flutterby

I guess its the metamorphosis from grub to winged beauty that draws us in. That and the way they look like a floating flower as they drift by. You just can't help but follow them til they are out of sight.

I didn't want to forget the moths. This is a peach blossom moth flitting around sweet peas and ground daisies.

Below is a photo of the migration of the monarch , the California state butterfly. They are the only living things besides birds to migrate in such great numbers.

butterfly handles too

Queen Alexandria's Butterfly, Wing span of twelve inches!

blooming on the kitchen shelf

butterfly books in the dining room

Now let my bed be hard,

no care take I

I'll make my joy like this

small butterfly

walter de la mere

Atlas moth. Don't worry, they don't bite.

Butterflies like milkweed, asters, wildflowers, hollyhock, zinnias and many more.

Good caterpillar host plants include clover, dill, Queen Anne's Lace and fruit tree blossom.
Of course pesticides are out of the question, but you already knew that.

xxx

juliewhitmorepottery.etsy.com

The Cup That Cheers

Is it spring yet? A cup of tea might just perk you up enough to realize it will be here soon.
The right way to make tea: Pour hot water from kettle into teapot. Very important. Tip out and add tea. One teaspoon per person and one for the pot. Pour onto the leaves boiling water to oxygenate. Leave to steep five minutes. Pour small amount of milk into cup and add sweetener last. This is from Barbara Rogerson, an Englishwoman who lives in Northeast London and if she doesn't know the proper way to brew tea , who would?
www.ramblingsfromanenglishgarden.blogspot.com


New cups without handles, made just to go with Lori's hand knit sleeves. They keep the tea or coffee warm, and look smashing at the same time.
www.loritimesfive.blogspot.com



All the seeds are stirring and the animals are waking

Here is the glaze for the tea bread. I ran out of lemon juice and used orange too.

All this tea talk got me to baking. Lemon tea bread with lemon balm.

three o clock repast.

In February? Yup, First the rains came, then the frogs sang all night for weeks, then yesterday this rose appeared dangling above my head on the porch steps. A promise of good things to come.

Lemon Herb Tea Bread

3/4 C milk

1 T. finely chopped lemon balm

1 T. finely chopped lemon thyme

2 C. all purpose flour

1 1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

6 T. butter, room temp

2 eggs beaten

1 C sugar

1 Heaping T lemon Zest

butter a 9x5 loaf pan.

Heat milk with chopped herbs and let steep til cool

Mix flour, salt and baking powder in bowl

In another bowl, cream butter, gradually add sugar til light and fluffy

add eggs beat

add milk and flour mixture a bit at a time til just blended

pour in pan, and bake til toothpick comes out dry, about 50 minutes

Mix juice from two lemons and confectioners sugar til thick, but loose enought to pour over bread. Pour over while still warm.

xx

julie

juliewhitmorepottery.etsy.com

Cambria Wine Festival

We are having a wine festival in Cambria this weekend starting tomorrow, January 28th. Wine tastings at the Vet's hall, lots of artists 'demoing' their craft and I've made some pottery glasses and cordials too. Mostly woodland animals holding up a cup for you to sip framboise, amaretto or grand mariner.

You can take a break and have a picnic at the beach. The weather is in the seventies. Bring your shades and coppertone.

Now just for instance. At the grocery last night I faced the wine isle. Hundreds of local wines. The wine distributor was stocking the shelves and I told him what I wanted. Zinfandel. Old Vine. Good with Italian food. So he handed me this. Dears it was only ten dollars. And it is a concerto of fruity xanadu. There are wine shops here too, and a couple of great places for lunch, but what I'd do is get a to go at Sotos Market on Main Street. The Number six sandwich and plenty of napkins.

cordials are just for a sip or two. Wines large enough for a few nice healty gulps

Watch out for the snow egrets on the rocks at moonstone beach

Check out Chambers gallery on Main Street.

Patricia Griffin Studios in the Old School house on Main next to the library

The brand new Terry DeLapp Gallery in the Creamery building on Main. Terry paints tonalist paintings of the farms in the surrounding valleys and coastal seascapes. He's a town treasure and a brilliant painter.

Hope to see you .

Don't forget a corkscrew

xxx

juliewhitmorepottery.etsy.com

bird girls

Here are a few warning signs that you, dear reader, are a bird girl. Firstly, you find yourself looking up when you see a flock of birds zigzaging across the sky, and watch raptly until they dissapear.

You mark Bird Festivals on your calendar. While there, you bite your lip over the ultra lightweight deluxe binoculars and calculate if you give up chocolate for the entire year you might be able to wedge them into your grocery budget.

