Sneak Peek

Picnic blog is coming. It's all about location! And some food!

Ruin: Photographs of a Vanishing America

Down East books has this to say about Brian Vanden Brink's newest book, Ruin: Photographs of a Vanishing America. "Over the years, the sought-after architectural photographer Brian Vanden Brink, has stolen time from photographing the homes of the affluent to focus on deserted homes and architectural ruins - and their relationships to the surrounding landscape. In Ruin [click here to see a book sample], Vanden Brink captures and illuminates in stunning color and black and white images churches, mills, bridges, grain elevators, storefronts, the 300-foot-tall chimney of a lead smelter, and the pitch-black depths of an Air Force plutonium storage vault. Through Vanden Brink's lens, these structures become iconic, representing an America that was built and then abandoned. His photos capture the long, slow demise of structures that once held immense import and usefulness. With text by historic preservation and architecture expert Howard Mansfield, this collections of photos grants permanence to places that may soon vanish forever."

BRIAN VANDEN BRINK is an award-winning architectural photographer, whose work has been featured in many books and in Architectural Digest, Architectural Record, Metropolitan Home, Elle Decor, Coastal Living, Cottage Living, The New York Times Magazine, Boston Globe, Down East, Old House Journal, Old House Interiors, Fine Homebuilding, Custom Home, and Yankee, among many other publications.

Discovering Maine

Maine has many interesting people and surprising places. Recently we were pleased to find both at Old Sheep Meadows Nursery in Alfred at 90 Federal Street. I was expecting the usual nursery but found down the rolling, rural country road, Michal and Raymond Graber’s charming antique Maine home



surrounded by acres of cultivated gardens to showcase their love of roses, flowering trees, shrubs and perennials including their spectacular daylilies.










Raymond is the rosarian and ecologist while Michal is the landscape designer and horticulturist.






Michal specializes in English gardens as you can see.









They were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary on the afternoon we were there; 47 of those years have been spent growing the roses and daylilies together! Now that’s true love!



We spent several pleasurable hours photographing the daylilies and talking with Michal. At the end of the afternoon we couldn’t resist buying some daylilies for our garden






and selected several plants in different shades of salmon and mauve, beautiful enough for a bride’s bouquet! Want to see more?

If you love old roses or daylilies or would like to see one of Maine’s great secrets, take a trip out to Old Sheep Meadows Nursery, but call ahead to make sure they are open, 207-324-5211. And be sure to give yourself plenty of time to fully enjoy this Maine treasure!