Leaving for Nantucket

rose covered cottage in 'Sconset

I am on my way to Nantucket as you read this, Dear Reader.  It's my annual pilgrimage east, to the home of my best friend.  There will be historical architecture---everywhere you look, whaling lore, gorgeous flowers, yummy seafood, hydrangeas by the thousands, and laughter, hugs and catching up.
And Ted, my favorite large dog in all the world.  (Forgive me Timmy, but Ted is my east coast best doggie buddy.  You are my most favorite west coast doggie buddy!)

glorious window box

 Everything will have the tang of salt air.

Bee at Smith's Point

My friend will open my eyes wide again, with her insights and her world vision and her perception.  She sees beauty everywhere, and makes it all visible to me, too, while I am with her.  I try to keep my eyes wide all year, but I don't quite manage.  So I am going for my tune up, my re-setting and recalibration.  Things will be brighter while I'm with her, more colorful, more subtle.  Just more.

Lowie on Coatue

And her DH, the bluefish fisherman, par excellance.  He's funny, talented, creative, well read, thoughtful, kind, goofy and my dear, dear friend, too.  Even his puns are dear to me...sort of.

There will be time to sit and chat....

...and time to walk sandy roads.  And the most lovely thing about being on Nantucket?

All roads lead to the beach.

So forgive my silence.  I'll be back at the end of the month for a few days before I head off on another wonderful adventure, this time with all my family.

A Visit to The Gray Lady

I am off, at an unseemly early hour, for my annual visit with my best friend on Nantucket.  Lucky me!  I will try to blog with my iPad, but I make no promises.  I've had little success before and may well not be able to figure it out this time.  But I will try.

I recently reread Mary Starbuck's slim volume of poetry Nantucket and Other Verses.   It has 1911 as the copywrite date.  I have a lovely little reprint, in a slipcase, by American Perspective, Ltd of Brighton, MI, 2004.  My favorite poem is the title one.

NANTUCKET

"Just a sandy wind-swept island!"

What more would you have it be,

With a turquoise sky above it,

Around it a sapphire sea?

When its dawns are pearl and opal, 

Its moons are crystals clear,

And its sunsets shower down gold dust

Till the diamond stars appear,----

When to those who are born on the island,

And to many from over the sea,

"Tis fairer than all its jewels,

What more does it need to be?

Well, for me, it needs to shelter my BFF----and it does!  I can't wait to see it in its September glory.  Bee says September is a fine month on Nantucket.

I'll let you know how I find it!

Summer 2011 Travel Journals

I have been on two great trips this summer and I am happy with the journals I did for each.  I thought I'd share a few pages from each of the journals.  They are not precisely visual journals but they are not "diaries," just my sort of conglomeration style of journaling.



This is the journal I did for the Nature Printing Society workshop in Fort Collins, Colorado.  Besides the usual inclusions (for me!) I have also written down the instructions I received for each of my classes at the workshop.  In the future, if I misplace the print-outs of the instructions I will always be able to go back to my journal to find my notes and the instructor's tips.

The red fish print, to the left, is my first attempt at a direct gyotaku print.  Not great, but it is nice to have my first ever attempt.  I do like the eye I did on the top fish.

Here, too, is one of my first attempts at printing an octopus.

The fabric for the covers of the journal were solar printed.

Here you have the front and back covers of my Nantucket journal for this summer.  The front image of the weather vane is from the Nantucket Historical Association.  I love the whale!  The image on the back cover is from a painting I did of the red boat in the harbor in Nantucket harbor.

The pottery featured on the above page is R. Geering Pottery, from Cape Cod.  I love Ron's work and think his redware is fun and unique.

The fish image is from a gyotaku used on the 2011 NPS calendar and is taken from Chris Dewees' beautiful print of a rock fish.  I used Chris' image as the basis for a weather vane I made in a class at the 1800 House in July.  Thanks for the use of your beautiful gyotaku, Chris.  It made a wonderful weather vane.

The photo of the woman holding the cake is of Madaket Millie Jewett.  Millie was an extremely interesting woman who lived a life of service.  The more I learn of her, the more I admire her giving heart and generous spirit, hidden beneath her gruff exterior.  She was not what most of us think of when we think of someone with great community service volunteering, but she did so much for her neighbors and mariners of Nantucket.

Each day I was on Nantucket I did a tiny little painting.  These were very quick little watercolors to capture for my memory some aspect of Nantucket.  It was something I tried in this journal for the first time and I think I will use it in the future.  Each little painting reminds me of a moment of my trip and brings back a whole flood of memories.  Easy to do, quick to execute and something that has lasting meaning for me.  I'm glad I stumbled on the idea!

Leaving Nantucket

My friend Polly left yesterday.  It was great fun to take her class at the 1800 House and to hang out and share a meal or two.  If I'm lucky I'll catch up with her again in Oregon in November.

I leave for Colorado in the morning.  It's going to be so hard to leave here.  Not just because of all the
beautiful flowers and pretty houses and the beaches.  It's hard to leave because somehow I feel so at home here.

I feel very "me" here, if you follow my thought.  It's not a deja vu thing, it's a recognition of a place that fills me up rather than sucks me dry.  It's a tonic being here.  I can hear myself think while I'm on Nantucket.  I breathe a little deeper, I sleep a little sounder and I definitely laugh louder and longer.....oh, that part may be Bee's fault, not Nantucket, now that I think of it.

I see things more clearly.  I couldn't take my eyes off these trees yesterday.  Bee and I had a late lunch outside at The Brotherhood of Thieves (isn't that just the best name for a restaurant?) and I looked up and was mesmerized by the late afternoon sun slanting through the leaves way above my head.

For one thing, I noticed that we are definitely in the midst of summer, maybe even heading into the last innings.  The colors are changing from the pinks, purples and whites of early summer to orange, red and bright, bright yellow.  Louder colors. Full on high summer colors.

The rose hips are coloring up and this year they are huge.

And yet, that gorgeous afternoon light, coming through the leaves, ever changing as the soft breeze ruffles the leaves and changes the light patterns----endlessly, quietly.  Beautiful.

Good bye, Nantucket.  Thanks for filling me up with such good things.  Thanks for the fun and the rest and the laughs.  Thanks for everything.

I am so grateful for my time here.

"Just a sandy wind-swept island!"
What more would you have it be,
With a turquoise sky above it,
Around it a sapphire sea?
Mary Starbuck