Inspiration from a Weekend in Maine

First, an image of the window that I finished before we left for our weekend away:

The blues show up the best here -- but there are purple flowers hiding in between.

David and I celebrated our 25th anniversary with a weekend in Southwest Harbor on Mt. Desert island.  The weather on Friday was perfect : one of the bright, clear, Maine days that makes you wish you could live there all the time.  After breakfast, we walked up the Asticou Terrace trail out of Northeast Harbor and visited the Thuya Gardens (designed by Charles Savage for the landscape architect Joseph Curtis, who designed the Asticou Terrace trails).  Here's a view of the harbor from one of the several small huts staggered along the trail:

In the gardens, there were many signs that the season is changing fast, but the salvia is still blooming:

The flower was nearly as big as my head!

 And the Dahlia's were huge:

Still, you can see the fall leaves in the moss garden:

And the red leaf in the small stream is a sure harbinger of change.

That afternoon we had a wonderful sail with David's uncle Joe on his new boat--which we concluded in fine style with tea and cookies on deck.  Thanks, Joe!

David and Joe on board.

Saturday was rainy, so we visited our friend Ellen Church (who is an extraordinary painter -- see some of her work at this link: http://www.courthousegallery.com/?section=church_ellen), visited galleries nearby, and had a sleepy afternoon in front of the fire.  

But I couldn't leave Maine without a little beach-combing.  Here are a few of the inspirational treasures I gleaned:

It is thanks to 25 years of visiting Southwest Harbor and poking around on the shore in front of the house where we stay that I had enough seaglass to cover the wall in my bathroom a few years ago:

A tribute to Southwest Harbor

I know why so many artists call Maine their home....there is something about the place that inspires and nurtures creativity.