this neck of the woods

In the interests of keeping it real, I’m saddened to say that our pots didn’t turn out as well as expected. Unfortunately in a bid to save a bit of money, we chose not to work with porcelain (which is what we’d been using in class) and instead opted for a slightly more forgiving, lower temperature clay. The result was that our pots came out cream instead of white, are quite light in weight, and feel more fragile than the same pots we have in porcelain. Along with that, the glazes acted differently to how they had on porcelain and none really turned out how we’d hoped.

But that’s life right! It happens, and now we know not to work with anything other than porcelain next time :) At least for slip casting anyway. We did manage to get a couple of good ones out of it though.. showen by the first 3 photos. We’ll call the rest ‘learning experiences’..

And now for the not so goods:

One plus of using the cheaper clay was that the pots didn’t shrink as much as the porcelain did.. if you’re interested (and even if you’re not) here’s an example: Clay left, porcelain right.

Apparently these little butterflies were multiplying in my draws while I wasn’t looking.. but never fear! They’ve all been caught and sorted, ready to be boxed and shipped!

When I wrote this post a few weeks ago about needing more cupboard space, I’d completely forgotten that we still had a stack of pottery (that we’d started working on months ago) waiting to be finished. We went late last week to finished them off with some glaze, with our wonderful teacher Sandra there to help us out (thanks San!). They should have actually been fired now, but we can’t pick them up until later this week.. fingers crossed there aren’t any cracks!

As we near the end of our time here in Germany (3 weeks, 2 days) we find ourselves really noticing the things around us, and appreciating our surroundings more. Consequently we’re also starting to count the things we’re doing for the ‘last’ time (probably not the last time in total, but the last time while we’re living here). It’s a bit of a sad thought, but it’s actually causing us to really spend the most time we can with our friends, and to take pause and look back at what we’ve achieved and experienced over the last (almost) 3 years.

This weekend marked the ‘last’ time we’ll be at the French house for a while.. great food, great friends, great memories to take with us!

Peeling beetroot for dinner last night left me with a really pretty colour on my hands!

We just spent the most amazing weekend in Copenhagen with two wonderful friends and one wonderful sister (of mine). We were having so much fun, we forgot to take too many photos! Here are a couple of the ones we did take.. nothing too exciting except the one on the roller coaster that I have to give credit to Alex for.. talk about precision timing!

I am completely addicted to ceramics. There. I said it. Plates, cups, bowls, vases.. doesn’t matter, so long as I think it’s beautiful, I can’t seem to walk away.

Our cupboards are literally at the not-closing-no-matter-how-many-times-I-rearrange-the-cups stage, so you’ll imagine my excitement when our annual Freiburg ceramic market rolled around again last weekend :)

Because I’m so strong and my will power is unbreakable, I only walked away with 4 of these beautiful cups from an atelier in Berlin (oops!). Each one is imprinted with a German word or phrase, some of which are quite old German, and I had to get our friend to translate them for me. In fact it’s the presence of said German on said cups that actually allowed me to fully justify my purchase:

If anyone asks.. I bought them as a ’souvenir’ of our time in Germany, and not because I couldn’t imagine my life without them. Got it?

Auserkoren: Selected, chosen, beloved

Beglückend: Full of joy, Cheerful

Geistreich: Witty, Clever, Ingenious

Kleines Glück: Literally this translates to ‘little luck’ or ’small luck’, but I think it means more like small happiness? Any Germans feel free to weigh in!

1 BBQ, 2 dinner parties, 1 ceramic market, 1 nursery open day, 2 countries, and lots of great company.. phew what a weekend!

I never really thought much about asparagus when we lived in Australia.. I like the taste of it, but never really went crazy for it.

Germans, on the other hand are crazy for it in a big way.. particularly the big white variety that only grows at exactly this time of year, and only for a very limited time. Restaurants have entire menu’s dedicated to it, stores have specific Spargel stands, and little road-side shacks pop up next the fields selling their Spargel goodness. But they all only last for about a month and a half, and then it’s gone again (much like my beloved Peonies!). And so, for this month and a half, Germans really make the most of it.

Initially I was a little bit confused by this German variety of Spargel.. where I come from, asparagus is thin and green, and you eat it without much preparation. Lets just say, having now learnt from experience (twice), giant white German Spargel needs to be rigorously peeled and boiled before you can eat it.

Lesson #1 – unpeeled Spargel is extremely tough and bitter.

Lesson #2 – Peeled Spargel that clearly isn’t peeled enough is only marginally less tough and bitter. Spargel Fail.

That latest lesson was only learnt two nights ago, after I courageously decided to attempt cooking Spargel at home for the second time in 2.5 years (the first time was when I learnt lesson #1). Next time (if I dare attempt it again), I will shop at the supermarket down the road that is also equipped with a high-tech ‘Spargel Peeling Machine’. I’m not kidding.. it has a conveyor belt that you lay your stick of Spargel on (one at a time, please), and then you watch it ride through the clear-sided machine where it’s peeled and washed, and then it pops out the other end for you to collect. I think I’ll just stick to eating it in restaurants..

And in case anyone was wondering, white Spargel is white because they grow it underground covered by plastic sheets, so that it doesn’t ever see daylight. If it did, it would turn green.

..of peonies! They’ve just started blooming again at the flower field down the road from us, so I have approximately 4 days to cut as many as I can (afford) before they’re all taken.. I think I’ll have to go back again tomorrow to get another bunch :)