I will post links next week for this one and also for Peggy's new blog showing the dolls she makes. I am encouraging Peggy to share some of her cooking art on her blog, She is truly gifted. She makes the deserts for the restaurant she and Dennis own, and I get to taste a bit sometimes. Her linzer tart is a marvel, I credit it with my survival earlier this week, having had three slices!
This morning at eleven Cathy and I left in her car to paint and sketch in Rockport. We took lots of pictures, painted a bit, and had a picnic overlooking back beach. I am beginning to learn some of where I am now, goose cove or plum cove or granite pier or such Cathy has laid aside her earlier interest in drawing and painting while she and Ken rear 5 fine young people. Cathy is also a productive weaver with a sunlit workroom in the large house. Now she is enthusiastic about working in more fine art time also. Just two days in a row experiencing the creative zone that comes with loosing yourself in art has renewed this in her. Family demands change and the seasons of a woman's life change.
Then Peggy picked me up for a tour around Gloucester again, this time we drove on Rocky Neck, considered an artist's area. It is suitably shabby and old hippie like to merit the term "arty." We then visited an upscale gallery downtown where Dennis's painting is featured right inside the entry. This painting was on the front of the local paper last week.
Next stop was a bookstore for my own heart. It is Dogtown Bookstore with many old books and a few of the right new ones. The proprietor found both books I asked for and will mail them to Texas for me to keep them out of the luggage. The name Dogtown has historical significance here, as an early settlement later inhabited by wild dogs was so named. I fell in love with Bob Ritchey on the spot, a Santa Clause type with obvious need of friendly elves to keep up with all those books. Anything can be in there, with a dozen nooks and crannies. I saw most of the basic old books on antiques that have formed the background of our library for over 35years, but also books on ship models and pond boats and light houses and local history. All tempted me. Peggy came out with two fine children's books which delighted two of her grandchildren a bit later.
This was followed by a large family gathering for supper at Cathy and Ken's home. They do this every week on market day to celebrate the great fresh foods. We had salads and melons and swordfish and haddock and mounds of fried chicken and pork loin and venison steak with potatoes and crusty bread with local pasture butter. A great many young people were at the table, three sons and a daughter 16 with two of her friends who came in just after the meal had started, braiding back their pretty long hair as they came in from a swim in one of the deep cool quarry ponds here on the property. It was like having three beautiful mermaids at the table Small children of the next generation were also present.. The warmth of this great family and the way they share it with me is heart warming.
I have finished a little doll size hooked rug for Cathy. Shown it is not yet pressed. I have not lacked for doll company on this trip. Pru has a lovely small collection, and Peggy also. Paula Walton plans to drive up from CT on Friday to play dolls with us. Then Peggy and I will be guests at a very special doll club meeting on Saturday. There was that wonderful trip to the Wenham museum with dolls our focus there and the visit with Cyndi Burk who shares my interest in the pressed linen head dolls.
Dennis' big stieff bear stays with me, as faithful as the beautiful family dog, a Golden named Clover. If I am given the time and strength to do so I will surely come back to Cape Ann. My dreams are in this place. Cape Ann was the name Jackie picked for one of my nicest rug designs, though we only saw this spot once together. The beauty of it stayed with us.
