This about That

I’m still intent on visiting as many of the seven Maine museums this summer as I possibly can, but I’ve been severely slowed by excesses of lobster, fried things, and various pies, but it’s not over until the last bite or the fat man sings.

This past week I got to tour the secret private garden of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller on the grounds of Eyrie, the former Rockefeller estate in Seal Harbor, Maine, now Arcadia National Park. The Garden was created between 1926 and 1930 by Abby and garden designer Beatrix Farrand (who designed the gardens at Dumbarton Oaks for our D.C. readers); the flower beds have been overseen by Mrs. Rockefeller’s heirs since 1961. The Asian-inspired garden, with its fortress-like walls and thick wooden doors, won’t be at peak bloom until the first weeks of August, but it’s well worth the effort.

A limited number of passes to the garden are free, and reservations are made by phone beginning each season on June 14th. This year the garden is open to invited guests and those with reservations on Thursdays from July 16th through September 10th from 9 am to 11 am and 11 am to 1 pm -- just like my garden in Baltimore, except for the beer keg floating in the fish pond.


This past Friday night, my squeeze of some 28 years and I attended the Haystack Mountain School of Craft's summer auction, to see if we could score an addition to our extensive art holdings. The craft arts have been a bit tired lately, without much innovation. The pickings were slim for this year's auction items, and as with most events this year the bidding prices were very low. We successfully bid on a very cool Boris Bally recycled traffic sign tray.

Haystack's pristine rustic oceanfront environment is an amazing place to spend a summer making things, and it should play a major role in the next evolution in the craft arts. More images of the Rockefeller garden and the Haystack auction are on my Flickr site.