Mint Tea, Moral Monday, and Plate Wisdom?

 Here are some hodge podge pictures.  first, mint tea.  Brought these plants back from my parent's house in PA.  Also brought some other cut tea and made some concentrate and froze it.

 So far these seedlings are doing okay.  It may be too hot to grow good mint tea here.  I'm giving this tea water almost daily- and watching it closely.  Even gave it good dirt!   Time will tell how much this produces...

 Picked these strawberries at my parent's house too and brought them back with me.  First from the crop; they were delicious!

 Here are pictures from the weekly protest that I've participated in.  It's just sad, to put it lightly that the NC legislature is making decisions that benefit the wealthy at the expense and loss of the poor.  Just google 'Moral Monday' and you'll find out the details.  The more I've learned; the more embarrassed I've become about what is happening.

 I joined the group on the second floor as we watched the protesters on the first floor of the General Assembly building practicing civil disobedience.  They got arrested for singing and not leaving the building when asked and creating a disturbance, albeit a respectful one.  They were released later that evening after being processed.

 Grilled some chicken recently and made a spinach salad- in a pottery bowl of course!  I miss the shinos and cone 10 glazes.

Have been making a bunch of plates lately and was reminded at how hard it is to make plates!  They're not the easiest to trim and well- softer clay is best.  Haven't made many of these so the learning curve has been huge.  I bought this foam to help trim them and well, it seems to not help as it's not the same height all around, so I've been trimming the plates straight on the wheel.  Any plate wisdom to share in throwing, trimming or firing?  I have read online that it's best to fire them individually instead of stacking them much on top of each other.  I've been very careful to not warp the plate when I move it, always using bats.  And for firing, thankfully, I have plate stackers...  Please share what works for you. Thanks for reading and for your comments...