Home
Denise and I are home from a fantastic trip to New England.
Nearly every moment of this trip was ripe with beauty, or excitement, or reunions with dear friends, or some other something which would fill paragraphs to do it justice. So I can't tell it all. Which is sad, but at least life is that rich.
The short version: I had a show in Maine. Denise and Alexander came up a few days later. Alexander got rather sick. We received great care in a beautiful place. We went to the Camp Onaway alumnae weekend in New Hampshire and hiked in the beautiful White Mountains. We spent a few days in Boston at the end of the trip and all in all had a lovely time.
The (very) long (but by no means complete) version:
I went up first for a show of recent work at Gem Gallery on Peaks Island, off the coast of Portland, Maine. This was the day of terrorist scare which resulted in my slim-fast and yogurt being confiscated, and my luggage being hours late, and I got to spend an unexpected evening with dear Rilda Love. Fresh from a full night's sleep, I drove up from Boston after traffic and met up with friend Cheryl Plourde for lunch by the beautiful Portland waterfront. I then met up with Jenny Levison and Josh Waletsky who whisked into town and jumped onto the ferry just in time for us to ride over to the island together and check in at the Gem with Jane, who had met my very heavy boxes earlier and already had most of the show hung. Jenny, Josh and I swam in the chilly Casco Bay. A delightful crowd of full-time and summer Island folks came to the opening. Also there were Katie Neil Raper with Tess Raper (now nine and wonderful company). My paintings were well received on Peaks and I was quite taken with the island and its people. Jane Newkirk was unbelievably gracious and accommodating at every turn. She's a perfect melding of all that is good and lovely about southern women and the strong forthrightness (is that a word?) of a New Englander. Yet another ex-pat Mississippian making the world a better place. After a night on Peaks Chez Jane, I met up with Katie and Tess for breakfast and a ferry ride, then headed up to join Jenny and Josh in East Boothbay.
After a too-short weekend in East Boothbay with the Do-Tell Productions duo I soaked up life-affirming energy from Onaway friends Heather Seasonwein and Carol Southall in Freeport, spending the night at Carol's and getting a quick visit with Cordie and the triplets before heading to Boston to pick up my precious family.
An hour or so prior to landing Alexander had started running a fever. A little infant Tylenol helped but for the next four days, as we took in the beauty of our graciously proffered digs and surroundings, we battled the fever and got to know the great care available in the Boothbay area for pediatric health issues. The doctor, the nurses, the lab techs and the support staff were all, to a person, kind, attentive, smart and supportive. It was like something out of a feel-good movie. Except, of course, that Sender had to have blood drawn from his wee arm and big shots in his wee legs, and high fever in his wee body.
Needless to say, I didn't paint and the trip was not going as planned, but really we were in a lovely place. Denise and I took turns trail running, we all went on a hike along the Damariscotta, and we greatly enjoyed each others' gentle company both in the Levisons' cabin and leisurely touring around. And by Thursday our little boy was starting to feel much better. We were cleared by Dr. Wonderful to leave the area so we headed back south along the coast, stopping to say hello to fellow artist Evelyn Dunphy, whom we'd met pre-Sender at the 2004 Katahdin workshop. We met Evelyn's lovely husband and they offered to keep us overnight. What a joy! Sender was feeling much better and really took a liking to Evelyn and Hugh.
The next morning we continued south and by the time we stopped in at the Southall compound Alexander was tired of carseat and probably just tired in general from his week of being sick. It was great to see Carol, though, for a second time in the same week, get another peek at the triplets and Cordie, and see Sarah and little Rogers! After a brief visit we headed on to Portland, barely made the ferry, and headed over to Peaks. Sender seemed game for the boat ride and it was a gorgeous day. After a too-short visit with Jane we picked up the unsold work and jumped back on the ferry.
Running pretty far behind schedule, we drove west towards the White Mountains. Camp Onaway was our destination (many hours earlier) but that plan had been made pre-blood infection. Now we were winging it; not ideal when you have an infant but the best we could do. We had pricey (but welcome!) burgers on Squam Lake and rolled into a motel out from Plymouth, N.H. a little before ten that night. The next morning was cool and damp and we stopped for a hearty breakfast before pulling the rental car through the verdant drive to Onaway. We were generously given "the log cabin" for our little family's accommodations. This situated us right on the shore of mountain-ringed Lake Newfound. We spent the morning catching up with old friends and meeting their delightful children. Alexander was enthralled with all the activity. We went on a gentle but very rewarding hike up Rattlesnake with a delightful crew of Onaways of all ages, especially enjoying Nathaniel Eisenman and Marianne Noble and and her exuberant son Jeff. The view was spectacular and the rain on the way down added just the edge of adventure needed.
We so loved catching up with everyone who made the weekend at the camp which in so many ways (along with my parents) molded my vision of community, empowerment, and responsibility to the earth and each other as human beings.
Our original plan at this point had been to drive to a trailhead and hike into one of the AMC's huts for hikers which run through the White Mountains. Again, the plan was scrapped. Sender was feeling as good as new but had picked up an interesting habit of screaming for a while just before sleep. We decided this was not the best behavior to take to small buildings deep in the mountains where quarters were shared by more than one family. Instead, we made other plans.
We had a beautifully chaotic day and night with the Ringe siblings and their families (less Jeff). Thirteen of us (!) played, talked, ate, and slept in a rented house on the West side of the lake. They were very generous to include us in this delightful gathering and we had a great time!
The next day, after a very fun Eisenman/Ringe lunch, Denise and I tackled Mount Cardigan by way of its most difficult trail. Carol Southall had written, "too rough/too steep" by the description of this trail. With the day getting on and wanting to head down to Boston that evening, we decided steepest was also fastest. Pretty silly. We decided not to summit completely once we had climbed and clambered over the steep and rocky trail to find ourselves buffeted by the winds and crawling up the bare granite side of the mountain not far from the top but a little too slick and damp for our comfort with a young one strapped to Denise's back. We had planned to take the easier trail back down but since we didn't summit, we found ourselves going back down "too rough/too steep" much to the sadness a few knees. It was a great hike though, and Sender had a blast, laughing most of the way.
We hit the road after some yummy "Bristol House of Pizza" fare, and barged in on Rilda Love yet again, this time three of us and two days early. Rilda was our incredibly gracious hostess until we left in the wee hours of Thursday morning. We loved getting some time in Boston and Cambridge, even getting in a quick visit with Joe and Diane Robinson, meeting a sweet couple just moved from Tennessee to Episcopal Divinity School, and having dinner with Rilda's daughter Heather.
And now, home. Home to Eric Griffin picking us up. Home to former neighbor Todd doing much better after a health scare. Home to Martha and William and their parents, Lesley and Daniel, our dogs and cats and all our friends that make up our life here in this very funny place in the deep South. Home to Mississippi. And back to the studio.
