Eliot's tomato

Our friend Eliot has always ranked way up there in the galaxy of good guests at the farm. He so clearly loves the house, the land and the area that it is a pleasure to have him around. But this year, he got the gold star because he brought me heirloom tomato and kale plants from the farm where he is working for the summer. Sadly, the kale met an early demise when the bunnies got to it, but the tomatoes thrived, at least in so far as tomatoes can thrive in a climate that has more in common with Canada than it does with the lower 48, and last night we dined on home grown tomato and basil salad! This fellow above didn't make it through Irene and was on the ground, so while it may still end up as part of our dinner (fried green tomatoes, anyone?), right now it is sitting in my studio, a very shapely and interesting subject for a still life.

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I always try to find a blue pitcher whenever I travel. Why blue? Not sure and over the years, I have loosened the requirements so that the pitcher needs only a touch of blue to qualify. My newest pitcher - the one at the back - came from a tiny hole-in-the-wall antique store in the medieval center of the town of Thouars in western France and is interesting because the handle is on the side, close to the spout. The pitcher on the left is made of ironstone. I found it in a big junk store near Cooperstown, NY. And the pitcher on the right at the front is from a favorite little shop on the Rue Jacob in Paris that sells ceramics and linens from Provence. The painting of these three pitchers is oil on stretched linen, 10" x 12". If you are interested in purchasing it, click here.