NATURE IS ON OUR SIDE

Rabbit Rabbit! So much to celebrate! Daffodils and budding trees, and the green! Our most dependable source of joy, the change of seasons has come! More proof for the world that nature is truly on our side! Just tickle her with a hoe, she laughs with a harvest. MUSICA

For, lo the winter is past . . . Hooray! Happy Spring everyone!!! April! April! April! I love this month! My favorite thing about it is the colors … or, I should spell it way the British do . . . colours . . . because I’m thinking it’s a certain kind of colours I love … Beatrix Potter colours …. the soft blues, yellows, pinks, and greens that sing spring. My favorites, in wall paint, quilts, flowers and watercolors. Our Spring here in California, at our new old house on the Central Coast, is in full swing. The kind of Spring you dream about, no holding back. The flowers are yellow, pink, and white ~ and blossoms on crabapple and fruit trees are beginning to show, and it’s totally greened-up to the nth degree. I have lots of good pictures to show you! But first, to celebrate IN-house, Kellee has added lots of springy new things to our webstore, flowery notepads and sunshine stickers, new cards, loose teas, and don’t for get the mold and the recipe for LAMB CAKE!

If you have never made one of these wonderful cakes to celebrate Easter and Spring, a new baby, a tea party, or mother’s day, there is still time!

 This lamb, looking good from either side, is the crowning glory of any party!

I wrote special instructions along with the EASY recipe to make sure you are successful in your first foray into lambing. ❌⭕️ So here we go! Get your tea! And come with me, to the sea, to the sea, the sea of love . . . .  

I have been SO busy this last month! One thing I’m often asked is about my daily schedule . . . how I organize myself ~ which I think is interesting to hear from everyone! It’s all so creatively different! So, because I’m so jam-packed right now, (with projects of my own making of course) I thought this would be a good time to tell you. I don’t have a choice these days, if I want it all, which I do, I have to have everything on lists and prioritized, because I’m just not going to be happy unless all three of my priorities happen. First priority, number uno, is my new book . . . well, old book being made new again! Don’t worry, I wash the garden off my hands before I touch the beautiful clean paper! Nothing else can happen in a day until I do what must be done there. Except for today. Today I’m taking time for US!

This is the book so far! I think I’ll have the 30th Anniversary of my revised Summer Book ready to give to the printer in just two more weeks … I’m so excited. I still, after all these years, can’t quite believe I’m allowed to do this! I think I might have gotten a bit carried away this time . . . possibly making too many changes and adding too many new pages. but I did try to hold on to the essence of the Summer of ’95 on Martha’s Vineyard ~ the inspiration that started it … Thirty MORE summers have passed since the original book, and I’m putting all of them to work. It helps to be living in a place of perpetual summer. Days of sunshine and flowers make it all just an exercise in gratitude! My walk under blue skies every day fortifies my mission. Would you like a little preview?No, this isn’t the preview . . . well, looking at it one way, maybe it is!

First, to set the mood, here I am, working, and if you look close at those pages, you’ll see your first preview of the new book! Two new pages! And, please note I do not work alone.😊 I’m afraid if I show you too much I’ll ruin the surprise ~ but look below for more preview. The color isn’t quite right here, they’re actually softer 🎨, but you’ll get the gist. Take note of new inspiration of Green! Perfect because green symbolizes nature, growth, renewal, and harmony!💚

“…Sweet airs that give delight, and hurt not” . . . perfect, right? I redid some of the title pages . . . putting in different summery art, new summery quotes . . . wearing out the green watercolors . .

I rewrote the page about Library Days ~ the library was such an important part of my childhood summers, I wanted to say more about having that gift so close by ~ what used to seem ordinary has, in passage of time, began to feel like a little miracle . . . in fact, Library Days is now two pages instead of one . . .
And there are a lot more pages about the garden, about nature, star gazing, parties, and fun things to do during the summer.🌠

And  lots of new Summer Food too!🍉 I’m just about to do the pages for cakes, tea, and jams! 

In case you missed it in my last post, this will be the new cover! The finished book is scheduled to be here in July ~ if you’d like to pre-order your copy, just go HERE!

