Lena Victoire

Wednesday, December 5, 2012 – Cocoa:

Happy Birthday to Lily and Richard! Lily is five years old today, and we won’t tell anybody how old Richard is!

As we were getting up and about this morning, we got a phone call from one of our friends who is helping another friend bring their boat down the waterway to the west coast of Florida. They wanted to let us know that they were just about to cross under the bridge before passing by Cocoa Village Marina, so we grabbed the camera and headed to the end of the dock to wave them on their way. They have a beautiful East Bay and it looked like they were quite comfortable as they cruised by us. After much waving and horn blowing, they faded off into the distance, and we headed back to our boat.

After that bit of excitement, we finished our coffee and decided to walk into town. There is a farmers’ market every Wednesday, and I needed some tomatoes. On our way there, we noticed a sign advertising a potter, which was adorned with pottery “fish”, so we decided to pay a little visit to his studio. The entrance to his gallery was a winding alley-way with a mural of faces on one side, and at the end was a landscaped water garden with a fountain and stocked with koi. He sculpted and fired some amazing fish pieces, and he offered to show us around. His studio was fascinating, and so was he. It consisted of three small rooms, the gallery, another where he prepared the clay and glazes and actually formed the pottery pieces, and in the third room was a hand built gas kiln which could get up to 2400°. The floor was a combination of old cement and dirt, and every surface was covered with pottery dust everywhere. There was “stuff” in every corner and on every surface imaginable from the floor to the ceiling. He was just as interesting as his shop and had a great story to tell about how he came to be in Florida, which had something to do with, unfortunately, finding someone close to him in a compromising position with someone else. He had an engineering degree and an art degree and had been making pottery for thirty some years. He made all his own glazes, and told us that it took him about a year to perfect a glaze. He had about thirty different glazes. He would go scuba diving to take pictures of the fish so that the pieces he made could be as true to form as possible. His was really one of the more interesting pottery shops I have ever been in, notwithstanding my friend who is a potter!

Then we headed to the farmer’s market and after doing a little shopping, we decided to take a little coffee break at Ossorio’s Bakery and Café then back to the boat.

…and then nothing much exciting happened for the rest of the day.

Tomorrow looks to be about the same.

Friday may be a little different…