Is my life really so geeky that I get all excited when a big box (allegedly) filled with nursery pots arrives at my house?

YES!

I'm not sure when the box arrived. The postman does not knock. I thought it was because our postman was lazy. But then I read somewhere about 'valet' service, where the USPS will delivery your package to your door and actually knock (one time delivery attempt!). I thought the USPS already did exactly this as a standard service. I thought wrong! In the age of fees up the yang for things you used to get for free, this should come as no surprise. But I digress.

So anyways, the kids brought me this big ole honkin box. It was a Burger King chicken breast patty box. The box made me kinda hungry, at the thought of a big, fat honkin box of BK chicken patties arriving at my door, but I knew what was really inside! JOY! Just over 200 3.5 inch thin plastic nursery pots. I get these from ebay all the time, and they work brilliantly! They're re-used, so they're cheaper, but it also means they're not just being tossed. Plus, they're very inexpensive, so I can keep my costs down! So yeah, I was doing my happy dance while opening up the BK chicken patty box. The kids fell for the roose, and they thought we were having nuggets (from hell) for dinner. Ha ha, silly monkeys! No nuggets for you, I have NURSERY POTS! WOOOO HOOOOOOO!

Big flippin deal, you say. Woop-dee-wow! Settle down there, ya party animal, they are JUST nursery pots, says you, the jaded reader. Not JUST nursery pots, says I. They represent the future of my little garden!

I finally (yay!) got to pot up the remaining Adenium seedlings. Yes, I tore into those pots, what can I say. By the time I got around to giving positive feedback to my ebay seller, I had potted up 50 Adeniums. I'm a happy camper, as I now have more seedlings potted up and I've freed up two starter trays!

Each of my GP trays holds 25 pots; From this batch of seeds, I now have 5 trays. One tray only has 15 pots, the rest being from another batch of seeds. The first batch of seeds gave me about 40. From this batch, I have 115. Altogether, I have over 150 Adenium seedlings started.

While I was outside counting adenium seedlings and practically pissing myself with joy, I looked at the bougainvillea cuttings I recently started. As I expected, most of the leaves have fallen off. The same thing happened with the bougainvillea cuttings I started earlier in the season, so I'm not overly concerned, at least not yet. What happened with those, and I'm hoping the same thing will happen with this batch, is that the leaves fell off and new ones eventually sprouted. If and when that happens, I'll repot the bougainvilleas. Aaron looked at the tray of yellow, wilty cuttings and declared the batch dead. I had to correct the boy, stealing a scene from The Princess Bride, and blending it with the Monty Python dead parrot scene:

Aaron: Dad, these cuttings are dead.

Me: They're not dead!

Aaron: Yes! The leaves are all yellow, which means they're dead.

Me: True my boy, those leaves are dead. But the cuttings are only MOSTLY dead.

Aaron: That's what I said. The cuttings are dead.

Me: No, they're only MOSTLY dead. That's means they're slightly alive.

Man oh manischewitz! My ficus bonsai all need another haircut! I've been putting off doing the trimming until I have space for trimmings. With the Adeniums all potted up, I have two seed trays at the ready. Maybe I'll do some trimming tonight. I'll follow the same basic method I used with my bougainvillea (strip the bottom leaves off each cutting, soak the cuttings in water, then plant). I'll do the trimming at my dining table, as it's too hot to do this work outside. I'm running out of space for all my cuttings, but I'll make due. I should be so lucky that my biggest issue is that I'm running out of room for my cuttings.

Dilemma! There's only so many minutes in the day, and every decision has a price to pay. If I chose to do something during my time off, It will cost me in the loss of time to spend doing something else. So what shall I do with my precious little time I have when I go home tonight? Do I trim my ficus and start the cuttings, or do I throw some clay work? For that matter, should I throw slab, or glaze some bisque work? Perhaps I can do more than one, perhaps I can do all this tonight?

On the other hand, I could use my time off to exercise, get some rest, make dinner, spend time with the wife and kids, unwind and be a little veggie in front of the TV.

