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Blue Hill Peninsula/ Culture and crafts vie with
picturesque coastal scenery for the visitor's attention. Pottery and
handcrafts abound in Blue Hill and, indeed, all across the East
Penobscot Bay peninsula and onto Deer Isle and Stonington. The world-famous Haystack Mountain
School of Crafts at Sunshine on Deer Isle, which sometimes has
shows, is worth the drive simply for the breathtaking view from its
unsurpassed setting on a steep, forested slope with stairs down to East
Penobscot Bay. Public tours are offered daily at 1 p.m. in summer. Rowantrees Pottery, the
institution inspired in 1934 by Adelaide Pearson through her friend
Mahatma Gandhi, is still going strong in a rambling house and barn
reached by a pretty brick path through gardens at the edge of Blue Hill.
Inside, you may be able to see potters at work; veteran employees in the
upstairs shop might recall for you the days when as children they joined
the story hours and pottery classes run by Miss Pearson and her protégé,
Laura Paddock. Sheila Varnum, who was associated with the founders since
she was 3, has owned the pottery since 1976 and has continued its
tradition. Named for the mountain ash trees above its green gate along
Union Street, Rowantrees is especially known for its jam jar with a flat
white lid covered with blueberries, as well as for unique glazes. Items
are attractively displayed for sale. Rackliffe Pottery at the other
end of town is an offshoot of Rowantrees, Phil Rackliffe having worked
there for twenty years. He and his family make all kinds of handsome and
useful kitchenware in a work area next to their small shop on Route 172.
The soup tureens with blueberry, strawberry or cranberry covers are
especially nice. Kneisel Hall Chamber Music
Festival, Pleasant Street, Blue Hill, (207) 374-2203. Concerts by
well-known faculty members are given Friday evenings and Sunday
afternoons from late June to mid-August in a rustic concert hall off
upper Pleasant Street. The series is part of the summer session of the
Kneisel Hall School of Music, founded by Dr. Franz Kneisel and called
“the cradle of chamber music teaching in America.” Innkeepers say a
summer tradition for many of their guests is to arrive on Thursday and
stay through Sunday, taking in two concerts, visiting the potteries and
dining well at local restaurants. Concert tickets, $19; veranda seats,
$14. Blue Hill Farmer's Market,
Route 172 at the Blue Hill Fairgrounds. Each Saturday in July and August
from 9 to 11:30 a.m., local farmers and artisans gather here for a real
down-home event. Horse-drawn wagons give the youngsters hayrides, while
residents and visitors browse through a small but interesting display of
everything from local produce to goat cheese, jellies, handmade gifts,
lamb's wool and patterned ski sweaters. The well-known Blue Hill Fair,
incidentally, has been going strong since 1891. Shopping. Along Blue Hill's
Main Street, big spenders are drawn to the famed Jud Hartmann
Gallery. Here, sculptor Hartmann shows quite spectacular
paintings by artist-friends along with the exceptional bronze sculptures
he crafts at his studio in nearby Brooklin (he also has a gallery in
foliage season in Grafton, Vt.). Everything is artfully arranged at The
Handworks Gallery, which shows super contemporary crafts. Artist
Judith Leighton’s Leighton Gallery off Parker Point Road is
considered one of the best in Maine. Other favorites include Liros
Gallery and Mark Bell Pottery. Birdhouses, carved birds,
hooked fish hangings, tables with driftwood bases and Victorian twig
furniture appeal at Belcher's Country Store, an offshoot of the
main store in Deer Isle. North Country Textiles has moved its
main store here from South Penobscot, offering wonderful throws, rugs,
table linens, wicker and wooden furniture, pottery and more. The Blue
Hill Wine Shop claims the largest selection in Down East Maine,
along with teas and tobaccos. SaraSara’s offers fun and funky
apparel for women. Blue Hill also supports two fine bookstores, Blue
Hill Books and North Light Books. Beside the causeway on Little Deer
Isle is Harbor Farm, a store and showroom in an 1850 schoolhouse
and a wreath-production building moved there by barge. Starting by
making wreaths of wicker, Dick McWilliams and company have expanded into
an impressive mail-order and retail operation of fine crafts, down-home
knickknacks, practical gadgets and Christmas items. Something of a cross
between, say, Tiffany’s and Brookstone, it features unique,
made-to-order items from birch twig swan baskets, woven coverlets, and
gold and silver jewelry to wooden hooks, folding stools, English
bathracks and garden shears. Behind the country store is a Christmas
shop with ornaments from around the world. In Deer Isle, the Maine Crafts
Association shows contemporary works by members. The Blue Heron
Gallery exhibits contemporary American crafts, featuring works by
the Haystack faculty. The Turtle Gallery has changing
exhibits of watercolors, oils, drawings, photographs, ceramics and wood
carvings by area artists. The Periwinkle stocks books, cards,
knit goods, stuffed animals and local crafts. Dockside Quilt Gallery
is known for colorful island-made quilts. Personal favorites include
famed metalsmith Ronald Hayes Pearson’s stunning gold and silver
jewelry at Pearson and the one-of-a-kind rugs at William Mor Oriental
Rugs. Stonington's long slumbering downtown
is awakening. The Clown, which also has stores in Blue Hill and
Portland, is a remarkable venture, combining English antiques,
contemporary art and Italian ceramics with Italian specialty foods and
wines. The fine olive oil is produced on the owners' farm in Tuscany.
The Grasshopper Shop and the Dry Dock offer gifts and
miscellany. Three galleries caught our eye, West Main Street Gallery,
Firebird Gallery and the Hoy Gallery, displaying Jill Hoy’s
vibrant paintings of coastal Maine. The charming Dockside Bookstore,
right beside the water with chairs for reading on a small deck,
specializes in Maine and marine books and nautical gifts. Visit the Fish Shop at the new Stonington
Sea Products facility on Route 15 outside Stonington. Its
hickory-smoked salmon, smoked slowly and naturally in a kiln imported
from Glasgow, has been rated the finest Scottish-style smoked salmon
outside Scotland. Nervous
Nellie's Jams and Jellies, 598 Sunshine
Road, Deer Isle. The jam business that Peter Beerits
started because he could not find employment as an artist has enabled
him to work full-time producing sculptures. Still employing table-top
steam kettles, his jelly business puts up small batches totaling 40,000
jars each year in a little house on the road to the Haystack Mountain
School of Crafts. So many people were stopping in that Peter decided to
serve refreshments as well. His Mountainville
Café offers morning coffee
and afternoon tea with homemade scones and breads (with plenty of jams
– we especially like the wild Maine blueberry-ginger conserve and the
hot tomato jelly). Included is a frozen drink that Peter calls a Batido,
a refreshing but caloric mix of cream cheese, freezer jam and crushed
ice cubes. Besides his culinary talents, Peter produces fantastic
sculptures from found objects – he calls it other people’s junk,
obtained from the Deer Isle dump. Peter's quirky sculptures on the
grounds outside the jam kitchen make this worth a visit. We were
intrigued by a sculpture of a lobsterman with huge red wooden claws for
arms. Lately, Peter cleared the surrounding woods to be peopled with
sculptures from his studio fashioned from an abandoned store he moved to
the site. Look for witches, woodsmen and owls among the trees. (207) 348-6182 or (800) 777-6845.
www.nervousnellies.com. Open daily 9 to 5, mid-May through Christmas;
rest of year, by chance. Material excerpted from Inn Spots & Special Places in New England, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2004. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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