Journal of a Sabbatical

August 13, 2000

Appledore second attempt

Today's Reading: Among the Isles of Shoals by Celia Thaxter, By This Wing: Letters of Celia Thaxter to Bradford Torrey edited by Donna Titus

Today's Starting Pitcher: Tomo Ohka

Despite the fact that La Madre and Donald & Michael came within half a minute of missing the ferry 'cause they got lost in Portsmouth, our second attempt to visit Appledore to tour Celia Thaxter's garden actually succeeded. The crossing to the Isles of Shoals was a little rough - 6 foot waves at some points - and John Greenleaf Whittier's The Wreck of Rivermouth did cross my mind briefly. But we really did get there. The Thomas Laighton dropped us at Star Island, where we boarded the John M. Kingsbury for the crossing from Star to Appledore. Gulls were everywhere.

The tour guides, from the Rye Garden Club, were enthusiastic and knowledgeable. For those of us whose idea of what were going to see came from the famous painting by Childe Hassam of Celia in her garden, they explained that the garden is all annuals, which have to be planted every year, and they are not able to get seedlings as tall as the ones Celia had. They really had to scour the earth for some of the historic plants that aren't popular any more.

Members of the tour looking at the garden. That's La Madre, Donald, and Michael in the center.	The garden is a lot smaller than it looks in the Childe Hassam painting, but it's chock full of colorful scenes like this.	Lavatera - none of us had heard of it before today, but now Donald wants to plant it at Salisbury Beach.

Besides Celia Thaxter's garden and Shoals Marine Lab, Appledore is home to a rookery of both herring gulls and great black back gulls. The marine lab staff warned us the gulls could get aggressive if they perceived us a s a threat to their chicks, but it's very late in the nesting season and although plenty of juvenile herring gulls were still pecking at their parents' beaks for food, the adults did not attack us.

Great Black Back Gull

Juvenile Herring Gulls

On the walk from Celia's Garden to the family cemetery plot, the gap, and the reservoir, we encountered many weeds I hadn't photographed yet. The scarlet pimpernel is particularly prevalent. My favorite view was the sea across a field of wild mustard framed by rocks. It's one of those scenes the painters in Celia's salon did a lot.

Scarlet Pimpernel	Thistle	Yarrow
	a field of wild mustard

For more info on the remarkable literary and artistic salon on Appledore, check out this Celia Thaxter biography and this reading list.

For a visual viewpoint different from mine, take the Disposable Camera Tour of Appledore. It's pretty cool.