11 July 2007

This is a candle holder. It stands in the front garden next to a bench. In the Spring and Fall, when I’m not melting every time I go outside, we will sometimes stick a “bug-away” candle in there and sit in the front yard. It’s not often, because those bugs really, really like me, and I really, really, really don’t like them. So, I tend to not spend an abundance of time in the yard; this is much to my wife’s chagrin, I feel I should add.
Cheers.

~KR (11 July 2007)

Camera: Canon PowerShot S1 IS
Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/4.5
Focal Length: 16.6 mm
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire, auto mode

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12 July 2007

Day Ten at Bristol

I spent most of my day in the glass studio today.  This is my fourth summer to benefit from the tutelage of Shannon Morgan of Girl Glass.  Shannon is the resident glassblower at the Bristol Renaissance Faire, where I am all summer, and I am one of five or six “baby apprentice” glassblowers learning from her.  She is a great teacher–completely open and selfless in her sharing of the art as she knows it.  We are beyond fortunate! 

This season, Shannon is here at Bristol without a regular full-time apprentice, so we are all sharing that responsibility.  One guy is able to work two or three days a week, and weekends.  Each of us girls, is able to put in a day, or a few hours here and there.  Today, I assisted on a number of pieces, and then had some time of my own to refamiliarize myself with how the glass feels, how the pipes handle, etc.  It felt great!  And I did pretty well.  Unfortunately, the little tumbler I was working on dropped from the punte before finishing.  I was working a little too cold, and the punte was a little too small, and obviously way too cold.  Live and learn.  Hopefully, next time I’ll get to put a piece away!

I must go and do some serious sewing, now!  It is easy to fall victim to “proglasstination”–the fine art of using glassblowing as a procrastination technique, when you really ought to be doing something else entirely!

~MB

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11 July 2007

Day Nine at Bristol

So tired—this silly photo is the view above my bed in the booth at Bristol. 

I was trying to be asleep by one a.m.  I almost made it, ’cause I’m mostly asleep, now.  I’m trying to get a decent amount of sleep, because tomorrow morning, I get to go assist our dear Shannon Jane Morgan as she creates beautiful glass.  I want to be well-rested before handling molten glass!

~MB

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10 July 2007

Day Eight at Bristol

I did a bunch of errands today, and as I was driving back to site at about 8:15 or so, I couldn’t help but notice this beautiful sunset.  I pulled off the main road so I could get out of the car to take my photo, and decided to use this factory in my photo as well.  I meant to include information about the factory itself, but, I cannot for the life of me, remember the name of the place!  I’ll figure it out soon, and write about it again.  But, I can tell you that many of us have come to refer to it as the “Cloud Factory!”  Wouldn’t that be a great line to feed to kids!    It always seems to be spouting big fluffy “clouds” of . . . something.  Don’t know if it’s steam or pollution.  But, it’s always kind of pretty.  And tonight, it was beautiful with the colourful sunset.

~MB

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10 July 2007
I should’ve known what kind of day it was going to be when I took my first step outside the door this morning and almost immediately dropped my coffee cup shattering the lid and spilling coffee all over everything. Frustrating. The rest of the day was spent trying to debug and isolate badly written code and get some routes submitted.
Not to be completely dissuaded however, by the coffee-cup incident, I went ahead grabbed my camera and took the photo that I had intended to take this morning.
We have several beautiful cone flowers that have been flourishing in our front garden for a number of years now. Most recently we’ve had, what the media termed a Web worm attack, although I believe they were actually tent caterpillars rather than web worms. These so-called web worms, destroyed all of the softwood foliage in both front and back yards and all of the neighboring houses; including the cone flowers. This beautiful one however, somehow survived. The brilliant orange and pink on a background of green just really spoke to me and I decided to use it as is the photo of the day. I took other photos of the coneflowers, but typical of the way the day started, the first couple of photos were obscured by this crazy layer of condensation that had formed on the camera lens when I stepped outside. I was dealing with near 100% humidity on an 80 plus degree day making it pretty darn miserable, but it did lend a really nice soft focus filter quality to the image. I’m now home to spend some time with the dogs, and to change clothes before I head back out to a bar to join some friends of mine. You see, it is after all, dollar beer night.
Cheers.

~KR (10 July 2007)

Camera: Canon PowerShot S1 IS
Exposure: 0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 7.5 mm
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

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9 July
A typical day at work, followed by a typical, necessary stop at the
gas station. What you see here is a taxicab driver that had
unfortunately locked her keys in the car.

I offered to help, but was not necessarily suited to the task. However, these gentlemen apparently were; tools of the trade, knowledge, and so forth were abundant and close to hand. They were ready to go at it and so they did. Sometimes, it makes me wonder why I even stop for petrol, but the reality is I have no choice, thanks to the way society has evolved.
Cheers.

~KR (9 July 2007)

Camera: Canon PowerShot S1 IS
Exposure: 0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture: f/4
Focal Length: 33 mm
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

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9 July
A typical day at work, followed by a typical, necessary stop at the
gas station. What you see here is a taxicab driver that had
unfortunately locked her keys in the car.

I offered to help, but was not necessarily suited to the task. However, these gentlemen apparently were; tools of the trade, knowledge, and so forth were abundant and close to hand. They were ready to go at it and so they did. Sometimes, it makes me wonder why I even stop for petrol, but the reality is I have no choice, thanks to the way society has evolved.
Cheers.

~KR (9 July 2007)

Camera: Canon PowerShot S1 IS
Exposure: 0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture: f/4
Focal Length: 33 mm
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

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9 July
A typical day at work, followed by a typical, necessary stop at the
gas station. What you see here is a taxicab driver that had
unfortunately locked her keys in the car.

I offered to help, but was not necessarily suited to the task. However, these gentlemen apparently were; tools of the trade, knowledge, and so forth were abundant and close to hand. They were ready to go at it and so they did. Sometimes, it makes me wonder why I even stop for petrol, but the reality is I have no choice, thanks to the way society has evolved.
Cheers.

~KR (9 July 2007)

Camera: Canon PowerShot S1 IS
Exposure: 0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture: f/4
Focal Length: 33 mm
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

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9 July
A typical day at work, followed by a typical, necessary stop at the
gas station. What you see here is a taxicab driver that had
unfortunately locked her keys in the car.

I offered to help, but was not necessarily suited to the task. However, these gentlemen apparently were; tools of the trade, knowledge, and so forth were abundant and close to hand. They were ready to go at it and so they did. Sometimes, it makes me wonder why I even stop for petrol, but the reality is I have no choice, thanks to the way society has evolved.
Cheers.

~KR (9 July 2007)

Camera: Canon PowerShot S1 IS
Exposure: 0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture: f/4
Focal Length: 33 mm
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

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9 July 2007

Day Seven at Bristol

Mondays are for recovering, and that was never more true than it is this week.  After two days of nearly 100 degree temperatures, on the tail end of way too many days of not enough sleep, a day of doing very little is just the ticket!  Paperwork, faxing and inventory responsibilities behind us, Kelly and I had a wonderful lunch at a nice little independent Mexican restaurant and followed that with a trip to Marshall’s.  Somewhere in there, she looked down at her odometer, and it read: 100,000.  I figured that was well worth documenting!  Now, we’re gathered with some of our favourite people at Panera Bread, where they have a WiFi connection and we’ve got laptops and cups of tea!  Tomorrow we’ll be ready to work, but today is for resetting our circuits!

~MB

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