would love some of the recipes in this book and I am sure Julia would appreciate the details about life during a simpler time.


Thanksgiving is coming up soon, here's a recipe just for that occasion.


If you happen to get a cold or the flu this winter, just drop me a line, I am sure I can find a helpful recipe from the section on Invalid Cookery.


I am always pleasantly surprised if I find a newspaper clipping inside a used book and today was no exception. I found a clipping of a recipe published in 1936 in the San Francisco Examiner on President's day for a Washington Cake. Now you and I are looking at the clipped recipe 73 years later and we're looking at the The Modern Cook Book, 119 years later.


I've saved the best treasure of moving on a shoestring in The Treasure Bus for last, so be sure to come back in a day or so for that one. I'll need a little help deciphering, especially if you read Japanese. Hope to see you soon.

Christine

Do you recognize this car? This is the same type of car used in the movie made of the Stephen King novel, Christine. This is a red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury. I took this photo in 1994 on a large ranch in California. The car parked beside the Plymouth Fury is a GTO. What a shame these cars are sitting in the desert rotting away.


As you might have guessed, along with ghost towns, Gary and I also have a fascination for rusty relics, old cars and trucks that is. The rest of the photos were taken over the years in several locations like Ludlow, Bullfrog, Bellemont, and the last in Arkansas.


Some time in the future I'll give you a photo tour of some of the old cars we've had as daily drivers. The post will have to be split into several posts because the list of cars is very long, but that's another story.


There's something wonderful about the rust patina achieved over time on abandoned cars. Of course I couldn't help but think of a glaze for ceramics that might look like rust. I came across these beads on Etsy by Amber Van Meter which I think capture that rusty relic feel. Do you have a glaze which looks like rust? I'd love to learn about it.


If you liked these rusty cars stay tuned because coming up next are rusty trucks and then some old barns. And who doesn't like old barns. Leave comments please, I'd love to hear what you think.

Ghost Towns

Years ago Gary and I used to travel to ghost towns and take photos whenever we got a chance. Hopefully we'll see some of those same ghost towns on this trip to learn how they have fared with the elements over the last 20 years or so.


Since that time we know a few of those ghost towns are inhabited by artist communities, like Madrid in New Mexico. Bodie in California is taken care of by the state. I'm not sure what's happened with the towns of Shakespeare in New Mexico or Fort Davis in Texas.


Hope you enjoyed these photos we took in some ghost towns we've been to in the past. I'll take you on a few more photo tours before we leave and then we'll be heading out, so stay tuned.

Old Crow

Here's a couple of Old Crow sculptures I just packed into "The Treasure Bus", that's what I named our moving on a shoestring, "moving van". Excuse the dust on them I don't have time for dusting, I'm packing like a mad woman now.

Cindy Shake came up with the name for the bus, which really is a perfect name. Cindy is a very talented artist and makes wonderful metal sculptures, including beautiful ravens. I am lucky to have one of Cindy's ravens and I have shown it here.


Be sure to check Cindy's blog and on the right hand side you will see more examples of her work. And here is a link to Cindy's website with some new and exciting pieces she has completed.

The Old Crow sculptures are made of pot metal and were probably a liquor store display for Old Crow, one of Kentucky's oldest bourbons. Purportedly Mark Twain drank Old Crow bourbon, along with several other famous people in history. The Old Crow sculptures have a metal label on the reverse that says Old Crow. I found these Old Crow sculptures in a junk shop back in the 1980s and I couldn't resist getting them since I've always felt an affinity for crows and ravens.

Gee I just thought of something, perhaps I'm like a crow collecting all the things I do and bringing them back to my nest. What do you think? Ha! Ha! Ha! or should that be Caw! Caw! Caw! If you ever meet me in person and find me in just the right frame of mind, I just might do my crow impression, maybe.

Anyway stop back here again for more treasures and soon, very soon, there will be travels too. Travels and treasures, I like the sound of that and I hope you'll enjoy traveling along with me. Be sure to comment, I'd love to hear from you.

