Summer

All winter long I though I was going to have time to throw in the spring. All spring long I was thinking I would have all the time in the world in the summer. Well, I am picking cherries, harvesting garlic, finishing a brochure and starting a new website. When we come home I am too tired to cook, so we eat salmon on crackers and drink a glass of white wine, which makes me even more tired. I take a bath, go to bed and pass out. The best thing to when life takes over (and it does here on Cortes in the summer) is to leave. Which is what I am doing.

I am taking a course on Salt Spring Island with a woman called Judy Weeden. She is well known in the ceramic world. Her pieces are hand build or thrown and altered and have all been decorated in a very beautiful way. I saw her work years ago while I was visiting a friend on Salt Spring and I came across a gallery that carried her pieces. I loved all the pieces I saw, but especially a little teapot with a square lid that fit perfectly. The design was a carved pattern and it was just gorgeous. Of course I did not buy it because I was very broke and don’t drink tea. And a beautiful piece like that needs a nice home with wooden floors and lots of space. Not a home with hanging garlic, drying squash and a computer desk in the living room.

I forgot her name right away, but the image of the teapot has never left me. When we were buying pottery supplies in Parksville last month, Steph saw a poster with her name. Isn’t that the woman with the teapot that you love so much? She asked. And it was. Of course I am taking the course. Even though it is the worst time in the year to leave, it doesn’t matter. Tomatoes will wait, lettuce will go to seed and work will have to pile up, even though I cannot afford to take 2 weeks off on in our high season, I have to take this course.

I am going to be with clay for 2 solid weeks, with a potter that I admire, camping on Salt Spring Island. I love summers like this.