Time to come home.

Last day.
In transition,
from...

berries, pie, nap, sunlight, walks, lazy...

to...

waking, working, hunkering down, engaging, life...

See you in September; thanks for reading.
tt

Pink Street Books

Among the many charms of our rented house on Pink Street is the used book collection on the dining room bookshelves and the vintage kids books up in the girls' room. (Apologies to the family to whom they belong, since I just referred to their childhood reading materials as vintage...I suspect they are less vintage than I am!) We all of course brought an embarrassment of books with us, but each of us have found something here to read...

A wonderful autobiographical survey by Andrew Wyeth in which the painter gives insightful comments and background to his work...always interesting, sometimes surprising and often humorous and self-deprecating. We are only a few miles from many of the Maine locations Wyeth painted, including the iconic Christina Olson house. The landscape and the architecture echo what the paintings capture so beautifully, although with shining sun and shouting kids around it seems less moody and haunting here for us than for Wyeth.

Another find: issues of The CoEvolution Quarterly from the Seventies, published by the Whole Earth Catalog. With everything from book and movie reviews, recipes, suggestions for natural birth control and the best sexual lubricant...to articles on protecting Oregon's forested headwaters and solar energy; some elements seem comically dated while others strike an eerily timely note. Have we really been trying to get these things right for this long?

In the Winter 1976/77 issue, an interview with musician Taj Majal was of special interest, and not only because he will be performing at The Tarrytown Music Hall this October 3rd (stop by eyebuzz fine art before the show for a glass of wine), but also for his ideas about agriculture and the importance of knowing where your food comes from...a concept that is nothing if not current, with the eat local frenzy (I use that in a good way!) in full swing right now. To quote Taj from more than thirty years ago, "If you eat food, you got to grow it. And if you don't grow it, and you don't know how it's being grown, there's a big wide gap in what you know about what's happening...If you don't know where your food comes from...you're in a bad position. You're like a rat in a cage."

And for all of you who stuck with me through the whole post, the answer is: coconut oil.

More tomorrow; thanks for reading.
tt

When in Maine...

Hello from Pink Street, Mid-coast Maine...our respite from reality...well, at least for the end of August, the end of Summer ... eyebuzz has been closed but not forgotten, and not, even, at rest. We are back, in a way, where eyebuzz fine art began. Year after year, roaming around Portland on our way north, window shopping galleries and always coming back to those little paintings of farmhouses, trucks and trees. Finally, one year, gathering enough spare change (and a check) to bring home our first Habowski. When we were beginning our search for eyebuzz artists, and Bruce agreed to show with us, sight unseen (he the gallery, not we, the paintings)...it felt like a movie star had signed on to our first indie flick. I think we all agree it was a good instinct to bring him in.

Bruce just visited us yesterday here on Pink Street...Mary couldn't make it as she was up at the cabin at Moosewood to gather wild berries with a girlfriend...but she sent a bag full of pops for the girls which bought us enough time with Bruce to talk about his upcoming show this fall with us, painting on Monhegan, the pros & cons of Crocs, and, due to an unscheduled near-traumatic biking accident he was here to witness, how to determine if a nine-year-old girl has broken her ankle (she hadn't!).

We made it up here in time for the St. George Open Studios, which brought us perhaps a lead for a new eyebuzz artist...and had a stop at The Firehouse Gallery in Damariscotta, where, not incidentally, they have a few Habowskis for sale, along with a lot of other cool contemporary work.

We had another, albeit indirect, encounter with an upcoming eyebuzz artist, Eunju Kang (September, our opening show for the new season). While stopping in the adorable Wiscasset, (with a lovely strip of unique little shops, including Smitten and Treats)at Rock, Paper, Scissors we had brought up to the counter some beautiful notecards before flipping them over to discover that they were from Eunju's line of products she makes with her sisters under the Eunco label. We also picked up some sticky notes with illustrations by Lotta Jansdotter that will be perfect for lunch box love notes to the girls (next week-yikes!)

Driving back home from Wiscasset, we came upon the organic Beau Chemin Farm on Finntown Road, and had a euphoric hour or so...Callie & I picking all sorts of heirloom tomatoes (and my little Stone Barns alum knew the proper way to pick off Kale & Swiss Chard leaves)...Anna and Lindsey running through the fields of wildflowers...Tim trying to tend goal by the road as Anna went wayward. The kids got close to the sheep, but apparently a shy breed, they ran off to the woods before the girls could have much of a conversation with them.

From all of that bounty at Beau Chemin we made a perfect, soul-satisfying minestrone...but even after all this time in the State of Maine, I still can't make a decent moose stew. Thank goodness I'm not running for Vice President.

More tomorrow; thanks for reading.
tt