Teapots

"You can never have too many eagles," Jason Robards says in the wonderful movie A Thousand Clowns. Can you also never have too many teapots? Looking around my kitchen the other day I was thinking that I possibly just might.

I can't quite remember where the charming big-bellied number pictured above came from. It has a 1930's look to it, but doesn't pour well. It says "U.S.A." on the bottom, which was a way to let buyers know, right after WWII, that it wasn't "made in Japan".

My husband painted one of my teapots, was it for an exhibit? What's wrong with my aging brain? My husband and his painting buddy Stapleton Kearns are on their way to paint in Texas for a few weeks, so I can't ask him.

When I moved to Maine twenty-three years ago, one of my first exploratory trips was to the gorgeous town of Blue Hill. I discovered a pottery shop called Rowantrees. The pottery was made on the premises with Maine clay. It was founded in 1934 by a woman who had been to India and met Gandhi. When she asked Gandhi what she could do for the people of Blue Hill, he told her to start a pottery. So back she went to Blue Hill and started Rowantrees. The White House has a set of Rowantrees dinnerware, bought by the Eisenhower's. The designs are charming, but the pottery closed last year. Still, that's a pretty long run. Andrew Phelan, the son of one of the potters who worked there, wrote a history of it Following the Brick Path: The Story of Rowantrees Pottery.

There is a wonderful English teapot called a "Brown Betty" which this is not, but I have seen the same design in a British movie. Either a Miss Marple mystery or The Secret of Roan Inish, I think.
This is a plain, inexpensive, "made in Japan" or perhaps China, teapot, but I love it and use it often. If I am home, I drink a pot of tea in the afternoon. There are people who don't like hot liquids. I don't like cold liquids.

The interior basket is perfect for Lapsang Souchong.

My wonderful aunt, who passed away last year, bought this very silly teapot for me on the sly after I laughed at it in a store in California.

My friend Sally gave me this delightful art deco number. It says "coorsite No. 920" on the bottom, which means it was made by the H.F. Coors Pottery.

I have never made tea in this silver German teapot inherited from my grandparents. It belonged to my great-grandmother. My grandparents fled Germany before World War II and I am not sure how this teapot came to be in America. Like most immigrants they arrived in this country with nothing. My grandmother was very modern. She was a Freudian psychoanalyst and loved Danish modern design and modern art. I never saw her use this teapot.

I found this French teapot at Village Books in Washington, Maine and fell in love with it.

The teapot below was given to me by my mother. It is a from a child's tea set and has the phoenix design on it.
This is a very large teapot from my father, handmade by a potter in the Northwest.

I believe this is Japanese. There is a word for the type of unglazed pottery this is, but I can't find it right this minute an the web.

Here is another unglazed Japanese pot.


I have never made tea in either of those beauties above. But the one below I use all the time.


Arthritis in my thumbs has kept me from knitting for awhile. It seems better now, so I will pick up the needles again soon.

Also, I just began teaching a course on Shakespeare and the Renaissance at the Senior College in Belfast, Maine. I LOVE it!

Hope to see some of you on Saturday, April 30th at the Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival!
- Kathy

Bread Fair 2010

As Cooking Out Loud (with South Wind Through the Kitchen) I was a vendor at the Bread Fair (part of the Kneading Conference) in Skowhegan, Maine on Saturday. There were also lots of knitters there, the knitting/kneading connection? The above photo I have used before in this blog, and it is of bread baked by our friend Bob Fickett. Bob and his wife Vicki drove two hours to be at the Bread Fair, and it was great to see them. I met people who had traveled from all over the country to attend this Kneading Conference.
My camera ran out of juice, so I only have two photos. Scythe Supply was there. We already have a scythe, but it needs a snath. So I spoke with owner Carol Bryan about snaths. Her scythe blades are imported from Austria.
There were several companies with outdoor/indoor wood-fired ovens. Le Panyol makes a modular oven, which you can buy from Maine Wood Heat. They have a beautiful website.

There were vendors selling wheat you can plant, harvest (with a scythe, or not), mill and bake. A woman who came by said she was not ready to grow and mill her own wheat yet. We're not either. But I love the idea of it.

Janice Jones was there with beautiful hand-woven towels.

Sharon Lovejoy, author of Toad Cottages and Shooting Stars, came by. She has just moved to an island in Maine. Her book is filled with wonderful outdoor projects and ideas for children.
What fun!
-Kathy

Monday Blog Cafe! Has art changed your life?