Quality of life, or quality use of time? This is my proposed itenerary for tonight:

3:00-3:30 run

3:30-4:00 shower & dress

4:00-4:30 trim the bonsais

4:30-5:00 pot up the trimmings

5:00-6:00 help make dinner or nap

6:00-6:45 dinner

7:00-9:00 clay time

It's way too early for me... just five more minutes.

*hits the snooze bar, but turns off the alarm instead*

Ugh.... what time is it? OMG! I'm late! How can it be Monday morning already?!!! You ever have one of those days, one of those weekends, where you wake up to find that everything is later than you thought, and nothing has been accomplished? Yeah, it was one of those weekends. LOL

I packed up a few pieces of greenware to drop off at Mishy's. I don't know how many, maybe 17 or 18? They took up two boxes. I felt really dumb though because I kept asking Mishy for my pieces I had to pick up. Turns out I already picked them up and/or never dropped them off in the first place. Those 17-18 pieces, half of them were from the week prior. I never got around to dropping them off.

D'oh!

Yeah, that about sums it up. Being that I didn't have anything 'NEW' to add, I added some of the stuff that has just been lying around to my Etsy account. I added 'The Watermelon Bowl', small beaded mame bonsai pot, and some ficus

'The Watermelon Bowl' is a piece that was born from the bits and pieces of other pieces. Strictly speaking, I never set out to make this bowl, yet it is. I was throwing the slab, creating bonsai pots and feet, and I had already put away my clay. I found this bit of leftover clay. I didn't want it to go waste, so I just started smashing it, squishing it in my hands, adding a bit more water and just enjoying the feel of the clay in my hands. I started zoning out, watching 'My Neighbor Totoro', as I slowly rolled the clay in my hands. Before I knew it and not realizing it, I had created this bowl. My one conscious act was to flatten the bottom so it could sit properly. I kept it as greenware for a couple weeks before finally bisque firing it. The bowl then sat by as I glazed different pieces. The Woodland Fantasy glaze was applied because I had some leftover while glazing other pieces. It then sat for another week before I glazed the inside with dragon red glaze, leftover from doing my red dragon trays and bonsai pot. Even after I finished it, it remained by my side until I finally listed it on Etsy. I was expecting the red to be a deeper shade, more maroonish, with lighter shading in parts. I was expecting the woodland fantasy on the outside to be a more chocolate brown. I was expecting it to be brown, with shades of red brown on the inside, more expressive of autumn than the peak of summer that I find myself in. Instead, the red came out true, rich and RED. The outside finished in a lighter than expected shade, with subtle greens coming through and the browns being less dominant. The end result has a more organic feel to it. It is very expressive of the peak of summer that I find myself in, and in which it was created. I had a nice bit of early summer watermelon earlier in the season and I haven't had peak summer SANDIA this season, but the end result of this bowl just reminded me of hot summer days, enjoying the sweet, refreshing taste of watermelon. Don't get me started on watermelon! Quick flashes come to mind: eating watermelon on my Aunt's ranch, feeding the rinds to the goats, camping trips with my family to Viejas Indian Reservation (before it became a casino), AGUAS FRESCAS- Mexican drinks, made from fresh fruit, I'm just gonna stop there.

Tropical Feathers Beaded Mame Bonsai pot-

What did I use to form this pot, I forget. I think I used this egg shaped candle that I bought because I liked the shape. I do know that I used these Mardi Gras beads from my kids to impress the outside. I used bubble feet on this piece, and finished with a tropical feathers crystal glaze. The finished result is a very cute little mame bonsai pot. In this instance, the crystal glaze did not come out as rich as other pieces. It's very green with subtle color variations. The bead impressions allowed the glaze to pool, forming dark spots. The overall shape is conical, the feet sticking out in a non-symetrical fashion. It's not forced into a perfect shape, it's just standing in its own fashion. Perhaps it's waiting, or maybe it is contemplating its next move before pouncing.