Here's my very own second sighting this past weekened at the Morro Bay Bird Festival. He stalked frogs as quietly as the grass growing beneath him.

My first sighting happened above, at Morro Rock. I watched a pair of Perigrine Falcons. The fastest birds in the avian world. 200 MPH in dives!

Bird girls are postitive there are birds in heaven. This is irrefutible.

I can see you nodding now. See? you are a bird girl......

These lovliest of wrist warmers were knit by Helen Lambert. Aren't they exquisite?

Helen sometimes features her work on her blog:

www.helen-lambert.blogspot.com

Listing as promised today.

and thank you for the comments on my last post.

what generous hearts you have.

xx

julie

April to pilot them

May speeding after

And each bird's compass

His small red heart.

john clare

juliewhitmorepottery.etsy.com

poetry cups

My heart, in hiding, stirred for a bird.
gerard manly hopkins
(Now thats poetry for you)

I've been making poetry cups over Christmas. Its really because of those car trips back to Milwaukee to see my grandparents. After a group sing- a- thon of every song in the family canon my dad would lean back, settle in, and begin to recite poetry. He was fond of Carl Sandburg , Edgar Allen Poe, and Robert Service. Sometimes the words floated around the inside of the car like butterfly wings, but then when Dad started 'Chicago! Hog butcher for the world! City of the big shoulders!' I'd have to roll the window down and let those words hurtle outside and clomp off down the highway.

Sitting there and listening to dad's beautiful , animated voice, as farm houses , cornfields and masses of birds passed by, I mostly felt jubilant about the world and its possibilities. But sometimes the poems were about loss.

I shall never see you run

through the orchard anymore,

or hear the scratching of your paws

in early morning at my door.
I shall never watch your tail

saying you are glad of me,

Or know at meals your eyes are turned

Upon my plate reproachfully

I shall never see you sleep

like a ball curled in the sun

Or feel your nose pressed in my hands

Now all your dear dog days are done.

rachel field

reverse of cups

The whole world was a vast moving screen of snow

but even now it said peace;

It said remoteness,

It said cold,

It said sleep.

conrad aiken

Over Christmas I had a momentary sink-me-down, so I crept off to the bedroom and laid on the blue flowered spread and pulled out this book. I was thinking about how people I loved were either in transit, or out of touch, some under a blanket of earth covered by an inch of snow. But by the third poem an inchworm of promise began crawl inside me. I picked myself back up , combed my hair and decided to make butterballs. They are a family tradition. Along with the lopsided angel at the top of the Christmas tree, a drive around town to see the lights shine against all those pine trees, and the best one of all, poetry on car trips.

Happy New Year dear readers!

xx

julie

juliewhitmorepottery.etsy.com

Donkey Christmas

I mean that in a good way. Donkeys play a big part at Christmas here at our house in the pines
Here is one destined for the Christmas tree

And a friend from Sweden on the mantle. A photo by the wonderful Becky at Vintage Fairy Tales. If you haven't visited her blog, you should. Its a very happy place ~

Http://beckybus.se/wordpress

Here is a donkey clomping through suburban neighborhoods, dining on thier lush lawns.

And on the hutch with his friends, waiting for Santa.

Can you see him in the forest of pines?

After all, a donkey attended the very first Christmas.

"I" said the donkey , shaggy and brown,

"I carried His mother uphill and down,

I carried her safely to Bethlemen town,"

"I" said the donkey, shaggy and brown.

From the Christmas carol, 'The Friendly Beasts' with a little spun donkey from Russia.

Happiest of holidays from the donkeys in the pines!

xxx

juliewhitmorepottery.etsy.com

Snowman has an annoucement

Thank you for your comments for the drawing. I wrote names on slips of notebook paper and asked my friend, Snowman to pick one. No peeking. Snowman reached in the bowl with a mittened hand and drew out the name Lori, from Lori times five, for the ornament set. Then owl piped up.
"Don't I get to draw a name too?" so Snowman and I obliged, and owl pulled out the name
Christine, from A Mermaids Tale.

So Christine, (all because of Owl) will be receiving the two little cups above. Bluebird and farmhouse in the snow. I will email you both ladies, as
Snowman wants to send these two parcels off on Monday.

I've made a baker's dozen of spoons. Some are long , for deep mixing bowls, and others shorter for serving at the table. There are both oval shaped bowls and rounded bowls.

There are mice with pies, foxes with vegegables for their stews and hedgehogs all set to make strawberry jam.

There is even a cornish rabbit with a cornishware bowl.

All can be hung from a hook, as there is a hole and I've strung through waxed linen thread, durable and sensible too. Listing this weekend. And I hope yours is a lovely one.

xx

julie

juliewhitmorepottery.etsy.com