Two If By Sea

I'm not sure who had more fun with this experience....Ken and Alan in their Kayak, or "Granny" and I watching their adventure unfold from the deck of Windmill Point!

The boys visited the pirate museum earlier in the day, so with visions of Blackbeard dancing in their heads, they made their way through Silver Lake bound for Teach's Hole and Springer's Point. Mom and I spent the afternoon reading, relaxing, and watching the world go by.

Life on Island Time was good for all of us.

One must lose one's life in order to find it.
- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Ocracoke Island

If you surrender completely to the moments as they pass,

you live more richly in those moments.
~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Last week, my family enjoyed the most relaxing, rejuvenating, sentimental, hysterical, once-in-a-lifetime vacation on Ocracoke Island. We were all overdue for a break, so we rented our favorite little cabin-by-the-sea. It's literally "on the water", and if you've ever read "Gift From The Sea" by

Anne Morrow Lindbergh, this sweet simple little home

could have been her inspiration.

Ken and I stole away for a few solo dates, and it was a treat to spend time together without interruption.

Every morning we woke at sunrise to this view through our window. We had some early night's and early mornings. When we visited our friend Leslie at Books to Be Red , she asked us how we'd survived the power outage the previous night. It was a bit embarrassing and refreshing

to admit that we'd completely missed it. ;-)

I wish that I could send the feel and the scent of this lovely tablecloth through the computer to you. I'm not really a souvenir kind of girl; but it's my absolute treasure from this visit to The Island! Leslie supports fair trade, and this piece was created in India. It's huge, and the photo can't possibly do justice to the color and texture. Right now this lovely is hanging on a hook on the back of my bedroom door. I smile each time I see it, and every now and then as I pass by, I catch a little whiff of beach and bookstore, and I'm on

Ocracoke in my mind.

If you're lucky enough to be planning a visit Ocracoke Island, place Books to Be Red high on your list of places to see! If a visit isn't in your immediate future, I'll bet they'd even be willing to dig up a copy of "Gift From The Sea" for you. The folks there are equally nice by telephone. Rumor has it that they include a bit of Ocracoke Magic in everything they send.

Couldn't we all use a bit more of that in our lives?

All of This for A Little Pot

These special little "Ocracoke"pottery dishes have covered every conceivable surface in my house over the last few days.

On Sunday, I made the pots. (And I made them...and I made them...and I made them!)

On Monday, and in thee wee hours of Tuesday morning, I tried to force the drying process a bit by using my oven set to a low temperature.

On Wednesday, the reasonably dry pots were delivered to the large kiln of my dear friend and talented artist, Olivia Dowdy Brown. We loaded and began the bisque firing process almost immediately.

On Thursday, I received the bisque fired pots from Olivia, and overnight I stained, glazed, waxed, and sealed all of them.

This morning, I made a return trip to Olivia's, and we began our final firing process. As I write this, we're about three hours into roughly twenty-four hours of additional kiln time.

Tomorrow, we'll open the doors to reveal the finished pieces. (Woo Hoo!) No matter how many times I go through this process, the anticipation of opening the kiln still provides me with an absolute thrill!

These finished pieces will soon be bound for one of my all time favorite bookstores, Books to Be Red, at one of my all time favorite destinations, Ocracoke Island.

All of this for a little pot! :-)