Ficus bonsai cuttings-

The cuttings are from my own ficus bonsai trees. I've applied wired to some of the cuttings, and I'm allowing others to just sort of develop without interference on my part. Some of the cuttings are hardwood cuttings, so these have a more developed look. What can I say about the cuttings that I haven't already said in a previous post? I really like the cuttings and how they're developing. They are fattening up rather quickly. It is my opinion that they will develop into very nice bonsai in a very short time. The question then becomes 'how long until this tree becomes a decent bonsai?'

Lots of caveats involved, and this question is not as easy to answer as it is to ask. You have to define what is meant by bonsai and what end results are you shooting for?

Allow me to expand this further by describing my cuttings. Some are hardwood cuttings, taken from wood that is several seasons old. Most of the cuttings are softwood cuttings, taken from wood that is this season's growth. There are lots of things to differentiate between the two, but what I want to look at is the fact that softwood cuttings are almost starting as matchstick thin. The hardwood cuttings have some girth to them. How much depends on how old the wood is. And therein lies the answer.

I took a hardwood cutting earlier this season. I got really lucky and this cutting took. This cutting had plenty of branching already, so once it started to leaf out, I took as as and planted in a small mame bonsai pot. The results are nice: I have a small mame ficus bonsai, which was created by me. The tree was grown by me, and the pot was created by me. I wouldn't call it a 'spectacular' bonsai, however. Heck, some bonsai purists wouldn't even call it a bonsai, as it's the result of a single season of growth.

I'm going to allow some of the cuttings to grow tall. I will prune back severely, and in a few short years, I should have some very nice looking bigger bonsai. when it comes time to prune back, I can use the cuttings to create multiple potential bonsai cuttings.

Adeniums-

Blah blah blah, blurb blurb, yada yada yada. Pfft.

Yeah, more of the same, they're growing like gangbuster, still waiting for my nursery pots to arrive so I can pot the seedlings. Phone call to Bernie:

Hello?

It's me!

Waddaya want? I'm busy doing [insert laundry list of busy house work]

I just called to see if there's any packa-

No Victor! They're not here.

What?

Your pots haven't arrived.

But... how.... oh... okay then. Thanks!

Of course this is a phone call, so I cannot say for sure, but I'm positive that Bernie rolls her eyes at this point, then hangs up in disgust.

Hey look a Soap box on which to stand.

*takes axe to soap box, creating a kindling pile*

Now it's useful!

Honest, I don't have anything useful to say. I'm afraid if I open my mouth at times like this, I'll start going off on a tangent. I don't want to go off on my soap box. Maybe if I do a time frame of my day yesterday, it will help:

5:15 Wake up, shower and get ready for work

5:45 Leave for Work

6:00 Arrive at work

2:30 Leave work

2:50 Arrive at home, turn on sprinkler for garden, water the grapes and the 'welcome' bonsai

3:00 Power up system, read and respond to e-mail

3:30 Afternoon work-out (treadmill)

4:30 Shower and dress

5:00 Eat dinner while reading more e-mail

5:30 Take a nap

6:30 Wake up, work on garden

7:30 Work on pottery

9:30 clean up pottery working area, take a shower (third shower of the day)

10:00 It's now past my bed time; Bernie is watching LIFETIME movie, so I read/respond to more e-mail

10:45 Go to bed.

I don't always work on my garden and work on my pottery all in one day. However, this is summertime. This means busy busy work in the garden. The bougainvillea cuttings I took earlier are starting to look scorched. I imagine the leaves will mostly drop off and I might have some die back or I might lose some cuttings altogether. And that's okay. My ficus bonsai are looking leggy. It's time for their August haircut, but I don't have room for any more cuttings at the moment. That's not true. If I rearrange (again) I can make room for them. I really don't feel like rearranging, at least not until I get my nursery pots in. I ordered some 3.5 inch square nursery pots, which I need to pot up my Adeniums that are in their seed trays at moment. The pots are in the mail.

I was also looking at my previous ficus cuttings. They're getting leggy. I like that word, LEGGY. It's hard to gauge the height, as I wired the fastest growing ones. Lets just say that they're coming along quite nicely. My seedlings are also doing okay; I have trident maples, sargent crabapples, japanese black pine (arakawa), and pomegranate. What can I say about the seedlings? It's their first year and they've had a very good year, but they don't grow as quickly as the cuttings do.