It’s turned out to be a very creative time for me.🏡 Besides the book, the second priority that gets a piece of my day is the house and garden ~ and who doesn’t love that!? I’m like that all the time anyway, but Spring really REQUIRES it! 🌸🌸🌸 Home is the most creative job in the world! I washed some windows yesterday and went around staring at the beauty of it! More sparkle, more green inside! We aren’t doing everything we’d like to do with the house right now ~ when the old house sells on the Island we’ll be able to get ourselves in all KINDS of trouble, hopefully this summer. Our that old Captain’s House is such a wonderful house, but many people want everything modern these days, we just weren’t one of them! It will take a certain person to see the romance and old-fashioned charm we saw and tried to make more of in the 35 years we were there. The kind of people who read a lot of books and fairy tales set in New England (and in Olde England too) when they were children and became homesick for a different time and place even before they saw it, that’s the buyer we’re hoping for. The one who feels very comfortable in 1849!💫

 One of the things a lot of New England houses have in common ~ you must have noticed, is white paint and dark shutters. So in the same spirit in which we decided to plant an English  Garden in California, even though it’s not England, I thought to myself, why can’t this long, low, double-wide dwelling in California be transformed into a New England house? I don’t see why we can’t make charm and old-fashioned romance in a double-wide? Lot’s of people do it. I never thought it was pretty before, but it has a porch, and lately I’ve been seeing it as sort of a mid-century low-slung, cottagey kind of house. Rose colored glasses help a lot! Because, truly, reality is something you rise above.😊 The front porch is actually a wooden deck, facing the sunset, half in sunlight, half in shade of a nearby tree (below), big enough to eat dinner on. Right out the front door, boom, you’re eating. Easy. No fuss. Like my Great Grandma’s porch in Iowa. Not about fancy, about cozy, useful, comfort. That was a plus, I always wanted a front porch, but never in my life has my house had one . . . until now . . . just took me a minute to recognize it when I saw it!😂 So, very quickly, and VERY inexpensively, we changed the porch and outside of the house into the closest thing to a New England house we know how to do until we can replace the roof and the deck! I have some before and afters for you:  First thing, no New England house should be without Adirondack chairs. We usually see them in white like we had on the Vineyard, but in our case, with a plain deck and white house, it made sense to get black ones for contrast! I could have gotten red or any color, but I really don’t want any outdoor decorations that compete with the garden for she is the star of my show.🪴 And this time, we got Adirondack rocking chairs! We ordered them from Home Depot, they came in a flat box through the mail, and Joe put them together, and that was the beginning!😍

We were on our way! We can sit outside in the evening . . .

and watch the sky turn colors . . .

We found two more chairs by accident, kind of wrought iron (only probably not made of that) rocking chairs, at the hardware store! So now we’re almost ready for a party! Houses are smaller here, but then again, California people are outside so much of the time, the indoors doesn’t NEED to be as big. Look at all that porch space we weren’t really using! We just need to remember to take better advantage of the outdoor spaces we already have.🥰

I found a little black shelf at an antique store in the village, and that’s what you see between the chairs. And remember that tin cat with the marble eyes? Perfect spot for it. More will come, but this is it so far!

Down below the deck on the left is a volunteer jasmine sneaking up on the deck behind the new chair, and soon will be tied up so it can crawl onto the house … the smell is heaven. I sit there and rock and smell and feel like Ferdinand the Bull. And just like we had wisteria scenting up our springtime on Martha’s Vineyard, wafting through the upstairs bedroom windows, we now have Jasmine . . . both inside and out . . . I bring bouquets of it in. It lasts forever and smells like a flower shop in our house.

See the box by the door, leaning up there, that’s our first box of shutters! This is the BEFORE picture! Someday we will probably have solar panels on the back of this house. We already have a well. I’ve always loved the idea of being self-sufficient. If it works out, off the grid we go! It’s nice to have plans even if we don’t get to do them all!

We ended up ordering six shutters, enough to do all three windows on the front of the house. And Joe took over.and Now, voila! What do you think? I think homier and cozier. And we didn’t even have to paint! Before you ask, yes, I know, I’m waiting till I find the perfect table. 

The new shutters look like they’ve been there forever. So easy, simple, and inexpensive with pretty good bang for the buck! More access to this!➡️ If we were still living in the historic district on Martha’s Vineyard, we’d actually have to get permission ~ they want to keep it historic which is why it’s so pretty . . . but there are rules about what shutters need to be made of, this would have cost more and taken more time! But here, in the wild wild west? Not so much. Once more, to compare, this is the BEFORE ⬇️

I still like it anyway. But now I like it better!

