dam river

Arvind drove me and the scientist guest to the studio of the potter who made the Pujji’s dishes – heavy dark green pieces with swirls in the center and gold trim. Everyone loves how they look, and they’re obviously durable since each piece gets washed about 1.5x/day on average. I went along for the outing, and because the potter’s studio was rumored to have a beautiful view.

The weather’s been lousy lately, and today was no exception, but there must have been some sun over in Golden Bay because there was beautiful ‘God Light’ over in that direction. If you’re not familiar with the made-up term, ‘God Light’ is when you get clear rays of light coming down from the sky, looking like an illustration right out of one of those religious tracts fanatics hand out on street corners.

Paul Laird, the potter, was one of the original potters in Nelson, which is now home to a large community of potters. With a view that nice, he’s got to be doing something right! Link: http://www.ceramicarist.co.nz/

For ‘fun’ later on, the scientist, Jane and I pulled stones out of the river to make a swimming hole and a path down to it. The river’s still freezing cold, so we didn’t last all that long (and I wasn’t even in the water – Jane and I were just hauling the stones that were tossed out by the scientist), but I did jump in ¾ of the way after warming up in the spa – not quite like the Antarctic swim, but close!