In the house that Denise bought, there is an adjunct to the garage that is badly infested by Black Widow spiders. Soon we will call the Bugman, but by way of prep I divested the space of my boxes-o-stuff. In the process I liberated one of my sculpted birds and set it in the front yard, beside the gorgeous and enormous agave, facing two of its fellows previously placed:

“Horned Bird,” the one on the left, is the newest addition to this quasi-diorama. The two other birds are unnamed. The globular vase was made by my Phoenix College fellow ceramics-studio rat Richard R. Richard’s monogram is perfect: he is a former railroad man.

I also attempted my first bisque fire with the kiln I bought several moons ago. I set both dials to High and let it toast for four hours, which is probably not enough, but next time I’ll try five, and if that doesn’t work, next time, six. I have 04 pyrometric cones but I don’t have 05s or 06s, so I’ll trial-and-error it till I get more cones or a thermometer. But it cast a lovely light just before I shut it off, as evidenced by the view through the peephole:

There are four pieces of ware in there. Can’t wait to pop the top and see how they did!