This Monday we are hosting the Blog Cafe. I first saw this on The Knitting Blog by Mr. Puffy the Dog, which I love (I think of it as Mr. Puffy's Knitting Blog) and is one of the many wonderful knitting/life blogs on the web.

So here's the idea - this is from the Blog Cafe website:
Every Monday, we're going to gather at somebody's blog for some food, fun, and great conversation. Each week, we will have a different blogger act as our host for our virtual get-together. When you are the host, you will choose what we're "eating" and where we're "meeting", and you'll get us started on a topic of conversation. We hope you'll share some photos of where you're taking us and what we're having--give us a taste of the local fare and maybe give us a peek of the world in your neck of the woods! Then the rest of us--anyone and everyone is welcome--will pop in for a visit sometime throughout the day and leave a comment. We'll share our thoughts and insights on the topic you've chosen, and we'll all get to know each other better!

So we are eating muffins (see above) and gathering at The Good Kettle, a new take-out cafe in Stockton Springs, Maine, my home town.
They have home-made local produce and prepared food, soups, sandwiches and especially delicious jams and chutneys. You can get an entire meal to go! Or just fudge.
And wines, including the very delicious Maine Bartlett wines. They make a wonderful dry pear wine. And will ship!
This cafe shop is adorable.
They carry gorgeous hand-woven towels made by my neighbor Debbie who owns the yarn, weaving and spinning store Purple Fleece. You can now buy Debbie's hand-dyed yarn online, and her patterns are on Ravelry.
Lastly, The Good Kettle has cute tee shirts!

So the Blog Cafe discussion topic is this: has art changed your life?

The arts: books, movies, paintings, plays, music, are my steadfast, entertaining, illuminating, life-affirming, comforting companions. At the risk of sounding a bit corny, they feed my soul and shelter my spirit. But in fact they do.

As a moody teenager, I spent hours in my room listening to Chopin and the Beatles, reading a biography of Toulouse-Lautrec, Salinger's Franny and Zooey, Jane Austen, Magister Ludi. Out of high school I worked at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts when it was a sleepy old-fashioned place, and loved to wander through the rooms and be alone especially with the Egyptian and Greek sculpture. During college I fell in love with John Singer Sargent and frequently visited his remarkable portrait at the MFA, Daughters of Edward Darley Boit.

After college I worked for an antiquities dealer named Mr. Berheimer in his basement shop in Harvard Square (where I read all of Chekov and Simone de Beauvoir's four volume autobiography, the first one, Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter being my favorite). I was in an unhappy marriage at the time and one day was looking at Middle Eastern sculpture fragments made by someone some two thousand years ago and suddenly felt not alone in my misery.

A record of the musical Ain't Misbehavin' got me through the divorce and alone at night I watched Mash and read Ursula Le Guin's astonishing, healing, mind-blowing Earth Sea Trilogy and several of May Sarton's autobiographies - again the first, I Knew a Phoenix, was my favorite.

When I moved to Maine and met Scott Moore and discovered he loved medieval music I knew he was the man for me.

I could go on but am very tired having just returned from TKGA & TCGA's Knit and Crochet Show in Manchester, New Hampshire. It was a great show and lovely to see so many of you there! So please leave a comment and share your art experiences with us!
- Kathy

Men Who Bake - Bob Fickett's Loaves

My husband bakes all our bread. He started doing this when we received a bread machine as a gift. When the bread machine died from overuse, he just continued baking. Our cousin Cal, another man who bakes, gave us the no knead bread recipe - amazingly delicious! - it spurred my husband on. And he gave the recipe to his friend Jeff who is the baker and cook for his family.

The fabulous loaves pictured above were not baked by my husband, but by a college buddy of his, Bob Fickett. His wife Vicky sent me these photos on Facebook, and the following story:

Bob's newest interest is bread. Bought him a book and he's taken off with baking every weekend...focaccia, ciabatta, cinnamon rolls, danish. Baker's choice. It really saved us last winter while we were adjusting to the girls being gone. Broke bread & wine and suddenly everything was clear, simple and fine.

Two Christmases ago Bob requested a "good bread book". I did a bit of research online and I gave him The Bread Baker's Apprentice; Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread by Peter Reinhart. Little did I know I had purchased one of the "bibles". And although he has since amassed a huge pile of bread & pastry books, this is the only one he follows. The rest, as they say, is history. Next: Carmel Pecan Sticky Buns! Can't wait!!!
And what could be better than home baked bread and a wood stove. Yes, good bread makes everything "clear, simple and fine." Thanks Vicky, for sharing.
-Kathy