I thought I was getting a bit lazy, so I did some pottery last night. I only meant to work for an hour or so, but two hours came and went before I knew it. I did a bit of this and a bit of that. I did a dragon impression on thin, round slab, then I formed it over a mound mold. I let the edges sort of flare in and out. Once it dried a bit, I applied pinch pot legs. We'll see how this turns out. I did a few other pieces, with one being a 'turk' style. I simply let the clay shape itself, except for the turk.

My adenium seedlings are almost a month old now. They're getting nice and fat. I've noticed a few are getting yellow and are dampening off. My research says nothing regarding treatment. Seems that adding fungicide could do just as much harm as good, so the best treatment is to provide a free-draining soil mix. I still have another 70 or so seedlings that need to be potted up. I've ordered some 3.5 pots, which should be here 'sometime'.

I did some pruning of the bougainvilleas I recently purchased. I placed the cuttings in water while pruning. I prepared a GP nursery tray with a good, free draining soil mix and planted about 70 cuttings. The cuttings were prepared by removing the very top of the growth, and removing any flowers. The lower leaves of each cutting were then removed, leaving a few leaves at the top. No rooting hormones were used. The cuttings were placed in my garden where they will receive daily watering/misting of about 15-30 minutes, more during hot, dry days.

Looking around some of my links, I found a very good pictorial for starting a mame bonsai from a cutting. I couldn't find the instructions, as the site was Japanese, but the pictures are fairly self-explanatory:

1. Start with a small cutting that is well established.

2. reduce the root mass

3. Assess flexibility and possible new shape of tree

4. Apply wire to cutting

5. Bend to new shape

6. Re-assess new shape of tree, make adjustments as needed

7. Apply wire to bonsai pot

8. Wire tree to bonsai pot

9. Apply final dressing to bonsai, enjoy your new mame bonsai

I don't know if I fully agree to this 'shotgun' approach to creating a mame bonsai. Seems to me that it's very nice for demonstration purposes, but it might stress the cutting too much to perform so much work on it at once. I usually wire my trees at a different date than I repot, but at any rate it's a great little pictorial for the steps involved in creating a mame bonsai from a new cutting.

Here's a bit of 'do as I say, not as I do': NEVER EVER EVER re-use bonsai wire! When the time comes to remove wire from your bonsai, wire cutters should be utilized. NEVER attempt to unwind the bonsai wire, as you can easily cause damage to your bonsai. The little bit of money you might save by re-using wire is outweighed by the potential damage you might cause to your favorite bonsai. Understood? NEVER DO IT! Anyone who re-uses bonsai wire has a screw loose!

So I was going through my pile of dead pine seedlings that I had ordered earlier in the year. Yep, all died. I applied wired to most of them, but that's not what killed them. The asshole that sent them to me didn't do a very good job packing, so they all dried up and died en route. I never toss anything until it's not only merely dead, but undeniably, certifiable fully dead. These were just that. I tossed them to a corner, wire intact. What I've been doing with my ficus cuttings is I've been visiting that corner and I've been collecting the bits of wire to re-use on my ficus cuttings.

Understand that my ficus cuttings are cannon fodder. I have plenty of them, and lots more where they came from. They are my chalkboard on which I draw my thoughts and ideas. They are my test tubes, my bunsen burners. I'm not pulling any punches with my ficus cuttings and I'm taking LOTS of risks, which includes re-using bonsai wire on them. The wire is too thick for them, so I usually pre-bend the wire into spirals, I then work the ficus around and into the wire before bending to shape.