272 Square Feet

We're moving out of our home into 272 square feet of living space in our motorhome. We must pare down our daily living articles to bare necessities since we are moving out of our home which is about 1700 square feet. Although our motorhome looks new, it is used and it was another bargain just like our moving on a shoestring "moving van". Here's a brief tour of our soon-to-be new home, a 32 foot 1997 Rexhall Aerbus.


From front to back the motorhome has the driving section with two captains chairs, behind that is a living room with a couch and a easy chair opposite, then there is a kitchen with a dinette booth, next is a bathroom complete with a shower, toilet and sink and opposite that is a large closet, and in the back is a bedroom. The kitchen has a refrigerator, sink, stove and microwave/convection oven. The refrigerator can run on electricity or propane. There are two air conditioning units on the roof, and there is central heat run by propane. The motorhome is self-contained which means we have drinking water on board and we have holding tanks for gray and black water (what normally goes into a sewer or septic tank). The motorhome also has a generator which will run electric items if we are not connected to electricity.


We're still packing our old home and sorting what we'll put in our motorhome and what we will put in storage. When you are moving into 272 square feet you have to be very selective with what you can take. It is best not to overload a motorhome because the more weight you carry, the less fuel mileage you will get. The motorhome also has storage bins underneath for some tools, lawn chairs, a little BBQ, etc. Once we get somewhere and get set up, I'll take you through how we set up camp and use the various motorhome systems.

I like to use plastic bins to store many of the items I carry in the motorhome. Since we are rolling down the highway, items can shift in cabinets. I also line the cabinets with non-skid shelf paper which helps keep items in place. Some of the bins I have set up so far are a first aid kit, important papers, maps and tour books, camera and electronic items, warm and cold weather clothing, books to read. I also have a bin for art. While I was packing I found some colored markers, colored pencils, acrylics, and a few extra journal books which I'll include in the art bin. I might even take some small canvases for my acrylic paints.


Well I've got more packing to do so I'll see you next time. I'll go into more detail about our motorhome once we start traveling. Feel free to ask questions or make comments, I'd love to hear from you.

Sunday Morning Brunch

Can you imagine a teapot with the lid flipped back filled with vintage roses? A small table has been set up outside in the warm sunshine and you are sitting at the table opposite one of your favorite people. Close your eyes and picture several different color roses tightly packed in the top. Perhaps a petal or two has fallen on the lace table cloth below. The sweet fragrance of the roses drifts gently in the air. You're being served a delicious and leisurely breakfast and you don't have a care in the world. You've no where to go, no place to be, other than the moment at hand.


Please enjoy your Sunday morning brunch with your favorite person and a silver or pewter teapot filled with vintage roses.

Moving On A Shoestring

our "moving van"

We're moving on a shoestring and this is our "moving van" and we are the packers and the movers. Follow along and you'll see this isn't as crazy as it seems, and it isn't some harebrained scheme either, well maybe just a little. We have moved across the country and around the corner in our special type "moving vans" five times and we've saved a bundle of money doing it. In my last post Jim Gottuso was wondering why I didn't show some photos of myself in Cabo San Lucas. I thought this would be a good time to let you know why I can't show you the photos just now. All of my photo albums are packed in our "moving van", and there is no way to get to them.

Before you get worried about us showing up in front of your house or studio in this bus, don't worry, we won't. We'll be traveling across the country in an actual motorhome, not in this bus. This bus is our "moving van" and it's also our "storage unit" all rolled into one, that's how we're moving on a shoestring. I'll give you a tour of our motorhome next time. The teapot post will have to wait, these posts are much more interesting, as you'll soon see.

inside of "moving van"
still a little room

The first time we planned to move we called several moving companies and several do it yourself places to rent moving trucks and trailers, but we found out movers charge a lot and we would still have to pay for storage. Since we had already sold our home, we had to do something quick. We thought about buying our own moving van but those were expensive. We thought about buying trailers, but we would need a vehicle with a powerful engine to tow the trailer full of our belongings. Then all of a sudden we had an idea. We thought of buying a school bus and taking out the seats and using it for a "moving van". That's how the moving on a shoestring idea came about.

