this past weekend was the first in months that wasn’t 40 degrees and overcast. in fact it was sunny and 60! believe me, i got out there and started clearing debris out of the garden and doing some sprucing up. i spotted a clump of daffodils in the woods, so spring has announced its’ intentions to proceed. i’m anxious to get planting in the garden, but with all the rain, it’s still too muddy to get on the tractor. soon though…
one of our favorite places to be is our friend nancy’s house. tucked in by the woods at the edge of a field, her 100 year old victorian home sits, filled to the brim with beauty.
we have been lucky enough to photograph our dishes here many times, but it also is a place that we just love going out to, whether we are working or just visiting. it is about 20 minutes out from town down a dirt road. it is inviting and warm, as is nancy, she always with a warm pot of tea at the ready. comprised of more than 10 spacious rooms, it’s original woodwork is preserved from when the house was moved from three counties over, almost 20 years ago.
while it can not be described as ‘minimal’, a friend from tunisia called it ‘authentique’- to us, a compliment of the highest order. filled with memories, art, and found objects, nancy’s house defines what it is to for a house to be a home.
visit here to read more about nancy’s house
nancy has been busy moving and preserving another house to a neighboring lot. stay tuned for a story documenting it, it is just as amazing as this one!
i know a lot of you are sick of snow, but you have to realize that for southerners, snow is a transient beauty spectacle that’s rare, unpredictable, and wondrous. it’s not likely to last more than a day, so i’m happy to say that we always have the good sense to take the day off and appreciate it.
on warmer days out in the idea shack, i can study my cotton; learning its’ symmetry and its’ gestures, absorbing its’ character and rhythm. back in my ceramics studio, i’m working out the colors and making the plates. once it all comes together – loads of cotton plates will fill the shop.
cold days and no sign of life yet in the garden. it won’t be long till green shoots appear, but for now,stark beauty and blue sky abounds.
we have been working on our next little book that is all about “fall in the south”. yesterday we spent the day in the country at rebecca’s ideas shack. we brainstormed, ate some good food, and played in the country. it is amazing how inspiring the country air is and how invigorating it was to spend the day breathing it. if you can….hop in the car and go for a drive. take it all in!
her is a little preview of what’s to come.
lately, we have had a big change in the weather…….lower temps and lots and lots of rain. we knew that the dahlias were probably enjoying this change.
with a break in the clouds, we made another trip out to our friend’s dahlia farm. the dahlias were exploding with big blooms and intense colors.
i wonder what my day would be like if i had this to wake up to………
our car ride home……
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
every time we make it up north we visit our friends john and kathy. they live in a little town called downsville where they raise chickens, tend to a big vegetable and flower garden and john makes and sells his pottery. i have always admired the textures and the overall natural beauty and spirit of their homestead and love seeing how it evolves over time.
a view looking up from the garden. they have recently started to add solar panels to power their home.
the most recent addition is the octagonal schoolhouse that they have moved to their land. they are now renovating it and will soon be the new location for the pottery shop. they also plan to host small music events, art shows, and speakers and lecturers in the space.
a view of the dunn county pottery shop. all pieces are sold via the honor system and payment is placed in a small wooden box.
a peek into john’s immaculate studio……
admiring their gardens
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.
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