Stones Point

26 for dinner at our Stones Point reunion 2011! Click on the photo for the whole slide show!

Buying Lobster at Sam Olson's

Sam Olson's dock is down the hill from the Olson House made famous in Andrew Wyeth's Christina's world. Sam sells fuel, bait, and buys the catch from the Burton Pt. and Maple Juice Cove lobstermen - a fleet of perhaps a dozen and a half.

We buy lobster there during our summer vacation. Here is Annabel's first trip to see lobster - landed by the men of Nancy Elaine.

Images: from live well to crate, weighing the catch, peeking, Windwalker visiting Nancy Elaine, Nancy Elaine

After the rain - Maple Juice Cove

August evening, at Stones Point after the rain (Yes, we were underway, at Port Clyde, with Georgia [2] and Annabel [5] aboard), Maple Juice Cove, St. George River, Cushing, Maine.

To expand, click on thumbnail. To see more pix click HERE

A shot from Lisa's spot

Hupper Island and Little Caldwell Island, from Stones Point Road, Pleasant Point Rd., Cushing, ME

The link to Lisa's shot is here.

Henry Hudson landed at the St. George River

Tugster posed the question: where is this? I said to myself - Caldwell and Gay Islands in the St. George River. But then I said - oh, could be any one of several hundred spots in the Gulf of Maine archipelago. Well lo, and behold, it is the St. George, and it is Cushing - though I couldn't say with confidence which spot. But why be shy? I say - this shot is taken from Stones Point Road on Pleasant Point Gut looking south.

Turns out Henry Hudson landed on the St. George in 1609 on his way to discovering the North River. Hi mission was to replace a foremast lost at sea. Allen Island is the best candidate for that - its magnificent tall stand of trees still thrives. I had no idea Half Moon had landed there.

I knew, of course that Waymouth's first anchorage in 1605 was George's Harbor - the protected cove formed by Allen, Benner, Davis & Burnt Islands. That, of course is where Maine and New England were founded, by common consensus - marked by the stone cross erected there in 1905 for the Tricentennial. (more shots in this post).

And of course I knew that Waymouth was the first to make a claim of right of possession (w/o just cause) in what we now call New England. And he made it in Thomaston, an event this bronze plaque commemorates.

Andrew Wyeth

Wyeth - The Sisters

Andrew Wyeth has died.  He has high art critics it is said.  Not me.  I am a great admirer.  For me the pantheon is Ansel Adams, Monet, and Wyeth.  They taught me to see.  

Georges Harbor is  the place where Maine was founded.  Weymouth  landed there in 1605, erected a cross, claimed it for England and named the islands for the King - George.  In 1905 a memorial cross was erected there on the north end of Allen Island by the State of Maine. Thousands gathered for the Tricentennial.   Across the gut between Allen and Benner the Wyeths have a home.  

In these photographs of Georges Harbor and Allen Island Sea Station (a Betsy Wyeth project), a favorite place of mine, I have tried to capture the light that Wyeth celebrated, and for which we love the St.George River, Maple Juice Cove, Cushing where he painted the lives of Alva and Christina Olson.  We have been nearly neighbors 2 weeks a year there.  We will miss him.

Home Run is Andrew and Betsy's.  The dinghy is a Joel White-designed peapod. The lobster boat - Archangel - is the namesake of Weymouth's vessel. 

For the record here is the New York Times obit.  If you don't know the Wyeths'  Maine work the place to learn about it is in Rockland, at The Farnsworth Art Museum and Wyeth Center

 Portrait of Andrew Wyeth by James Graham, collage by The Farnsworth.

Stones Point