This is a very liberating attitude. If I break my little cutting, I simply bandage it if possible. If it's too far gone, I cut it off at the break, then hope to get two new cuttings (top and bottom). If it becomes hopelessly damaged, then I'm out a cutting, which is no big deal. I bend branches and I see small fractures. These fractures mend and the tree twists and turns. I remember how liberating it was when I created my first bonsai, but this is different. With larger bonsai, there is an investment of the starter stock that I need to be aware of. If I break a bigger tree, I'm out that cost, and I'm out of the potential profit of selling that bigger tree. The costs of failure are therefore much higher. The cuttings on the other hand, cost nothing to create and I'm not selling at the moment, so I'm not out anything if I fail.

So I continue to plant cuttings. It's supposed to be about 109 today, but I don't mind the heat really. Well okay, the heat is horrid, but it's fantastic for my trees. The trees that can stand the heat, that is. I just work on my trees inside, where the AC keeps me nice and cool.

Holy crap I'm feeling lazy!

I didn't do *anything* with my clay. I did a bunch of glazing on my dragon pieces, but I didn't create new pieces.

Okay, me being lazy is not entirely true true. I posted four new pots to my Etsy account, so that counts as having done something with my pottery, right? I still have a bunch of pots that I need to post, but I'm rolling out a few at a time now. I figure it's better that way, as listings will show better that way. Hey, if you really want to see my newest pots, even before I put them on my Etsy shop, you could always drop an e-mail on me.

I counted all my Adenium seedlings; I have about 105 potted up, altogether. There's another thirty or fourty seedlings in the tray, waiting to be potted up. I thought about taking some pictures of them as they sprout, but decided that they look too much like bean sprouts to be photographed. No, not really impressive, unless you like bean sprouts.

It got to over 112 today. To the uninitiated, that sounds hot. 'But it's a dry heat' is what I keep hearing. Don't get me wrong, that is still hot no matter how you slice it, it's just that it's easier to take this heat with low humidity, versus being stifled with high humidity AND excessive heat.

Anyhoots, looked in on my ficus cuttings. They're growing like weeds. I wired up a few more while I was out there. The F. Microcarpa cuttings are growing faster than the F. retusa, but the retusas have smaller leaves and IMHO look more interesting.

I've been using Miracle Grow on all my trees. I've simply been following the package instructions, feeding once a week. I've been very lucky in that I'm not getting hit too badly by bugs. Maybe it's because when I see aphids, I knock them off individually with jets of water whenever possible. I keep my eyes open for weeds and manually pull them if I see any. I do my best to keep my garden area free of freeloaders while trying hard not to poison the good guys.

The good guys in my garden are the fence swift, the assassin bug, the lacewing, the spider. I love all of them! Aaron enjoys catching the occassional bug, but I ask him to treat them all with respect and regard. He likes to keep bugs for a day or two, then he'll release it. A few weeks ago he caught this HUGE grasshopper. Now I'm sure it was only about 3-4 inches long, but I swear it looked a lot bigger. When Aaron released it, it hopped into the air and flew off. It's wingspan was about the size of a small bird, and it flew around for a while before flying off over the canal. He caught a juvenile preying mantis and asked to keep it until it grew to adult size. It looks like a regular Chinese preying mantis, so I let him keep it. He hunts beetles and other bugs to feed his mantis. He understands that his mantis needs to eat, but at the same time he treats the little bugs with about as much respect as you can expect to treat a soon to be meal.

Some new pots were added to my Etsy account you should check it out: http://gomezvi.etsy.com

Tuesday was Allyson's Birthday. I came home to find an aquarium full of angelfish eggs on both sides of the aquarium. The angelfish had formed two seperate breeding pairs. I bagged each pair separately, and made plans with George to drop them off. Unfortunately, Bernie made plans to go to Bookman's on the way to George's house. I insisted that the fish really really needed to get to George's house ASAP. Bernie insisted that we really really REALLY needed to get to Bookman's ASAP, as it was Allyson's Birthday, Bookman's was closing in 30 minutes, and that the fish would be okay. We went to Bookman's, and despite my constant prodding, we were in Bookman's for over 30 minutes. By the time we got to George's, one of the males was on the floor, very stressed. I thought we were gonna lose him. Fortunately George was able to revive him fully later on.

