Elizabeth Wilder's Blog

THROUGH HIS EYES

A couple days ago my friend and I finally managed to plan a long awaited trip north to the Farnsworth Art Museum ( http://www.farnsworthartmuseum.org ) in Rockland, ME  - about two and a half hours up the coast or as we say - down-east.  We both have art backgrounds and longed to visit the Andrew Wyeth galleries and the newest Wyeth Center in the old Methodist church featuring NC Wyeth and Jamie - Andrew's father and son respectively.  Our husbands went along without leaving too long a heel dragging scar in the ground.  Actually, we didn't use a carrot but dangled seafood and home baked pie to get things moving.  Then with a click of my non-ruby walking shoes, we were carried away.  A wonderful bonus on the drive was an early show of color in the foliage.  [Leaf peeper warning! We have watched our hummingbirds leave nearly two weeks early - the woodpeckers have already started to hide suet in the cracks of the trees -  the chipmunks are running around with cheeks so full that they seem to have the worst case of mumps and turkeys have already been seen scratching for seeds in the woods. I think the foliage peak will be early.]  To me, Andrew Wyeth is truly a genius when comes to using natural light in his paintings especially in his series of work inspired by the Olsons and their home in Cushing, Maine. So after we wandered though the permanent collections at the museum and soaked up inspiration from all 3 generations of Wyeths, we drove in search of the Olson house.  The home sits on the tip of one of the fingers of land protruding into the sea along the coast of Maine. (If the shoreline could be stretched into a straight line it would run for nearly 3,500 miles.)  The Olson house stands as it did when Andrew first met Christina and her brother in 1939, still surrounded by lush pastures with the ocean beyond.  Entering you feel the emotion captured by Wyeth in every room and from every window.  We were fortunate to arrive as the late afternoon autumn sun was shining through the panes and my breath caught when I saw the patterns of light and shadows seen in so many of his paintings.   Although the home is nearly void of furniture, near the third floor window where many images were worked, stood an empty easel  within a strip of sunlight and in my mind's eye, I could see the artist at work.  When entering the first floor kitchen with wood stove, rocking chair and geraniums in the window, pantry and shed beyond the famous blue door, you could feel yourself fall into one of his paintings and I understood why so many artists and fans from all over the world would make this pilgrimage to this old homestead on a spit of land hidden on the coast.  Before leaving, my friend and I walked the pastures leading up to the house and stood where one his most famous works was captured in 1948 - Christina's World.  We walked where she pulled her frail and crippled body towards her home.  If any of you travel in this part of the coast of Maine and appreciate the work of Andrew Wyeth (now 91 years old), try to see his works in Rockland and tour the Olson house that will last forever through his eyes and talent.  We came back to the "real world" with a renewed energy and full of seafood and pie.

As a side note, when we move to PA we will be not far from the Wyeth family's home galleries at the Brandywine River Museum in Chadd's Ford.  (http://www.brandywinemuseum.org ).  Our daughter was married at the museum in 1990 and their guests enjoyed the galleries at the reception.          

SAY WHAT!!

I did not get a lot of sleep last night after thinking I actually would.  I managed to get myself to settle down a bit earlier than usual and had numbed my brain with the drone of same old same media.  Just as I reached for the control I heard "bankruptcy" - "failure" - "Lehman" - "Merrill Lynch" - "tighter housing market " - "values plunging" - "Bank of America" - Say What??  Pulling myself quickly out of drowse mode, I tried to put these bits and pieces together.  What did it mean?  Did I hear that Bank of America was failing?  I surfed from one cable news network to another and to the financial gurus at CNBC always just missing just that bit of information I needed to glue the nightmare together.  I began to think about many retirees I knew that supplemented pensions and/or social security with "safe stocks".  I wondered what kind of hit our children were going take in their 401K's.  And what  connection would the regulated Bank of America have with giants of the financial industry.  Was this going to cause a problem as we close of our new property in PA - would it make it impossible to try to keep two properties going until the housing crunch lifted - now later than sooner.  I finally settled myself down when it seemed that B of A was planning to buy out Merrill and thus help with that crash.   Whew - guess that meant Bank of America was still solvent and thus I managed to fall to sleep after 2 hours admittedly full of panic.  The stock market was already sliding into over a 500 point fall when I managed to groan out of bed looking for my morning cup of tea. 

When I started my blog, I thought I'd do my best to stay away from the politics.  I have dear friends that run the whole gamut from liberal to conservative and those in between.  To me, my long time friendships are worth much more to me that political opinions.  However, this blog was created for me to vent and to bottle up my feelings would be illogical for a blog called LizLogic.  So I am going to create red star warnings *    *    around messages some might not want to read - feel free to ignore/delete.