Our first "moving van" was a gas powered school bus which had just been taken out of service. The tires were good and the bus was in very good mechanical condition. We took all the seats out of the bus and sent them to the recyclers and started packing the bus. We were lucky we chose an older bus with a big back door because we found out a refrigerator, washer, dryer, sofa and other large items fit through the rear door opening with ease. Once we had the bus packed we stored it at a friends house and set out on our travels, that was in 1994.

Gary and our Arkansas "moving van"
the Mt Zion Missionary Baptist Church Malvern Arkansas bus

We ended up in Arkansas and once we found a place to live Gary went back to California and got our "moving van" full of belongings and delivered it right to our door. We unpacked everything right there and we only moved the items twice, once out of our house in California and once into our new house in Arkansas. The first bus cost us $1800 plus the fuel. The storage had been free because we stored the bus at a friend's house. This was so much less expansive than a moving company would have charged or what we would have paid in truck or trailer and rental costs. Once we moved in, though, we realized we had a bus with no seats and wondered what we could do with it. We asked around and found out empty buses were sought after in Arkansas for "hunting buses". It turns out "hunting buses" are a big deal in Arkansas, just like hunting is a big deal, going to the deer woods is a big deal, but I digress. We sold our bus for what we paid for it. We were so very happy and felt so very lucky.

To make a long story short, suffice it to say we've ended up moving on a shoestring five times with five different "moving vans" and each time we have sold our bus and recouped our money. As you can see by the name of our Arkansas bus, they don't all have to be school buses either. They can be church buses and I have a story or two to tell about that too, but I'll save it for another time. Gary has a Class A driver's license and is very experienced with driving heavy loads. Please do not attempt to drive a bus unless you have the experience to do so since it could be dangerous. Our method of moving may not be feasible for the average person, but for us it has enabled us to move very reasonably.

inside of "moving van" (sorry it's so dark)
almost completely full

Now about those Cabo photos. Our bus is 40 feet long. First Gary put in a solid plywood bulkhead behind the drivers seat. Since then Gary has been loading literally everything we own into the bus through the rear door. He packs it in tight against the bulkhead so the load won't shift in transit. Right now the photo albums are somewhere in the bus, but without unloading the whole bus there is no way to get to them till we get to the next location, wherever that might be. So sorry, Jim, you'll have to wait on the Cabo photos for a while. But if you happen to look out your front door and see an unfamiliar bus driving up your street you'll know who it is. By the way, do you have any extra parking spaces? Just kidding, (kinda). Stay tuned for a tour of our motor home next time - which will be our rolling home very shortly.

Cabo San Lucas Vieja

In June 1974 my boyfriend and I took a bus to Tijuana. We got off the bus and walked across the border. My plan was to hitchhike down the Baja California and then back up the mainland of Mexico. After putting myself through college I figured I deserved a nice long vacation because I was the first in my family to graduate from college. The trip seemed feasible to me because I had read the road to the tip of Baja was just completed and Mexico was encouraging American tourists to travel the road. At the time a visa was all that was required to travel there.


Before I left I purchased a lightweight aluminum backpack and had the frame specially welded to fit my back. I also chose light weight items to carry since I'd be carrying the weight on my back. My pack had a sleeping bag, a foam pad, an aluminum pot, dish, fork, spoon, knife, a small propane burner, a Swiss army knife, a couple of changes of clothes, a tooth brush, a first aid kit, some dehydrated food, a Spanish/English dictionary and a 35 mm camera. I recall having saved about $400 dollars for the trip and I think my boyfriend had the same.


We set out to explore the country of Mexico without any particular time frame in mind. We camped on beaches along the way and hitched rides from mostly Mexican tourists or 5 ton trucks carrying supplies from city to city along the way. I remember ordering the fish, pescado, of the day for lunch in one restaurant and having this huge fish served on a plate. The fish had a light cornmeal coating and must have been nine inches in length and width. Another day I ordered shrimp, camarón, soup and for about forty cents I had soup with at least 20 unpeeled but cooked shrimp swimming in a clear broth.

