Alchemy of Clay

Birthdays celebrated.

When someone becomes famous (or infamous) someone or another looks to find out that person's birthday.
Then many years (perhaps) later, a column is written, celebrating that "on this day was born so and so."

Excuse me.  The birth of that person, whoever he/she may be, is entirely the work of the mother.
Let's start giving credit where it's due.



Mother of (Washington, Lincoln, Ghandi, King) had labor all night long, and at (insert time if known here) o'clock, a healthy (puny?) baby boy (girl?) was delivered....nah, that's still being passive for that mother who did all the work.  A baby was born by mother with all her might and efforts, giving a new life by all the energies which she had.  She may have regretted (and many do) that this had happened (as a result of her pleasure,) or probably (definitely) that of a man.

Yes, many a birthing mother says she will never do this again!
Funny how we get over the pain, enjoy being a mom of that precious little helpless thing, and somehow again enjoy the way babies come into the world, and end up doing it all over again, and again, and again...

Thanks to all the women ancestors who gave birth to all the sons and daughters that ended up with my parents, myself, my children...and so on.



So let's remember that whether it's the first year of that child, or the 20th, or the 75th, that a mother had to push it into life. (Note, the exceptional easy labor, and the wonder of modern medicine where caesarean sections allow the birth to be less strain, but still require the months of pregnancy, and the recovery of a mother's health later back to normal.)

All hail mothers!

Mother's Day is this Sunday.

I think I'll talk about mothering.  It's so different than fathering.  Yes, that sounds sexist, but I know of no men who give birth or nurse the babies.  So from day one, a mother has given life itself.  Then she comes up with this mysterious milk right out of her body also, to keep that life going for months...with regular demands for it.

By the time a child has begun to walk, talk and feed itself, a father can pretty well do everything a mother can do for it.  Though few do.

I loved how my children were waist high, then shoulder high, and then all surpassed me as adolescents.  These young men then knew more than I did, and acted like it.  They finished schooling, married really great women, and now I have 6 grandchildren.


Giving birth is not easy! There's seldom a remembrance of how hard that task actually was. 






As my grandchildren arrived, I found out I was not the mother who my son's honored on Mother's Day anymore.  The wives who had given birth to their children were the mothers in my sons' lives from then on.



It's as it has ever been.

I honor all who give birth to creativity and sustaining life...not just those who have a baby.

The mothers of invention need to be recognized, and we also need to acknowledge many mothers have babies who may not have been completely nurturing.  Honoring life and creativity is what it's all about.


My current "baby" lying next to the mask I made of Muffin many years ago, and the box under it with her ashes.  Besides them is another form of life (green) in a beautiful pot by my friend, Cathy Babula.

A casserole dish for Dutch Apple Pie or deep dish apple pie.  I sometimes will just microwave one apple, pared, with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top.  That's the quickie version.



I know, it should be full of pie.  But wait, I'll tell you how to make it, and you can do it yourself.  Right?


Or not.

Either make a pie crust with your fav. recipe, or buy one of those refrigerated ones...line the casserole dish, and maybe stretch the crust to go up the sides most of the way.

Pare and core 6-7 medium apples, preferably something tart.
Sprinkle about 1/4 c flour over them
Sprinkle about 2 teaspoons of sugar
Sprinkle enough cinnamon that they all are slightly tan,
Mix them all together and
Put in casserole

In the original bowl...
Mix another 1/4 - 1/2 c of flour with
3 tablespoons of sugar
and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
and 1/4  c of butter.
Cut the flour,sugar,cinnamon mixture in with the butter with two knives or a pastry blender to make mealy texture
pour over top of apples and kind of press it down, so it covers all the apples
bake about 45 min,  in 350 degree oven, until apples are soft and crust top is brown

A squirt of whipped cream, or vanilla ice cream makes this heavenly.

And here's why I'm proud to be a mother...

Tai and me

Caroline, Kate and Audrey

Marty and me, Thanksgiving 2011

Cayenne and Will

Will, Cayenne and Mike

Tai and Kendra (his S.O.)

Cayenne and Cinnamon

Russ, Audrey and Michelle

There really should be a holiday for the sisters of our parents, many of whom helped raise us as children.

Margaret Miller

My great aunt, who lived with her parents when my mother was staying with them.

By the time I knew Aunt Margaret, she sure didn't look like she had in these 1927 pictures.  She taught high school math in San Antonio until she retired.  I would try to visit her whenever I traveled in that direction, and she was always welcoming and friendly.

Wild drippy glazes

White clay gives real sparkle to this combo glazes. PS, I don't mean to mislead anyone that this is an antique butter dish.  It isn't.  I forgot when folks look here from Sepia Saturday, they are used to seeing antiques.  And for the rest of you, you already know I'm a potter, and have the urge to share something made by my hands almost every post.  Hope this clears things up.  (PPS, I'm currently doing a use test by putting a stick of butter in this dish and trying it out.  So if and when I sell it, I'll know what it feels like)

Nothing better than something home-baked in a hand built casserole dish.

Pale celedon glaze over white Little Loafer's clay.

No matter how many problems might have detracted from the idealism of my mother, she did some pretty wonderful stuff.

Recipes that I copied by hand or typed on 3x5 cards from her cookbooks when I was a teen, and I still have them in my own cookbook. 

Love of reading novels.

Interest in different and new ideas, especially regarding healing and spirituality.  But also science, thinking in rational methodology.

Stubbornness seems to run in our veins.

Love of growing things, nature, taking walks, animals, children and laughing.

I know I didn't appreciate all my mother was.  Very talented woman who worked hard for what she believed.

Here she is showing off the Mother-Daughter outfits that she made for us, in Dallas probably around the time I was 2 or 3.

Perhaps for mother's day?