Home in Arizona

Arrived home safe and sound. Found house and yard all in good order. Feels good to be in Arizona now as it is all in bloom now. My bouganvilla has never looked this good. My special cactus all have lots of buds and will be showing off in a couple of weeks. The Ironwood trees are especially showy this year, the Palo Verde neon yellow and the Saguaro are beginning to bloom big time. After we unpacked and settled in a few days we took an all day drive out in the desert, to Madera Canyon and Suguaro National Park to see the show!
  But first thing was to go out for a good ol' American Breakfast!!  Nothing like it

                          (Not sure why this picture is sideways--don't know how to turn it.  However, it is how we feel when we come home jet lagged from Asia!)




The Ironwood blooms a soft subtle pink and some years you hardly notice them.

Water running in Madera canyon.

And then Friday I checked into Northwest Hospital to have an annoying hernia repaired. Surgery went well but then got nauseated and sick from the anesthesia and pain meds. I stayed in hospital overnight and once everything wore off I was 99.9 % better. Home now and moving slow but on the mend. Will is here at my bec-and-call so doing fine.

Packing Up

W

We are packing up today.  Leaving for home in the morning.  How did we get so much stuff!!  We had to run to Carrefour to buy another suitcase to get us home.  Few last things to do.  Lia to bus for the last time.  She is right there in front row.

 

Little ritual--grandpa gives her a kiss and she wipes it off. . .and then laughs and laughs!

Got my nails done one last time.  Still have to allow two hours for them to finish but always a perfect job.

Out for lunch at (one of) our favorite restaurants. Outdoor seating today.

And then a walk around.  This is entrance to Building 6, home.

Just can't get enough of the Sukura--Cherry blossoms

pics of my week in Jingdezhen

The Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen in Jiangxi Province is the same outfit that has the "Pottery Workshop" here in Shanghai where I go to get my clay fix while I am staying here.  In fact, that is how I found out about it.  Actually I have a Tucson potter friend who went several  years ago so I knew what it was. . .sorta.  Shanghai's Workshop is basically just a studio to work or take lessons but Jingdezhen Pottery Workshop is an entire entity with its own Education center, dormitories for people to come and stay, Creative Market, Design Center, with access to all the city has to offer to people interested in any kind of ceramic production.  Everything is here, somewhere, and accessible. They even have a great coffee shop.  I came by myself, one hour flight; met amazing artists, staff people, took some lessons, attended demonstrations, and saw a whole lot of porcelain and other ceramics.  Took many photos.  Of course, no time to finish a body of work but came away awed and inspired and energized.

walked into his independent shop and studio

and we talked for a long time through

PWS interpreter. When those are fired

they will be the cobalt blue and white

that is traditional porcelain from here.

Everywhere you go in the city to you

will run into  pottery drying on the

roofs or balconies.

Hard color for ancients to get. Besides blue and white, this is what Jingdezhen is historically famous for.  Legend about a emperor who demanded this red and his workers could not get it right until a maiden through herself into the kiln!

a public "glazier"

I actually painted this tea set! Lessons in painting with cobalt in traditional Chinese way!

painted my view from my window

my carving .. glazed with celadon glaze

demo of how they did it in Tang dynasty

buying greenware with new friend, PeLin, from Germany

bamboo shop

view from my window.

tea fields.  Fuliang tea

inside of huge very old kiln.  Fired once a year just for demo.

out in countryside.  Been making his 5 ft pots for 50 years by hand with his version of coil method.

What! no news?

I know its been silent  on this end. . .but not from lack of activity.  When in fact a whole lot has been going on.  But I have been out of town and unable to post.  OK, I am going to try to catch up here!

First big news is that Doug's company has finally officially sold.  The closing happened last week.  The press release happened today and will post that if I can get it copied into this format! Doug has been busy at work with the transition details to new owners.  Green Tree Inns Hotel Management Group are the new owners.  They are a global company that operates various Green Tree hotel chains with 2600 hotels in more than 400 cities in five countries. They are here in China and we've noticed them around as we move about.  Doug still just doing his job as things settle down and he decides his next move.  For now he is still CEO of DaNiang Dumpling Restaurant Company.

