Archive for October, 2009
home grown…for the masses
garden to table
we love our southern beauty, but there’s beauty everywhere . kristen recently spent time in her homeland; wisconsin. so here’s a week of posts of beauty elsewhere.
every couple of years we make our way back to wisconsin for a quick visit. this year we were there in the early beginnings of their fall….before the snow. i am sharing some details of our visit.
-kristen
the madison farmers market is a fond memory from my childhood. i have vivid recollections of the people, textures, colors, tastes, and smells from my days spent there. it is always fun to return and see it today, just as i remembered it.
the market takes place on saturdays and it surrounds the “capital square” with hundreds of booths. it is the largest vendor only farmers market in the country. farmers from all over the state come every week to sell their home grown goods including: flowers, fruits, veggies, hand spun yarns, eggs, farm raised meats, preserves, and of course freshly made cheeses.
the colors of solitude
instant inspiration
i spent a long stretch of time in maine this summer, as i have the past 5 summers. i go with my family each year, driving the distance from georgia.
i am continually inspired by its beauty, people, and the life there. this week, i am sharing what i saw.
- rinne
eventhough i am with my family, i associate my time in maine with solitude. i go on long walks by myself, in the woods and along the water. i bring the rich colors home with me, in my mind and in my photographs.
what would it be like to live here?
THE NEARING HOMESTEAD, forest farm
in the country
i spent a long stretch of time in maine this summer, as i have the past 5 summers. i go with my family each year, driving the distance from georgia.
i am continually inspired by its beauty, people, and the life there. this week, i am sharing what i saw.
- rinne
for years, we have been intending to travel to the nearing homestead, on cape rosier, an out-of-the way peninsula not too far from where we stay in maine. this year we finally made it there. like most maine journeys, the approach was half of the fun- after passing through small, waterside communities the road narrowed to one-lane wide and hugged the coast the rest of the way, giving glimpses of the water in between wooded roadsides. a simple mailbox marked the spot.
helen and scott nearing were the first wave of the back-to-the-landers. they dropped out of society in the 30′s after the depression, heading to a farm in vermont. once that area got overdeveloped by the ski industry, they retreated to maine to cape rosier in the 1950′s. they inspired the homesteading and DIY movement in the late 60′s/early 70′s. by then in their seventies and nineties respectively, helen and scott nearing had lived a life of growing their own food, building their own houses, spending time on the land and with the land, and not paying too much attention to Society. they were not hermits though- they hosted visitors constantly and were eager to share their way of life. they wrote many books and their ‘living the good life’ is considered by many to be a bible.
the house and land are overseen by the good life center. on this day a young woman was tending the garden- she and a friend have been doing so since the center is between caretakers. she directed us to a computer to watch a short documentary about the nearings. we sat and watched it on the porch and thought it funny that a dvd player sat next to the row of the nearings’ wooden shoes.
a view inside the house:
a view from spirit cove from the house:
the homsetead is made up of five acres. some of it is open, some wooded. a greenhouse, two yurts, a privy, woodland trails, and a veggie garden exist, in addition to the main house and work shed.
the two yurts were designed by william coperthwaite, subject of the quiet and luminous book, a handmade life. to say that they were perfectly sited is an understatement. one sat in the open, the other in the woods.
even the privy was great:
as we left we walked on the woodland path to see the second yurt and saw the fairy houses that had been built.
the end.
the olson house and andrew wyeth
homes and habitats
i spent a long stretch of time in maine this summer, as i have the past 5 summers. i go with my family each year, driving the distance from georgia.
i am continually inspired by its beauty, people, and the life there. this week, i am sharing what i saw.
- rinne
i have grown to love andrew wyeth’s color palette, especially after seeing it in real life in maine. i have visited the farnsworth yearly, but this year we decided to head for the olson house, which is technically part of the farnsworth. with only a vague notion of it being a place that had held much inspiration for wyeth, we set off driving down the small roads leading from town to town to what seemed like the end of the world. then, we saw the house- it loomed “up like a weathered ship stranded on a hilltop”, as wyeth’s wife, betsy, had proclaimed of it years ago.
the house had what could only be desribed as an ‘aura’ (and i don’t usually use the word aura, either…). wyeth painted here off and on for over 30 years. he had developed a friendship and curiosity for the brother and sister inhabitants- alvaro and christina olson- after meeting them when he was courting his wife betsy.
an image from a book with a painting depicting the woodstove shown below.
he painted the house as a way of painting them, capturing the feeling that someone’s house is more than a home- it is an extension of their being. alvaro refused to sit for portraits- instead wyeth “painted” him in the objects around hte house- buckets, pails, baskets, in the farm shed, etc.
the door from the barn to the house, with a painting of this view.
i will be quiet now, and let you look at the photographs.
