Playing Tour Guide

Mom and sister-in-law have been visiting for a few days and I'm the tour guide.

Thought I'd share some of my favorite photos from the weekend.

You may remember this scene from my Rockport post last year. It looks different

every time you see it.  I think this one of my favorite photos in a long time.

Rockport tends to be a little bit of a ticky-tacky tourist trap but it's improving and

there are several nice shops and art galleries.  Lula's Pantry is great new shop that I love.

It has a lot of great gourmet pantry items from sauces,

spices, salted caramels and cookies to nautical themed kitchen items.

We saw these monkey or sailor's know doorstops/paperwights in a few different stores.

I love then here mixed with the wood and white.

This was a driftwood sculpture in the same shop.

This show how tightly some of the houses are packed in together

along the water. These two houses lock together like puzzle pieces.

I love the old lobster sign on Bearskin Neck.

The kayak rental place on Tuna Wharf.

This jester-like lantern was unexpected on this old Bearskin Neck cottage.

When I heard the amazing potter Frances Palmer was going to be showing her

work at Snug Harbor Farm on Saturday, I planned a trip to Maine so I could show 

my family around the farm and meet Frances at the same time.  Todd from Snug Harbor Farm

set up an amazing spread of food in the barn and it seems like a good crowd turned out.

I also got to meet blogging icon Katy Elliot in person.

Any trip to Snug Harbor has to include a tour of the greenhouses.

We drove up through charming Kennebunkport past the Bush compound.

On the way back down Route 1, we stopped at the Johnson Hall Museum in Wells which was one

of the wackiest places I've ever been.  We first thought it was an antique shop but as you get

closer, you learn that only things on the porch are for sale.  You can't enter the building

without paying $5 and nothing is for sale.  I looked around the porch--nothing is priced--and

when I asked the price of a few things, they weren't for sale.  I wanted to walk around

Mr. Johnson's collection of buildings on the property and was directed back to the "museum"

where we had to pay $5 (each) for the pleasure of walking around and taking photographs.

Since we paid the $5 to walk around he wanted to give us a tour of the "museum" for free.

We relented and the tour was charming--Johnson is quite a character--but it was when

he asked us to sit down to hear the player piano, I ran.  I suspected we might never get

to leave if let him go on.  

His buildings and collections of objects adorning them is purely charming.

Back at home, I unwrapped my Frances Palmer souvenir vase

and we plucked a few things from the garden to give it road test.

Dreamweaver roses,  yarrow 'Cherise', white geranium,

crown vetch (that is making a good attempt at overrunning my garden),

heuchera and a few hosta leaves.  Perfect to take to Janes for Flowers in the House.

I've got to run.   I have a tour this morning.