XX

Here’s a project still in dream form. This little side porch would make such a pretty garden room. Another sort of ignored outdoor space I need to think about. I’m already using it that way, and I’ve been thinking of ideas for changes, but my dance card is full right now, so it isn’t even ON a priority list. It’s just waiting. And, while this idea percolates, I garden around it.🌷

Can you picture it? Maybe paint the back wall green? Maybe someday we change the doors to French doors? And put a large potting bench where the white shelf is, to go all the way under the window with maybe even a deep sink to wash lettuce (2 chairs and a bar?), and paint that wall green also … And a comfy chair not made of wicker, ratan, or wood, where spiders won’t make their homes? with a book nook, or something. And maybe paint the concrete floor? Maybe paint it to look like bricks? 👏 And that little fountain over there? YESS!If you’re the kind of person that enjoys makeovers, I think you’re going to love it around here the next few years!💝

And if you’re the kind that saw that cup in the video and thought, I want one of those, then go HERE. Celebrating 250 years of the magical history of the country we all love.♥️ And FYI, for my girlfriends, the way things are going these days, I am sorry to have to tell you, but we may not be getting anymore mugs from England. Import is costing an arm and a leg… the shipping alone is crazy. And I can’t imagine asking anyone to pay any more than they already do.🥺 Sooooo . . .

But haven’t we had a good run? What a gift to have had access to these beautiful cups for so long. They are truly collectors items now . . . just as planned! Don’t let that stop you from using them, enjoying that thin little lip, feeling the specialness of their design! And you know what? Never say never!♥️

So, this will cheer us up . . . here’s a quick tour of our green world and life in the garden! I’ve been reading how GOOD gardening is for us, not only for fresh air and fresh food, bees and butterflies, physical activity and connecting to nature, but for underlying things like stress. While birds sing, I feel stress shedding off every time I’m out there!🌷🌷🌷🌷They say even LOOKING at pictures of gardens is good for you! 

I planted lettuce starts, said my prayers . . .

And look what happened! FOOD! So delicious! The freshest crunchiest spinach and lettuce for our salads. And these, our very own artichokes! Out there for the picking!

The alstroemeria is going WILD! This is such a worthy plant if you have the right climate. It comes in every color, is fluffy and beautiful and lasts forever in the garden, AND in a vase. I planted this one during one visit years ago… she’s the gift that keeps on giving.

This is ceanothus, referred to as California lilac. I think you can see why ~ because unfortunately, the New England-type of Lilac doesn’t grow here ~ It LIKES to freeze! But I love this too, it’s a very common ground cover here, you can grow it as a bush, a tree, and this one is a 6′ hedge, all in bloom now, the flowers smell like grape Kool-aid, delicious.

Oranges, blossoms, and scented geraniums fill the air, perfect for the

Ranunculus sparkling in the rain . . .

Sweet peas finally grabbing onto my kite string . . .

I’ve planted herbs, tomatoes, petunias, marigolds, strawberries, and roses; I’ve seeded hollyhocks (now about an inch tall) and forget-me-nots, among other things. I don’t get to garden EVERYDAY, but I try to do SOMETHING. Once in a while, I’ll get up early, work hard on the book, and late in the day, I go out and stay out until dark. Heavy into weeding. SO dirty! Never walk by the garden without grabbing something! Our barn cat Simon is very sociable and follows me around while I work. He’s a little love. Rolls over so I can rub his big fat tummy.

 And so handsome.

This was my kitchen window yesterday morning ~ it was raining. Hence, the green! House came with a shelf over the sink! Just like the old one. Can feed birds just outside. It’s smaller, but still there! I don’t know, feels like a miracle to me! Maybe just because I’m noticing more!Had to pop my head out to take a picture . . .

BTW, update on our weird wildflower orchard. I know some of you wonder how it’s going. Such a project. Totally worth it when we get it right. Note that half of it is growing and I can see tiny wildflowers coming along ~ but the other half is barren! Not even weeds! Yes, we noticed it too, so we’re figuring it out. See all those bags on the left? That’s manure we’re about to spread across the dirt. It was on sale. