Smoking radiance, Intrepid mouse

Exotic flavors, life on the edge... after a week away, our 'temporarily-housed-outdoors' washer welcomed us to the delight of not one, but two, two mice in one! gently floating in their grave. The marine burial (of sorts) was inside the old Maytag, which happened not too long ago to have flooded our beautiful new home with bamboo floors. Hence, it was outdoors when it rained during our camping journey to Santa Barbara. It's always a bit of a challenge to come home from a journey- this was a tad more than I'd planned.

Needless to say, I'm ready for a new washer. It's free now of the mice, the pine needles, and the dust... but still outside. I love field mice, in the field. Not sleeping in my car. Not scampering over the raw, unfired delicate porcelain pieces in my studio. Not their hints that they've been there, either (little less-than-love-notes). I've developed a better mousetrap, btw... for anyone interested.

I have a mouse totem made in porcelain, from the Year of the Mouse. I decided not to fight them, but welcome them- outside. Nice idea. This is the Year of the Dragon, and I hope they scare away the mice.

Smoking radiance: Yesterday was planned-for glaze preparation day outside my studio. Halcyon days, weather to die for- spring, light gleaming on the sea, almost too hot on the south-facing deck. I was blissed... sponging dust off the bisqued pieces, mixing up my glazes, looking at my color tiles, choosing, feeling into blends. Then, the smoke came. Billowing, black, grey... overflowing the land from the neighbors. I heard them laughing, chainsaws going intermittently, happy in the sun. 'Permissible burn days' are important here, where pines grow like beanstalks: sstewarding the land entails keeping deadwood cleared.

But the smoke!  It made me nauseous and heachachy after a while. End to my glazing, yesterday.. Today, doing laundry and the colors call again... I'm ready.

A memory lingers of one amazing thing: Yesterday afternoon late, the sunbeams would have been invisible for the bright light. But the obscuring smoke actually let the radiance in- a beautiful set of rays, long lines of sunlight and smoke, shining through the trees. Obscuring the sheer radiance allowed one to really see the light. Thanks.