When we rode in the five ton trucks we stopped wherever the drivers had deliveries along the way. Since it was summer the weather was blisteringly hot and the shop owners always offered us a Coca-Cola and a place to sit under a terraza in the shade while the drivers unloaded their deliveries. Most terraza had several woven rope mattresses strung between hand-hewn wood legs. There were colorful cotton blankets on top of the rope mattress. In the afternoons the drivers weren't in a hurry to leave, so we lounged in the shade. We communicated as best as we could with the help of our dictionary and gestures.


After several weeks covering more than 1000 miles through deserts and over mountains, we eventually made it to La Paz hitchhiking the whole way. After we'd been in La Paz for a while, we debated whether to go on to Cabo San Lucas. We hated to break our hitchhiking record, but we were told there wasn't much traffic going that way. We decided to take a bus to Cabo San Lucas. This time we stepped off the bus we saw we had made a step back in time to a little fishing village with little commercialization. We walked out of town and made a camp on the beach, staying there for almost three weeks.


Eventually we ran out of supplies and were down to canned soup and a couple of hard boiled eggs. We went into town and explored the city. A Mexican fisherman offered to take us in his small aluminum boat out to the arch, so we took him up on it. I remember peering over the edge and seeing huge fish swimming in the water probably 30 feet down, the water was so clear and was bright aqua. When we returned to shore the fisherman directed us to a bakery, panadería, in someones back yard. We went in and picked out some pastries and bread and paid for them. We figured this would hold us for a few more days.

Back at our lean-to camp outside of town on the other side of the bay, we ate sea snails, caracol de mar, and tried to catch black crab, congrejo negro, which were plentiful on the beach. We didn't have much luck catching the crab. One day a Mexican boy came along and showed us how to sharpen a stick and poke the crab in the back to catch them as they hid between the crevices in the rocks. With a little more food to eat, we were able to camp on the Cabo beach for a few more days.

Back then the ferry came from Puerto Vallarta to Cabo San Lucas. We hated to leave Cabo, but we had to push on, so we arranged to take the ferry to the mainland. Most of the town came down to the dock to wait for the ferry because it was a big town event. Some of the Mexican people in town were enamored with my blue eyes and my long blond-streaked hair. They asked me to speak English slowly so they could hear my language. I wanted to show you a photo of the local Federales which was taken while we waited on the dock waiting for the ferry, but Gary has already packed our photo albums. I remember the Federales was so proud of his pearl-handled pistol. He posed for a photo with one arm around my shoulders and the other hand holding the pearl handle out so it would show.

Since that time I've had numerous opportunities to go back to Cabo San Lucas, but I've never ventured that far South again. I prefer to remember old Cabo San Lucas, Cabo San Lucas Vieja, the way it was back then, a virtually untouched fishing village where I wish time would have stood still 35 years ago.


Photos I took in Baja over the years were digitally manipulated. Of course I have many more stories about my travels in Mexico but I'll save those for another time. Up next are a couple of teapots. Hope you'll come back again.

Don't Kiss This Frog

If you are a princess looking for a prince, don't kiss this frog or you'll be sorry. These frogs are for flower arranging, like flower bricks or flower blocks. The wire frog above is the favorite in my collection. This frog looks like a flower head, so unique. I'm sure someone wrapped the wire by hand to the base. Once I've relocated, I'd like to make some ceramic frogs. If you are a clay artist, have you made any ceramic frogs, flower bricks or flower blocks?


The frogs above are lead weighted pin frogs. The weighted frog is set in the bottom of a vase and the flower stem is pierced with the pin so it will stand upright in a preferred position. The heaviness of the frog's lead weighted base balances the weight of the flowers in the arrangement.


Here are some pot metal frogs. These metal frogs are also set in the bottom of the vase and the flower stem is inserted into the holes to hold it in place in the flower arrangement. I also have some lead crystal frogs, but they didn't photograph well and I didn't have time to fiddle with the lighting before packing them. In case you'd like to know more about flower frogs, here is a link to a flower frog newsletter.

Up next I was going to show you a couple of teapots, but instead I'll be taking you on a detour to Baja, Mexico. What do you think? Sound good?