Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: flowers, nature

Along the way while pedaling Old Route 66 last weekend, I took a few moments to “smell the roses” so to speak… or at least admire the wildflowers blooming on the side of the road.

Categories: flowers, garden, nature

Well, the rain is here… and it looks like it’s sticking around for the next few days! At least the lilies on our street are loving it. There’s a condo building 1/2 a block away that has these amazing & fragrant lilies in their garden every year! Even more beautiful with the raindrops lingering on each of the petals.

Categories: flowers, nature

Along the way, we biked passed a LOT of fields of corn & soybeans today. But the coolest “farm field” was a small strip of sunflowers blooming along side of the road. Not your normal everyday sunflowers, but beautiful hybrids in dark rusts, browns & oranges! The flowers were beautiful… and the un-opened spiky buds were pretty darn cool too!

Categories: flowers, nature

I found a beautiful patch of yellow lilies this morning just down the street. Loving the crisp brightness of yellow color… some with a hint of green, others with a smidge of orange. So striking. So beautiful.

Categories: flowers, garden, nature

One of my all-time favorite flowers… the Black-Eyed Susan!
It always makes me smile. I know it’s really just a glorified weed that seems to grow everywhere! And yet somehow, this is the one plant that evades me! Never growing in my garden no matter how many time I try!!! C’mon already…

Categories: flowers, nature

Pretty little hydrangeas blooms popping open…

Categories: flowers, nature

Crazy cool smoke bush “flowers” covering the dark purple leaves. This one is in front of Lillstreet… as the smoke bush in my front yard hasn’t started “flowering” quite yet!

Categories: flowers, nature

More rain. More raindrops. At least these trumpet vine flowers are enjoying the rain… and I’m enjoying the raindrops hanging on the flowers! Looks like the ants are pretty pleased too!!!

Categories: flowers, garden, nature

Beautiful white “snowball” hydrangeas popping up all over the neighborhood. So much fun to see these wonderful floral spheres of tiny blossoms when they begin to bloom each year.

Categories: flowers, nature

And so it’s now clematis season… and yet I still have no good place to grow my own. So instead I need to covet this beauty that lives across the street from me! Easy to do when it’s this STUNNING!