"Never Let Your Mother Put Up the Blueberries" and other tales of August

Monday August 10, 2009: recuperating from a very busy week. From finishing and delivering orders to clients, to working the annual Barridoff Galleries Fine Art Auction, to helping my mother set up her booth at the Union Antiques Show, our week was full of activities. One of my mom's regular customers brings her blueberries every year. Usually she brings them back to the house, puts them in the fridge and tells me they are there---I always make a blueberry pancake breakfast with the fresh blueberries for the morning after the Union Antiques Show. For some reason, this year, she put the blueberries in the freezer. She told me where she put them Sunday evening, only through the haze of sleeplessness, I didn't get what she said until Monday morning when I went to make the pancakes to find they were in the freezer. In the cardboard boxes in the freezer. One frozen mass of blueberries (or two, in this case) I managed to hammer off enough berries for breakfast, they were delicious, and until she figures out that I have a weblog, she'll never know how funny the brick of blueberries was for me.

Scenes from the Union Antiques Show, Union, Maine
Saturday & Sunday, August 8, 9, 2009:

David and our dog Ben make the rounds visiting with the fairgoers









Bruce Weber of Josiah Smith Antiques, Hallowell, Maine, takes a break before the gates open Sunday






John Rice from the Historical Society for Early American Decoration shows his wares to a prospective new recruit for HSEAD!






David Keef, my partner and husband, chats with Jeff Wainoris of Josiah Smith Antiques, Hallowell, Maine







Neil Anderson and Michael Giberson's dog enjoys the sun and fun at the show







Scenes from the Barridoff Galleries Auction at the Holiday Inn, Portland, Maine August 7, 2009:

Lucretia Baskin hard at work registering prospective bidders









Annette Elowitch pointing artist George Lloyd in the right direction







Bill Milliken & Jay York take sustenance before embarking on the six hours of moving artwork onto the podium. (Jay is smiling because he just told me where I was going to be going in the afterlife...the prediction came shortly after I commented on his fresh facial hair-do)




over 300 lots were auctioned Friday evening to a full house. Each year the auction proves to feature some great examples of work from American and European collections. Even though I've worked the phone bids for the past 15 years and have only had the chance to purchase works on rare occasions, the event is a wonderful assembly of works that you won't see elsewhere as well as an opportunity to visit with clients and friends while discussing the merits of the works presented


Harvard Librarian Roger Stoddard examines the addenda to the catalog.





Left: a Stephen Etnier oil on canvas in its original frame








What's next for August? A trip to Deertrees in Harrison, Maine for starters. And maybe, if the sun keeps shining, I'll get some swimming in!