It's July

I have been neglectful of my blog and visiting other blogs. June just flew by. I celebrated the whole month for my birthday, went home to Michigan for a wedding, and visited with many friends. Now I play catch up.

Here is what's left of my birthday cake I got from the people on the job.

Here's me in my new t-shirt from a good friend. A cool birthday gift. Scottish Girls Rock!

I love trains. This was a caboose my friends and I passed on our way to Old Salem. I really would love to have one as a studio. My pals Maya and Amanda took me to lunch at Dioli's where I got the yummy vegetarian sandwich. Grilled eggplant, red and green peppers, onions, mozzarella cheese on foccacia bread. Oh my! And then I had a Starbucks and a mini chocolate mousse in a chocolate cup. We ate at Bethabara Park, then headed to Old Salem.

At Old Salem, they were running the pottery kiln that is over 100 years old. As you can see the hot flames on the inside. He's adding more wood to raise the temperature inside. There's a wall behind the fire and that's the chamber that holds the pots.

Wood to be used in the kiln.

This poor guy was in wool. Old Salem is a historical working village but there are also sections inhabited by regular people. It was in the mid 90s that day and that with the wool outfit and heat from the kiln was quite warm.

 He was very informative. They have kept a running journal of the firings since way back when. And they are learning how to do it the historic way by keeping the journal. They do have the aid of a temperature gauge (unlike the potters of the past) but those people of the past were masters and knew exactly how hot to get the kiln. A lot of learned technique.

After Old Salem, they took me to the movies. We saw X-Men the Beginning. Great movie. It was a lot better than I thought it would be and I love Michael Fassbender. The cameos were cool too. I had a great birthday day.