Sowing sweet pea seeds outdoors in January seems like an act of faith. Especially when the sun hasn’t shown its face in days and the whole world is sodden and drear. I was almost laughing at the absurdity of it last week when, bundled in my winter coat and hurrying against the cold of a…
I seriously cannot recall a time in which music was not an essential element of my life. In fact, I have a distinct memory of my own personal first encounter with classical music—Mozart to be exact. My parents had given me a little record player (how much children miss these days! There is something so…
January 20, 2007 The bluebirds are house-hunting this morning. I had to call Philip and tell him, describe the way one female in particular kept poking about the hole of the house on the side of the water oak outside the kitchen window, nosing in and out as if unsure, tilting her head in examination,…
One of the books on my current reading list (I’ve usually got at least three going at any given time, sometimes more!) is E.M. Forster’s classic on writing, Aspects of the Novel. Here’s a passage I simply had to share: Pseudo-scholarship is, on its good side, the homage paid by ignorance to learning…Books have to…
In the film Miss Potter, Beatrix’s character has a conversation with her parents in which her mother makes a rather disagreeable reference to her age. Her reply has been in my heart ever since: “At my age, mother, every day matters.” She was thirty-two. Every day matters too much not to spend it on—or at…
Well, my mother and I spent yesterday afternoon in the Lake District–via the delightful new film, Miss Potter, which chronicles the literary journey of our beloved Beatrix. It was so enchanting–so altogether lovely–that we were walking on air when we came out of the theatre. That hasn’t happened to me in a long, long time!…
And I have my life back! 😉 But wasn’t it fun! This time last year I was wondering if I could get my act together enough to do something as absurd as writing a novel in thirty days–the month before Christmas, no less. But few things I have ever done have been so rewarding. On…
After a gentle nudge from my sister-in-law, I realized it had been three weeks since I’d shown my face around here! 😉 It has been a delightful and busy November, and apart from keeping house and preparing for the holidays, my spare time has been predominately employed in a most ridiculous scheme…Not to mention the…
October 13, 2006 This was a day of doors flung wide; of windows lifted like a toast to autumn gusts and sunlight shimmering through sparkling wavy glass. Of shaking rugs in the open air and polishing old wood till it shone a deep amber. It was a day of housecleaning—the kind that only occurs once…
Of anyone, the great ‘St. Francis of Aberdeen’ ought to know… “…Those you call fairies in your country are chiefly the young children of the flower fairies. They are very fond of having fun with the thick people, as they call you; for, like most children, they like fun better than anything else." "Why do…
Philip and I have just recently returned from a New England adventure, consisting of a blissful week in a cottage in Maine and a mad-cap weekend in Boston with my sister and her husband. Ten days becomes an eternity when there’s nothing to do but feast your eyes on gorgeous scenery and your mind…
Sunday, September 17 We’ve spent the weekend getting ready for our housepainters, who will arrive with the sun Monday morning; Philip has been polishing up the details on our newly converted porch. We’ve called it so many things since the project began back in the spring: summer kitchen, mud room, sun room, keeping room. And…
September 4th Today was one of our favorite kinds of days: we call them ‘farm days’. Getting up early, a hearty breakfast, a brisk ‘constitutional’ around the property in the fashion of Thomas Jefferson. And a long, productive day of meaningful tasks, either working together or blowing kisses in passing as we delve into whatever…
Sunday afternoon Philip and I held one of the solemn little ceremonies that our year is so happily and liberally laden with. Celebrating the ordinary, homely things that make life both interesting and familiar gives us so much joy. Things as commonplace as a new sweetness in the air and a new angle to…
I’m working on my autumn schedule this afternoon, and getting excited about the change of season I feel coming, though it’s still ninety degrees outside and will be for weeks yet. And though this summer has had a routine of its own, albeit a laid-back one, I am almost giddy over the prospect of a…
I hope that y’all are having a lovely summer! It’s getting too hot here to go out and garden past ten o’clock in the morning, but there are plenty of pleasant indoor things to put one’s hands to. Not the least of which is a good book when all (or almost all ;)) the…
Three weeks ago today I was on a ladder in the backyard doing yet another of those absolutely imperative tasks that must be completed before vacation: spraying the peach trees. I had already had that conversation with myself about how stupid it was to get up on a rickety ladder with a heavy, awkward sprayer…
We’ve just returned from an idyllic family vacation on St. Simons Island–one of Georgia’s famed ‘Golden Isles’–which I managed to enjoy immensely despite the fact that my right foot is encased in a cast and I can only hobble about on crutches at present! 😉 (A long story, involving a ladder and a peach tree…
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