A Weekend Retreat

Flowers on my counter, all from my gardens...hard work DOES pay off!!



We're in the middle of summer and I don't want to waste a minute of it indoors, thus no quilting to speak of. But we're going to spend the weekend in a little cottage beside the ocean and I have reading material:




...so my mind will be thinking and planning and I will come home with recharged batteries and lots of new ideas!!

Summer at Nana's house

We've had a visitor here all week. He came home with me last Sunday and will leave this afternoon after his last day of "Camp Fun and Games". Two teenage girls are running this day camp as a way to make a little money this summer and we enrolled Carey for the week. When he's not at camp, we've been doing all those fun things I used to do with my kids. Like swimming. Swimming is just more fun with kids. They can play in the water for hours and never get cold or lack things to make up. Ever had a Star Wars battle in the water? It involves helicopter droids. I never would have thought of that all by myself. And every night after dinner, nearly EVERY night, we've gone down to The Landing for ice cream. And wonder of wonders, Carey TRIED a new flavor and he LIKED IT!!! Mint chocolate chip. Imagine. We've had no homesickness bouts which for a six year old away from home for this long is pretty amazing. As a matter of fact, after trying to get him to at least call mom and dad because I knew THEY missed HIM, he finally said to me, "Why do you keep talking about my parents!" Okay, I'll never do it again.

I just knew when my kids were little the day would come when they'd be gone and right at that moment I'd stop and say enjoy THIS, don't take THIS for granted. But you still miss those times and in a way long to have them back. Then you get grandkids.

So today was the last day of camp and the grand finale was an art exhibit, complete with painted rocks and hats and what-all else little hands can create. Beth and Renee had it set out so the artists stood behind their artwork to explain to the passers-by what was what. Very cute:





And each camper got a certificate awarded especially for them...Carey's was Most Imaginative..

My project for the week was to make a guitar case for the boy rock star wanna be:



The house is so quiet now that he's gone home...but my best friend in the whole world is at this moment fighting friday night traffic through boston to spend the weekend with me. Now for some grown-up playtime!!

Between, Georgia

Presently, this is what I'm listening to. By Joshilyn Jackson . She also wrote Gods in Alabama that Deborah recommended. I loved it so I couldn't wait for this new one to come out. Some books you just have to listen to instead of actually holding them in your hands. Jackson has a charming southern voice and she reads it exactly the way she wrote it (duh). Besides, I can walk for an hour and not even THINK about it. Hooray for good books on tape!

Since I hung my show at the gallery, I've really been on vacation!!! yesterday was the Belfast Garden Tour. My first. They've always been scheduled on days during the week and I've always been working, but this one fell on an off day. I was surprised by a few things.

1. I thought if your garden were chosen for a garden tour, it would be the cream of the crop. The best of the best. Magnificient. Fact: not necessarily so. There were a few that were simply very small layouts, maybe the size of the front yard to the sidewalk. To be fair, the garden I'm thinking about had a lot of different types of miniature bushes, some I don't know what they were called and didn't have markers. It was attractive because of the variations in shape and shades of color. Sometimes simple is better.

2. I thought if your garden was chosen for a garden tour, you might weed the night before. And remove all ladders and hoses from the paths. Interesting.

Some of the things I did like were the gardens that combined striking colors together. But in my mind you can put delphiniums with just about anything but yellow is a popper, or as claire would say, it zings!



I like to find interesting little vignettes hidden in gardens...surprises you find when you look closely, like this sweet hens and chicks.


I love these things no matter where they are.

And the garden sheds:





I think they appeal to the kid/dollhouse/make believe part of me.

Kayak camping on Warren Island State Park this weekend. I'm not sure, but this may be the only State Park in the state of Maine that is only accessible by boat.

All we saw were sunny days and star filled nights, blue skies and equally blue water. There are 7 small campsites on this little island and we were one of only two sites filled on a GORGEOUS weekend in July. The ranger said this was indeed unusual, and weren't we the lucky ones to have whole place to ourselves.

The island is covered with old growth deciduous trees and some hardwood, but they're continuously cutting the old (some dead) stuff out to let the new growth have a chance to get old.



I loved this. It's just so full of promise, don't you think? This is what I hold onto when I read things like this...someone who is SO SMART and just spends all day THINKING and he gives us a hundred years?? The answers are as interesting as the question.

Maine General Medical Center

Here are a few pieces that are on display at the local hospital art gallery. This first one is done with some of Melody Johnsons hand dyed silks. It's mounted on plexiglass and is about 7 inches wide and 23 inches long.



Another one done with the beautiful hand dyed silks. If you've ever been to Maine and taken the ferry from Rockland Harbor to Vinalhaven, you will probably recognize this as the bridge to Lane's Island.



I've shown pieces of this one, but now here's the whole thing. I'm happy with the way it turned out. I love the colors, though they aren't my usual color palette.



I'm starting to work on a series of bugs, this being the first one. We'll see how many more there are.



And this one. I love this hand painted fabric I used for the water. It was just the RIGHT SIZE for this piece, so I figured it was meant to be.



I'm almost ashamed to show this photo. It's terrible, but as it turns out it's my favorite piece in the whole exhibit. I call it Sea Bottom Blues...



and a close-up, which is a little better:



THIS is my regular color palette. Blue. There's lots of beading and netting and gold thread used here and there.

Hope you like these...we're off for a few days of kayak camping..I LOVE SUMMER!

Vacation

Too, too too much time has passed since I last posted but we've been on vacation in Prince Edward Island and I had hoped to be able to share pictures occasionally of our trip because we were supposed to have wireless in our cute little cabin, but ONE BAR just doesn't cut it. We were just too far away from the source. The scenery there is beautiful and worth posting about all by itself. And then add in kids and grandkids and all is perfect. Even though:

It rained.
It was cold.
And the wind blew so that if you closed your eyes and just listened to the howling you'd swear we were in the middle of a blizzard.

Except for the first night and this morning when the sun was out and there was no wind. It wasn't cold, it just wasn't warm...enough to swim in the pool or the ocean, or not wear a sweatshirt.

But we were busy and had tons of fun. We hit the Canada Day festivities. Canada Day is like our 4th of July. Charlottetown was a buzz of fun things. Carey was so psyched to dress up like a fireman and put out the fire in the little wooden house whose windows fell in when you sprayed them.



What a great fundraiser, although they weren't charging anything for this ecstacy (nana, I'm so excited!!!! he says as he's standing in line!) Check out this sand castle made with that red dirt PEI is so famous for...made right on the spot during the celebration.




We had drinks outdoors the first night, beside a huge field just right for running and pretending, what else, Star Wars.



Then a rest:



...my kids who made the trip entertaining and fun...





I thought for sure we would be too late to see the lupine this year, but we came across this field, it was HUGE of lupine just on the edge of going by. Beautiful!!!



While we were driving I put the finishing touches on all the pieces that needed to be done today for the hospital exhibit. Soon I'll have pictures of those, a little mini exhibit for you all.