It's just a tad beyond smoky at the cabin this year. Normally we would be looking across the lake at the Rabbit's Bush blooming on Horse Butte. This photo was at 11 in the morning and by the evening we could make out the flowers...but nothing like we normally can.
I could bitch and moan but I won't. I will instead think of all the brave men and women who work so hard to keep the fires away from people and property. I can only imagine what it must be like...and that's coming from a guy who works with hot open kilns for a living.
If any good can come from this smoke filled sky I'm hoping the slab of bacon that I hung in the tree yesterday will be even better. Let's hope that it attracts the smoke and not the bears.

Sometimes...when a show gets slowish...like the last hours of the last day...craftspeople start "talking shop." My insistence of trimming my yarnbowls sometimes comes into the discussion. The other potter's concern for speed is usually the anti-trimming portion of the discussion.

Some would not trim the bottom of the pot, leaving is a flattish sort of bottom. By necessity of the process the edge that meets the table will be visually terminated below the top of the table...sort of like the pot is sitting in the table rather than on the table.

I prefer to give the pot some visual "loft" by trimming a foot into the pot. This gives the pot the appearance of sitting on the table and from a distance, it looks lighter on the table. All my opinions of course, but I think the pot looks more finished.