After going over to George's, I went over to Mishy's and picked up a bunch of finished pieces. We were in the neighborhood and we just sort of popped in. I was totally unprepared. I didn't drop off anything and I didn't have my lined box with me.

When we got home, we brought out the birthday cake and celebrated Ally's birthday. We got her a bunch of small items at Bookman's: some stamps, a sand castle making thingy, some other stuff that I don't remember. For those that don't know, Bookman's is a used book store. They also carry music, videos, video games, board games, comics, and small collectibles.

In case I forgot to mention, the Adenium obesum seeds I ordered last week came in the day before I left for San Diego . I hastily soaked the seeds for a few hours, then planted them in moist perlite in a covered Jiffy seed starter. I came home from San Diego to find about 40 had started to sprout, so I started to pot up the seedlings. Turns out there was close to 80 that had already sprouted. I was able to pot up about 66. I'll probably pot up the rest this weekend. Compared to my first batch of 100 seeds from the other source, I had a very miserable sprouting of about 25 in the first week. I looked at these first adenium seedlings while I was out there. On average, they only have about four leaves per seedling, but the stems are getting fat for their size.

The really nice thing about having two separate batch of seeds is I'm able to see the difference that a few weeks make. I really should take some pictures; the Adenium seedling start life with these chunky little trunks, definitely sturdy looking, yet they quickly grow into these even fatter trunks, ready for whatever harshness the desert environment might throw at them. The one thing that I have to watch out for is winter's frost.

LOL! Here I am, mid JULY. It's 110 today. On my mind is fall/winter. I start to think about what I want to do this for fall/winter. Phoenix bonsai club starts meeting again in mid Sept. There are seedlings that I want to order for next year. Seeds need to be ordered early enough so that I can plant them indoors by mid-winter and get a head start on next spring's growth. Pomegranates come into season in the fall and there will be fruits to purchase and more seeds to sow. My adeniums should be nice and fat by then; they'll require winter protection.

Of course I have lots to think about in the here and now. Some of the pieces that I picked up from Mishy were study pieces. The shells look mostly brownish, but you can sometimes make out a little yellow in some places. The technique I used of wiping off most of the brown that was applied gave the results I was looking for: the nooks and crannies in the shells were dark, but the raised portions remained light, thus bringing out the texture in the shells. I'm not seeing a lot of red, though. Perhaps it was overpowered by the brown, perhaps it melded with it and formed a darker, richer brown.

That's it for now

Wow what a weekend!

My sole remaining molly had a bunch of babies. The male died last week, so I suppose he did his life work before finally expiring. Looks like the angelfish have reconsidered their pairing; the breeding trio is no longer a trio. And it looks like one of the smaller angelfish who was previously left out of the spawning dance is now paired up with the large female. I have to watch them, but that's a bit difficult with my schedule. Too many projects going on for me to just sit in front of a fish tank.

Pfft. Anyone buying this line of bullshit- that I'm just *so* busy? HA!

Life is going at a full-tilt boogie, and I'm revelling in it. This is my house! I'm in my natural environment. Fishies are breeding cause they're just being natural. And I'm stopping right there before I go off on a tangent. Too early in the morning to dive into six inches of water, aka the deep end.

I didn't get a chance to do much with my clay over the long weekend. Let's be frank here; I did what I could with the glazes I have, but I'm running low on some glazes, ran out of a couple. I'm just waiting on my paycheck so I can buy more glazes. I did some study work on some bisque seashell impressions and my 'primitive' rolled impression. I used semi-transparent cocoa bean as a first layer. I then took a semi-moist sponge and removed most of the glaze, leaving the brown glaze in the nooks and crannies. I then used the semi-moist sponge to apply semi-transparent dragon red. Mostly on the raised portions. Finally, I highlighted with Sassy Yellow. Okay, maybe I did more than just highlight. I might have gotten a bit heavy handed with the yellow, but hey, this is why I'm calling it 'study work'. I can't wait to get this fired. I want to see how they turn out and if I can use this technique on other pieces. I did get a chance to glaze a few pots. Not many, but better than nothing.

