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.

Strawberries

Look what I did today. I LOVE SUMMER!!!! Twelve quarts in 35 minutes. Course it will take a bit longer to process them....

Where Have I been?

Living life in the summer in Maine, just as it should be. Probably the whole summer will go just like this, and 'go' way too fast. We've had houseguests this past weekend. Two monkeys climbing in a tree:


Charlie and Katherine, 5 and 3 respectively.

I don't know how my sister keeps up with these two. I was exhausted trying to keep up the favorite aunt status, but I think I did a pretty good job.


Getting a little sustenance so we had the energy to cheer the trekkers in at the finish line.

The Trek across Maine was this past weekend, 180 miles from the western mountains to the sea over three days. My brother Joe and Bruce have done it for the past 6 years and last year Joe met up with one of his fraternity brothers who has also done it for many years. It's easy to miss someone in a crowd of 2000 bikers. So Ken enjoyed the comforts of my couch for one night. He was polite and said he LIKED couches. The perfect houseguest. This is the joy at the finish line which this year ended at the Owls Head Transportation Museum, a very cool place all on it's own.


Joe, Bruce in his VERY IDENTIFIABLE team shirt, blaze orange! He was easy to pick out in a crowd. And Ken Ruff.


Just for Martha since I know she reads my blog, like the great sister-in-law that she is! I love this picture.


And my dad was HERE, at my house, for Father's Day!! You think I could have gotten a picture of him here for the first time since 1998. Or a picture of him with three of his children that happened to be in the same place at the same time. DUH! I'll use the excuse of the kids needing attention.

Yesterday I delivered 5 hangings to Sarah for the show she is having at the Camden National Bank in downtown Camden. She has invited me to help her fill the wall space. So I guess we're doing it together? Although she's done ALL THE WORK. She's the kind of person you want to hang out with! So then I came home and started thinking about the show I'm having at the Maine General Medical Center Art Gallery for the month of July, at least 15-20 pieces in 2 weeks! Yikes! I think I need to start accomplishing things after dinner instead of shutting down. I'm actually in good shape, so good I've started playing with a piece of hand painted fabric. Here's a little peek:

United States Poet Laureate

At the beginning of this month Donald Hall was named the incoming US poet laureate. While I walked last night I listened to an interview with him on our local public radio station. I was excited because he just happens to have written one of my very favorite of all time childrens books, 'Ox Cart Man'. I would read it over and over with my children. I loved it because of the symplicity of the story, the cycle it told of a simple life, and the touches of tenderness and reverence. I also loved it for the illustrations.





"Then he sold his ox, and kissed him good-bye on his nose." Love it!


They were done by Barbara Cooney, a Maine native. She wrote and illustrated my second favorite book, 'Miss Rumphius'. The illustrations in both books were the stuff of wall quilts for me. I found them at a time when I was heavy into hand applique and hand quilting. I made several hangings for my own enjoyment based on the illustrations. Where they are now I have no idea nor do I care. They just needed to be made.

And in all the times I read that story to my children I never realized it was a poem. If I had thought about it from a literary standpoint I could have figured it out, but for me it was pure story. Maybe that's what a good poem is all about.

All About Flowers

It's all about flowers today. And why something as beautiful and as intricate as a peony blossom lasts for such a short time. (Someone said that peonies are stupid because they don't like to be transplanted, though Laurel and I have done that a few times with great success; I tend to think they run more along the masochistic line...the only flower that once it blooms, it's head immediately falls down to the ground) And the smell...a few years ago I had a virus and lost my sense of smell. Interesting post all on it's own. Slowly I've gotten some of it back, but not to the point of intensity, like burying your nose in and going 'ahhhhh'!!! Well, these beautiful peonies were the first thing I saw when I came downstairs this morning.



Today is the opening of the exhibit 'Art in Bloom', in which the Waterville Garden Club and Colby Art Museum mesh their talents and put on a beautiful show. The garden club members choose one piece of artwork from the museum, and design a flower arrangement based on their interpretation of the painting or sculpture. Here are some of my favorites:



Painting is by Alex Katz, a Maine resident entitled Milly and Sally. Notice the tiny yellow bikini all made form daisy's and the little flip flops. Daisies, too.



Red Sails'also by Alex Katz..I just loved the simplicity of the one sail, one color flower.



This is a John Marin painting and, again the simplicity of the arrangement got to me. It was also pretty easy to interpret. I like instant gratification in everything I do, including studying paintings I guess.

Look at this one. The little sketch is by Georgia O'Keefe but don't you love the calla lillies coming out of this shell?




Look at it closer:



Beautiful, beautiful white.



"East' by Alex Katz



'Forest' by Alex Katz. He names his paintings like I name my quilts. Boring, but to the point. A lot of the artists (gardeners) used constructed metal sculptures as framework around their arrangements, similar to this one. The branch was there first and they made the sculpture around it.

Nice day.

Frayed Edges Today

today we painted, stamped, silkscreened fabric. My intention going into this was NOT to focus on any end product but just PLAY. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and I STILL got a few good pieces of fabric I might be able to do something with sometime. This is one of them:



This is another and the one following had a little photoshp doctoring...I think i like it better:






I also stopped at a new for me quilting store and bought a few pieces of fabric....notice a theme?



Okay, I guess I'm getting bitten by the dots bug. I mean, look at the colors in these and the dots are all arranged so symmetrically...and really, WHO can pass by a Kaffe Fassett fabric and not want to touch it and look at it more closely. And perhaps imagine ways in which it can go together with other mates.



And of course I forgot my camera, but everyone was so busy and at one point the room was hushed and heavy with creativity. Hannah was nice enough to share her basement, her neat and tidy basement, and all her paints and stamps and screens, etc. Not to mention make a delicious lunch for us and allow me to go through her books and borrow several. It is so nice to have generous friends who have different books than you! We also shared a few words with Deborah via long distance cell, but up close and personal is SO MUCH BETTER! (I've always had a hard time letting go.)



Some are heavy reading, some are all about the pretty pictures and all hold the hope of striking some creative spark somewhere deep in the mossy recesses. So Beate, no time for "lapping" today. Don't know lapping? Check it out.

Memorial Day

So summer has officially begun. We spent a wonderful (weather-wise) weekend doing only things we wanted to do. Playing with good friends, grandkids, kids, having drinks on the deck by the ocean in the balmy air. We also made time to picnic in Prescot Park in Portsmouth and found a letterbox...well, Carey did. This particular letterbox must have been planned and hidden by a small child, so for a six year old it was perfect! Of course I made him his own stamp before we left..Darth Vader with a light saber, what else.



Looks like a nun carrying a big stick.


For my family who doesn't see my grandkids half enough:




Carey, Papa and I after we found this beautiful stamp:






And Charlotte. How cute is this little blouse? Her, too.




I think she's decided being vertical is much faster than crawling...halfway across the floor she stood up and walked the rest of the way to her destination. Never to look back.

I just finished reading a great book, The Stone Diaries. It's left me thinking, which good books do. It's a fictional autobiography, complete with fictional family pictures. It addresses the question: How do small lives assume significance and coherence....several lines stuck with me, "She never realized old would last so long"... (I'm in trouble)..."Despair did not suit her looks" and more that hang on and give you something to chew on for a few hours. Or minutes depending on your concentration level. Or memory level. Funny, poignant, sad.