Time to Say Goodbye to the WInter Studio

No more dinners and wine on the deck till
spring now.  Lots of good memories though.

 Actually this year, my mountain studio was summer, fall, and almost winter.  I think this week is officially winter, but we have already had our first snow and the squirrels have started to fatten themselves on the corn I throw out ever morning to get them through a sparse winter spoils. I thought I would share a few pictures of this time and memories before the trek down to Florida today by way of South Carolina and family. 

Whitey Bolger Senior

This trip I discovered our squirrels had white ears and some have white paws.  So we decided to name them Whitey Bulger and family after the infamous international thief that dogged capture for almost a lifetime.  I don't think our squirrels ever intend to be captured either! 

On this trip I discovered some wonderful little art towns.  Marshall, Spruce Pine and Burnsville, North Carolina.  I also visited an art studio built on a trash dump that uses the gases generated from the trash for kilns and torches for blowing glass.  I went to Akira Satake's art opening, a wonderful potter who uses older Japanese glazing and firing techniques. I met many new craftsmen in the area.  And we bought a new tea bowl for our collection from Akira.  We have a large collection( well a beginning collection) of tea bowls. 

I learned to adapt to winter, by staying into the colder time of year and did much better than last year.  Vinci, the studio dog, did not shake nearly as much and was able to stay out longer without becoming a popsicle.  

We tried new restaurants and I will share those with you and our other new finds in case you plan to travel to Asheville, North Carolina and this area.

Snowy day vista with found object mobile

Enveloped in the clouds one day

Zafer, the studio cat, hard at work 

Enveloped in the clouds the second day

early morning on the mountain, pastel mountains poke through

The snows have melted for now, it is a week and a half before Christmas and more snow
is due next week.  The mosses on the mountain have thrived this year.   And now it is
time to say good bye for awhile, until the next time and more adventure and more creation.

Until the next time…….