Speaking of nothing, there was nothing holding me back from doing bisque work. I just didn't have it in me to do any clay work. Maybe I was a little down because I didn't have glazes. Perhaps I really was busy with other projects. Or perhaps I didn't have the energy. I have been really tired these last few days. My back is really hurting and I'm stiff everywhere. Yep, I haven't been working out. Need to get back into my workouts.

I did some work on my seedlings and cuttings. There were a few more Adeniums that sprouted so I potted them up. Also did some work on my pomegranate seedlings. Did I already mention that my ficus microcarpa have been doing very well? While doing some work on the pomegranates I had the water going. I noticed the Adenium seedlings are getting flooded. I also noticed that they don't seem to mind the flooding! Perhaps this is why they're getting so fat. Perhaps they're getting fat despite my overwatering. Perhaps they really shouldn't be watered so much, but the fact that they're thriving is testimony to their tenacity.

Bernie is never long on the compliments. If she likes something, she'll tell you it was 'okay', and then only if you prod her. If she really likes something, she'll suggest it as in 'maybe you could make that dinner tonight' or 'if you want, we could go there...'. I've never heard her say 'Victor, that dinner was fantastic' or 'I really enjoyed that show'. That's just her way. She considers it unnecessary to voice a compliment. Rather, if she likes something, she will show it through her actions. At least, that's how she explains it to me. Me, I can live for a week on a single compliment. I'm a sucker for flattery, and I live to serve. So when my pal, Lisa, invited us over for dinner on Sunday, I decided to bring her a bonsai. I grabbed one of my Fukien tea trees out of my garden and repotted it in my largest handmade pot. It was an egg shaped pot with bubble feet. The body was Blue Caprice crystal glaze and the feet were mosaic blue and dragon red, semi-transparent. I finished repotting, soaked it in, then showed my finished bonsai to Bernie. Her reaction: OH WOW!

Bernie's reaction took me by surprise. She wanted to keep it! I suppose she hadn't visualized my quirky little pots with bonsais. She thought they were a bit small, too lumpy and not very 'professional looking'. When she finally saw that brightly colored, quirky pot with the bonsai potted in it, she saw it. The lumps were personality, the quirkyness was expressiveness. The diminuative size of the pots exagerated the size of the bonsai itself. The funky, brightly colored bubble feet complimented the bright green colors of the tree. This was not a 'professionally' made pot, created in some factory. This was a single, expressive pot, created by an individual to be an individual. I took some pictures of the finished bonsai. I might post them later.

Fourth of July! We went to Glendale Community College to watch the fireworks display. It was over 110+, even after 8pm, and my back was hurting, so I was grumpy as all hell. There was a storm to the north and high winds, so there was talk about cancelling the fireworks display. Bernie finally had enough of my crap and told me she was just going home. I don't like seeing Bernie upset like that, so I had to talk her down. Hunter was getting hungry, so I suggested she park the car and feed Hunter. Then we could go home. She parked it and started feeding him. Me and the boys got out of the car and sat on the pavement. It was just too hot in the car, I explained. I got out the cooler, sat on the cooler, and drank some water that Bernie had packed for us. The wind blew hard enough to cool it down to about 90. 'At least it's cooling down a bit', I explained to Bernie. I sat there, watching the light show that nature was putting on. The storm to the north was producing some spectacular thunderheads with lots of lightning. I could see that it was raining about 12 miles away. I could faintly smell the rain, but I could also sense that rain was not heading our way. The sound of the outdoor concert being put on by GCC could be heard from our position in the parking lot. There was a grassy area to the north of us where TONS of people had assembled to watch the fireworks and enjoy this summer night. The smell of grilled meats mixed with the distant smell of rain. The parking lot was not crowded, but there was a number of people tailgating and hanging out as well. It was a hot, sultry, Arizona night. 'This beats sitting at home, doing nothing', Bernie called out from inside the car. She had finished feeding Hunter, and was bouncing him, trying to burp him. Suddenly, the lights in the grassy area went out. A cheer erupted from the gathered crowd. Our collective patience was about to be rewarded. I called out to Bernie, to come out and join us. I had not realized it, but the fireworks were going off in the field adjacent to the parking lot we were in. We were really really close to the fireworks, so they were bigger than life when they went off. The very first firework of the night was a great big one. We could feel the concussion of the explosives as each one went off. The display seemed to go on and on... and on. Bernie complained that her neck was hurting from looking up, so I got up and propped myself up behind her, cradling her neck in my arm so she could look up. It was definitely one of the better fireworks displays I have witnessed. Granted, it was nowhere near what I imagine goes on in New York , or the east coast, but I'll bet they don't have the lightning in the background that we had. And I'm positive that NOBODY in the USA has to brave such hostile heat as what you find in Arizona for the 4th of July.