GreenTree Group Infuses New Development Strength Into Daniang Dumpling; Daniang Dumpling Transitions From Private Equity To Corporate Holding

HONG KONG, Apr 19 – Daniang Dumpling Catering Group Co., Ltd. (“Daniang Dumpling”), one of the largest Chinese fast food restaurant chains, recently announced that GreenTree Inns Hotel Management Group (“GreenTree Group”) completed the acquisition of Daniang Dumpling from CVC Capital Partners, and GreenTree Group has become the controlling shareholder of Daniang Dumpling.  As such, Daniang Dumpling has transitioned back to corporate holding from private equity holding, which is a milestone in the history of the company. 
GreenTree Group operates medium to high end business hotel chains with strong value to consumers and innovative operating and service concepts. By becoming the controlling investor of Daniang Dumpling, GreenTree Group will support Daniang’s future development by providing its resources in hotel and catering industries, which is expected to bring explosive growth to Daniang Dumpling.
Mr. Wu Guoqiang, the founder of Daniang Dumpling agreed by saying, “Catering enterprises, especially fast food restaurant chains, have their innate driving power for sustainable and healthy development, which cannot be replaced by mere capital investment, instead, we need advanced management concepts and innovative ideas.GreenTree Group’s strategic acquisition allows the business to return to corporate business management.”
“With this, I believe Daniang Dumpling will thrive again, and move forward steadily according to our operation philosophy as a classic brand.” GreenTree Group and Daniang Dumpling both agree that the top priority is to provide consumers with quality products and services while ensuring food safety.
They also focus on supporting their franchisees and partners to ensure stable revenues and strong returns, so as to achieve a win-win partnership. Finally, both Daniang Dumpling and GreenTree Group will continue to adhere to their “people first” principles, as an outstanding team is the key to company success. Both companies are committed to providing their staff, especially front line staff, with strong career opportunities.

Lia continues to love school, learning all kinds of new things including silly songs she picks up on the play ground at school.  Tomorrow is "open day" at school so parents are invited to come to school and sit in on the classroom.  Doug is going to take the morning off and go which of course is really fun for Lia AND for him.  She has bunches of homework every afternoon, practices piano most days and generally is a pretty happy little girl. Except when it is time to go to bed.  Grandpa is the one who watches over while she gets her homework done.  Sometimes she gets distracted and has to be encouraged to focus.  He is a great grandpa!!

The big reason for the silence is that I went to Jingdezhen for 7 days.  This is China's Ceramic City, its Porcelain Capital.  The history of Ceramics in Jingdezhen goes back 2000 years.  Emperors had royal kilns here.  The perfect clay is still dug in the mountains in this area of Jiangxi province.  All the big government factories are closed now but the city has reinvented itself and kept this Ceramic City alive.  Anything even remotely related to the production or making of clay products can be found there.  It has become a magnet for artists, art houses, ceramic production, design houses, kilns, mold makers, painters of porcelain, brush makers, glaze makers, 3 ceramics universities, porcelain museums, its all there.  I went to a place called The Pottery Workshop and did a Residency for 7 days.  It was amazing. 
   It was a one hour flight from Shanghai.  I went on this adventure by myself. Will stayed here to watch Lia while I went off to play.  It was definitely a China experience, internet worked fine but no social media.  All blocked so could not post pictures although kept in touch with Doug and Will via WeChat and my China phone.
Pictures and more details to follow tomorrow.

Rain, more rain, gallery and flowers

Thankfully we have had really nice weather for our recent travels but now we are back into a rainy spell again.  We thought it would be fun to have a cookout and picnic but was so nasty that we cooked in the kitchen and had our picnic on the patio.  Still fun and burgers tasted great.  We will get to use that grill soon.

Will and I have gotten pretty use to our morning Cappuccino and donut.  We have tried a few locations to get the best donut or best coffee and lately have settled on a local Kentucky Fried Chicken shop.  They also have a nice comfy sitting area where we can check the internet for news.  Actually I like the egg tarts that are so popular here and Will stops at 7-11 to pick up his chocolate donut and just get the coffee at KFC. 

Another wet morning on Nanjing Road on our way to "3 on the Bund."

This is 3 on the Bund, a historic building that houses some famous upscale restaurants and also the Shanghai Art Gallery on the 3rd floor.  That is our destination this morning to see a new exhibition of contemporary art called "Collage."  We both liked the exhibit a lot and a good way to spend a rainy day.

This interesting piece is of assorted common everyday objects from underneath.  As if they were strategically  placed on a glass table and you were viewing them from underneath the table and seeing just the bottom of things.  Its quite an amazing piece.

Now here is a lesson in perspective. . .we came upon this and both thought, whoa, this is art?  Well then you walk around the other side and realize it is what makes the shading and dimension as the light shines through the mess on the back and creates the light and dark and contrast on the other side.  There is just a small amount of pencil markings on the front, the rest is made by shadow of objects and diffused light.  We looked at this for a long time.

Nice picture of the Bund in the rain with no people about.  Can't see tops of tall buildings for the fog/rain.  So weary of rain but at least it is not so cold any longer.  I have gone through three umbrellas in China!

Guess we do get lots of flowers because of all the rain.  Still Cherry blossoms around.  This one in our complex, with Doug's apt building in background.