While getting myself geared up to take on a busy day, I saw Senator McCain speaking about the economy - the same economic mess that kept me awake most of the night. *  He said "the fundamentals of America's economy are strong" - Say What!  Sir, are you so far out of the main stream that you can not see what is happening to many of its citizens?  Can you not understand the fear of job loss, foreclosure on greed driven mortgages, the squeeze of dramatic increases in food prices, the crunch of stretching gasoline for commuters, and so forth?  Pulling together to solve problems is the strength of the American people but it also takes strong leaders ready to ask for sacrifice and to guide this strength.  But that has to be a leader that understands that there is a problem in the first place and that sir, is not you.  *

A quote from another that felt the fundamentals of the American economy were sound -  "Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the National Debt"   Herbert Hoover    

September Secret

I love September in Maine.  Once we get past Labor Day weekend and the "summah people" have returned home to get on with the school year, the pace here along the coast changes abruptly.  It has always amazed me how on the first Monday of Sept., the streets, shops, beaches are full of families hustling to grab the last bit of vacation and that final huge locally made ice cream cone/sundae.  (Did you know that New Englanders consume more ice cream per capita than any other place in the USA?)  Within 7 miles of our little house in the woods we have 7 ice cream stands located near the water or inland a bit where family farms make ice cream, each one trying to discover that newest taste treat before the others and ending up with a myriad of flavors.  We figure it would take well over a months vacation to get through the list having a different flavor each day.  I have a blueberry decorated plaque over the kitchen sink - "Without ice cream - life would be darkness and chaos".  Pardon -I digress.  Let's get back to busy, noisy Labor Day when suddenly  a magic wand seems to pass over the area and when you get up the next morning - poof! - families, young lovers and gaggles of teenagers have disappeared replaced by senior citizens taking advantage of the greatly reduced rates for accommodations.  That sure puts the brakes on the Route 1 clamor and the pace S-L-O-W-S.  This is the time I take to my secret place - a narrow road next to the open ocean where I sit on a retaining wall built to protect summer homes from winter storms (sometimes losing the battle against a "wicked" nor-easter).  Even in season you can see a few seals popping up and down if you are lucky.  BUT once the cacophony of summer play has dimmed, they seem to know the cove is theirs again and in they come.  On a perfect September day the air is fresh, the sky is a brilliant blue and the sun still warms your face.  The cove is usually calm, sometimes like glass, and the color of the water seems a deep teal as the sky is so blue and the depth of the water is clear to the green on the floor.  I have seen up to 17 seals in a pod.  I love watching the interaction of the social order as the little ones pop up and down energetically and make circles around   lazy "grampa" while others glide up and down feeding with abandon.  No man made meds can touch the feeling of peace and calmness in the soul than the sound of water lapping on the rocks as the seals mesmerize. With all that is going on I don't run down to my special place as much as I'd like but I did check in yesterday.  The water was a bit roughed up by the remains of Hannah, but they were there.  The young ones riding the waves like boogie boarders while the elders kept watch as the sun bounced off their wet smooth heads like diamonds floating in a pool.  This respite is just what is needed before the invasion of the leaf peepers   

Tag It and They Will Come

I'm not sure how you spent your labor day weekend but my husband and I spent our time doing just that - laboring!  I may not have mentioned it before but we have our home up for sale and find ourselves in the "what ever did we save that for" mode.  My husband is an admitted champion pack rat of things that he might need some day for something.  Actually, a few years back we had to lay out a rule that things go to the dump BUT nothing should come back.  There had been times when more came back in the pickup that left in the pick up.  We found ourselves facing 21 years of stuff that mysteriously appeared in the garage and every closet and shelf in the house since we retired to our little house in the woods of Maine plus another couple generations of junque that followed us here.  So we took a deep breath and dug in to the only solution - have a yard sale (or as we would say, "yahd sale").  Once upon a time our sales were a full time production with ads in the newspapers and flyers in the stores.  Then we would have "dealers" popping up and down like the ground hogs in a carnival game trying to peek in the garage windows to spy on the treasures an hour before we had planned to open.  Now we are much more laid back and place a few signs and balloons by the road to lead folks to our tagged goodies.  This group is mostly retirees who love "yahd salin" as a hobby, love to chit chat and pick up our stuff to add to their stuff which they will most likely sell at their future sales.  And in this way over 3 days, much of our goodies vanished.  My husband and I are admittedly part of the "yahd salin" clique and autumn is our favorite time.  There are so many things to do cruising the back roads while surrounded by Fall foliage -perhaps picking a few apples - finding the perfect pumpkin - stop at a country fair and yes look for hand lettered signs where someone has cleaned out stuff.  The next stop on our retirement journey is a sweet adult independent living unit in PA not far from our daughter and family.  This is not far from Amish country where the yard saling tradition lives on.  Or is it a tag sale?

Any one looking for an easy care retirement or summer place in Maine not far from the ocean yet a reasonable drive to the NH mountains?  Our multiple listing number is 896569.