This stunning thing is a ceramic tray. John and our good friend Gary Hootman did a deal so John could get me this.

Gary is a world-renowned wood-fired ceramic artist. (The Japanese consulate has given his work as diplomatic gifts, for example.) I collect his tea bowls for the Japanese Tea Ceremony.

Gary recently rebuilt his wood kiln using a new design and fired it for the first time at the beginning of December. He got into the kiln for the first time on 13 December and prepared work for a private showing at his studio last weekend. I bought three new tea bowls (more about which later…) but I coveted this and didn’t buy it. John obviously made other arrangements.

It’s a large tray encrusted with coarsely crushed minerals (the white circle), glazed, incised in patterns, and imprinted with textures from small shells. This picture does not capture its stunning beauty. It showed up this morning. I am deeply honored to have it.

John’s good friend Kevin Bierman turned these gorgeous cherry bowls. Our friends David and Mary Taylor had a cherry tree felled earlier this year. John and his friend Grant recovered all the wood and had it sawn into planks for future use. John also reserved several burl-like pieces for turning.

Kevin’s a master turner. I knew that John asked Kevin to turn bowls as a thank-you gift for David and Mary. What I didn’t know is that John also asked Kevin to make these for me. As with so much beautiful wood, one can only appreciate in person their silken texture and deep, translucent finish.

Here are two of the crazier things I got. This is a stainless steel Starship Enterprise pizza cutter. The disk in front spins to cut.

Just the thing when Darth Vader comes to dinner: it’s a Lightsaber Candlestick holder, complete with red tapers.

As always, John showered me with all sorts of Christmas goodies. This post is The Useful—as opposed to the fun and the beautiful.

These aren’t torture devices; they’re Japanese gardening tools. The top is a special scythe for ripping out old roots from planting beds. The next is a gorgeous hand-forged gardening hatchet with matching leather case and belt loop.

The next one down doesn’t show well in this picture. It’s a serrated spatula with a twisted handle that’s designed to pop plants out of pots for repotting. Come Spring I’ll be doing lots of repotting and I’m anxious to give this one a whirl.

The bottom one is a folding saw for hacking off small limbs and brush. John took pity on me with this one: I’ve been pruning out excess growth from all the bushes in the front garden. I wasn’t making fast progress last fall and I expect the saw will speed things along.

Many years ago I bought a small booklet from my good friend Robert Clark at Minerva Books in Palo Alto, California. It described an old English tradition of a Yule wreath hanging from the ceiling with apples hanging down below. The four apples symbolize the four seasonal points.

For years after that I’d buy a wreath and decorate it with apples. I always place mine on a table; I run into things when they hang down and I’m not looking around carefully. Like last year, I cut greens from our own trees: juniper and yew branches. I don’t worry about binding the boughs into a proper wreath; I place them to form a circle and add the apples. A candle goes in the center.

From John and me: our greetings to you and our hope for a wonderful, healthful, prosperous New Year!

It rained all night. Thick cloud cover moderates temperatures this time of year. I stuck my head out this morning; I had an inkling the weather might be warm enough to venture to the Teahouse this morning.

The Teahouse is exactly as I had left it some weeks ago. A half-burned stick of incense remained from my last meditation. I lit it and began.

The cemetery behind the Teahouse is shrouded in fog and steam this morning. I opened the screen so I could look at the brown, translucent lines of trees and shrubs as I sat. Occasional cries from migrating geese and a train in the distance: these were the only sounds of note other than soft rain striking the Teahouse roof.

Our good friend Gary Hootman came for tea earlier this week. Gary’s internationally known for his wood-fired ceramics. He completely redesigned his kiln over the summer, and the first firing started last week. The kiln is taller inside than I am. Gary’s been creating lots of new work, and he invited several of his friends to fire with him. One of his friends who was helping with the firing came along for tea and a discussion of the new work.

I’d not realized how complex the wood firing process is. Once the fire begins, Gary and his team tend the flames constantly for up to five days. At that point, the cooling takes as long as it does. Gary was hoping to be able to get into the kiln by the middle of the month.

This is one of Gary’s tea bowls (chawan) for the Tea Ceremony ready for our meeting. He’s a specialist in shino glazes. This bowl has deep reds and blackened areas. I love it for tea in the winter.

Here’s another of his bowls. Gary fired this one on its side so it slumped slightly. The glaze pooled in places around the rim, creating a dragon’s eye. Gary finished the piece with bits of gold leaf.

Early this year John had me sit inside and plan a new tea table for the Back Room. His idea was to create a table with various tops that could change with the season and the occasion. He pulled exotic woods in various tones and hues; the top in the picture above is Bubinga, one of his favorite woods. He showed me the tops — and then, silence. I forgot about the project during the summer while John built an incredible range of new work for the shows that he’s presented all fall.

Then one day in October he came home with the table. It’s now installed in the Back Room — and what a wonderful time for it, too. The weather’s cold, and I’ve shut the Teahouse for the winter. But tea is warm inside. Here’s the table prepared for a simple presentation of the Japanese Tea Ceremony.

All this Autumn I kept feeling a little nudge to spend a little more time in the Teahouse. I did exactly that. I’ve had the great luxury to meditate morning and evening. I’ve brought tea here each morning. Here’s the Teahouse in early October, and I’m grateful for all those times in our warm, idyllic Fall.

Now the trees are bare and there’s enough chill in the air that I’ve moved all my meditations indoors until the New Year warms a bit. There’s something about that space, though, that captures my heart.

Carolyn Miles, owner and director of The Atrium Gallery, has represented John in the St. Louis area for many years. He sent her casual shots of several of his latest works. She immediately mounted a show that featured John’s work with one of her most respected artists, Michael Marshall, print-maker and head of the arts department at the University of Hawaii, Hilo. Here’s a shot at the opening with John, Michael, Carolyn, and one each of Michael’s and John’s works. John has been experimenting with forms derived from Japanese kites; this sculpture stands about eight feet tall.

John’s other work is titled Medusa. He wondered what it might be like to have a sculpture that reflected the feeling of a pencil sketch. All the curved pieces are laminated and glued into shape. This piece stands about nine feet tall.

Obviously I wasn’t that interested in communicating with anyone because I never cleared my schedule to work on that server until this Thanksgiving weekend. After a complete reinstall and a fair number of tweaks, things are up-and-running.