Dear Friends, In purely musical terms, a burden is a good thing: a continual refrain rounding up and affirming the essence of a song. And if the song embedded in this season of life is a bit difficult for me to make out at times, the burden is unmistakable: thank you. In the nearly eight…
Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. ~Frederick Buechner This is not the next post I expected to write, and it’s certainly not the post I want to write. But you dear readers have followed my journey here in sunshine and in shade, and I feel the need to…
If there’s anything cozier than holing up in an Airstream during a thunderstorm, I’d like to know what it is. Better than the proverbial rain on a tin roof is the rhythmic tattoo of a downpour on a tin can camper. After three weeks of sunshine, a few days of showers have been a welcome…
The first three months of this year were filled to bursting with good things. School resumed with Hilary term in January, and although I was only taking one class (Italian Renaissance Art), it was every bit the challenge that my previous Oxford courses have led me to expect. I’m required to take half of my…
My dear friend Sarah had an enchanting post today about May Morning in Oxford. It’s a pageant I’ve always longed to witness, and one which Philip and I have promised ourselves we’ll experience in person one day. Reading about it in her words, luminous with her joy, made my heart ache a little. But I’ve…
“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report written on birds that he’d had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to…
We always love to hear from readers, and this little note is no exception: “I was catching up on Golden Hours today and I was inspired by Lanier writing about her mom having tea with her and her sister everyday. So I had tea with the girls when they got home from school. It was…
You must remember, garden catalogues are as big liars as house agents. ~Rumer Godden, China Court My relationship with gardening has been a tumultuous affair from day one, fraught with all the heights and depths of a grande amour. Mainly self-taught, my earliest attempts were characterized by rapturous perusals of garden catalogues, advertising such wonders…
Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return. You know it’s time for a change when your kid corrects you. It was during family dinnertime, when I was waxing sarcastic about a woman we know who posted on social media daily photos of sunsets and rainbows and dolphins, along with encouraging (but…
I confess, I’ve never hit a cynical patch where Valentine’s is concerned. I’ve always loved it. And with all the rancor in the world of late, the celebration of a day devoted exclusively to love seems more endearing—and more needful—than ever. I didn’t have a Valentine until I was 24, the year Philip and I…
Dear Lanier, It was terribly clever of you to type up an agenda for our little writers’ luncheon yesterday. Without it, I fear we would have held court for even longer than the three hours we occupied our corner of the café. (Although it wasn’t so much our corner, was it? Seeing as despite the…
Every afternoon at precisely four o’clock my mother’s teakettle let off a piercing shriek. It wasn’t just background noise, or an auditory adjective amid the jostle of supper preparations. It was a signal, a summons. And my sister and I knew exactly what it meant: it was time to lay aside whatever we were working…
“There is nothing that makes me happier than sitting around the dinner table and talking until the candles are burned down.” ~ Madeleine L’Engle, A Circle of Quiet As you’ve likely gathered, the content in this small corner of the web is unapologetically old-fashioned. A new-fashioned concept—at least to those of us outside Scandinavia—is…
A proper piece of poetry should stand on its own—no poem worth its salt should require a backstory. But I don’t claim to be a poet, so here it is: I am reeling from a recent rejection. I talk a big talk about dusting myself off and try, try, trying again. And again. About how the…
Laura and I have been blessed and delighted by the warm comments, notes, messages and feedback we’ve received over this dear little Golden Hours venture. What started as a fun challenge between two friends has become a sweet community of kindred spirits. What’s more, we’ve been encouraged. Quite simply, you have put us in courage–which…
We have a give-away winner! Misty Krasawski, a pristine copy of Madeleine L’Engle’s Walking On Water is headed your way! Thanks to all of you for your comments, encouragements, warm wishes–and for helping spread the word about Golden Hours. Lanier and I have loved working on Golden Hours–from Advent to Epiphany–and we toasted GH last…
It’s the glad New Year, and folks are rethinking and regrouping and re-everything-ing. I promised a post on how to re-enchant your life. Alas, I’m not going to be able to deliver. But we are offering another book give-away! (See details at the end of this post.) So I sat down to write this and…
I’m an absolute stickler about keeping the full Twelve Days of Christmas; it’s just too great and grand a feast to confine to a few days—even a full week. I’ve waited all year for this: I’m not going to be cheated out of a single second if I can help it. That’s just the thing,…
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