Thursday, August 13, 2015

"Ice Pond House" oil 9 x 12

 In the twelve years we have been going to Monhegan, we've met some wonderful people.  Some live on island, some visit the same weeks we do each summer.  We love our annual visit to the Island, and love our annual visits with other vacationers, from upstate NY, from mainland Maine, from points farther south.  Often, we have connected over our children, and enjoy seeing the maturity another year brings.

One friend used to rent the "Ice Pond House", not to be confused with the "Ice House" which was the shell of an actual ice house on island, and has since collapsed, its site being reabsorbed into the vegetation alongside the Ice Pond itself.  
A few years ago our friend asked me for a painting of the Ice Pond House.  I never got a good photograph of the painting until we visited our friend at her home on the mainland last month.  Monhegan's Ice Pond House is lovely, no electricity, exposed studs throughout, and a big living room with a balcony above onto which open the three bedrooms; a real cottage.  It is filled with original art and collections of things from over the past century.  Wonderful. 
I added a couple of pictures from the Thompson Ice House Museum in South Bristol, ME.  We visited there in the winter years ago and attended their actual ice cutting.  It was fascinating.  There was a basket of vintage ice skates.  You could pop on a pair, and skate at the far end of the pond while the near end of the pond was being sliced and carted away by horses, onto an arrangement of pulleys by which it was loaded and packed into the ice house itself.  Fascinating, and all happening on a -4 F day.  I imagine Monhegan's Ice House was used similarly, though I don't know if there were horses.   

Thanks for reading.  I love your comments.  Oh, and check out my fledgling math blog Fractions Aren't Half Bad.

5 comments:

  1. How stunning! I absolutely love this palette! I'd like to say more but suffice it to say, I always love reading history...and now math too? Be still my heart!

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    1. Thanks, Crimson. Was nice to think about the Ice House as it must have been working so long ago.

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  2. I do love reading your blog. Though never having been there, I feel like I know Monhegan through you.

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    1. Thanks, Patricia! I hope you have a chance to get there someday. If so, get in touch and I'll be happy to share any information I have.

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  3. Hi, Jody! It was pleasure meeting you Saturday at the Fair. You 'undersold' the blog - it's a great visual display with personal commentary. For my own take on the Marshfield Fair (from two years ago), take a look at http://theprincipalundergardener.blogspot.com/2013/08/fair-territory.html.
    Neal Sanders

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