Honestly, I would have preferred to be at home, doing nothing. My kids get older with each passing day, week, month, year. Sooner than I would prefer, they'll be done growing and they'll be leaving my house. I'll have lots of fourth of July's, where I'll be sitting at home, doing nothing. No, I'm not being melodramatic, nor is this thought necessarily depressing. Simply, I'm just stating the obvious: things are dynamic. Everything changes. What I'm trying to say is that you should enjoy the moment.

It's July 5th. The girls are still at Grandma's for one more week. I'll be leaving next Friday to pick them up. I'm looking forward to it. It's quite without the girls and I'm missing them.
More adenium sprouted; I now have about 36. I went out this morning to pot up the new sprouts. It was 88 at 7am. The older adeniums are definitely taking on a redish tone to the trunk.
I poked around my little garden, moved a few items that were just taking up space, and pulled a few weeds. It's a teeny, tiny grow area, but it's being very productive. I need to get more soil.
The ficus microcarpa cuttings are growing nicely. They're suddenly putting on lots of height! Maybe I'll do some initial training on some. The ficus retusa cuttings aren't showing the vigor of the microparpa, but they're not as old, either. I'd say they're doing pretty well, all things considered. As soon as I get some more soil, I need to pot up my retusas.
I did some more training on my pomegranates yesterday. It was later in the day and very hot, so I just grabbed them, brought them inside, and did some wiring and training at my leisure.
I finished up glazing a few more pots. I don't know when I'm taking them to Mishy's, sometime next week maybe? I ran out of my favorite glazes, so I'm heading out to the ceramic shop to pick some more up.
That's all I have for now. BTW- at 9am, it's already 95f. Supposed to get to 105. Woot!

Dangit! Pomegranates don't come into season until fall! Why didn't I know this? Oh well, I'll grab a fruit in the fall and plant me some seeds.
More Adenium obesum seeds have sprouted. I will pot some as soon as I can. Maybe I should go do that RIGHT now.
I have a few more pots to take to Mishy. Mostly greenware, but there are some bisque pieces that I've applied glaze to.

Desert Rose seeds are growing

Check the date, check the time. It's Sunday morning, 10:30 am.
I was up until 2am this morning messing with clay. Actually, I was applying glazes to a bunch of pieces. Something like 36 pieces came out of Mishy's kiln for me, so I had lots to do. There's still seven pieces that I need to glaze. Got up this morning and did my rounds. Dogs and cat are okay. Looks like there was a disruption to the Angelfish breeding trio, one of the smaller angels is picking on the smaller female. Thing is, I don't know which is which. I'll have to do some more observations. I checked some of the clay impressions I did yesterday. The shell impressions look good. The roller impressions look good. The bead roller's impression looks like corn on the cob. Not too thrilled about having made a corn roller (WTH?). I remembered the desert rose seedlings. Bernie noticed some brown spots on Friday, so I sprinkled some cinamon on top. I had put them in a covered Jiffy nursery seed starting thing, you find them at Home Depot for about $5. I added a little extra water on Friday, I thought the whole thing felt sort of light. Look in on them this morning and I noticed a number of seedlings breaking through. It's hard to count how many, but I'd say at least 15.
I did some more wiring on my pomegranate seedlings. They're looking good. I'm going to keep my eyes on pomegranates at the market. Definitely worth growing from seed!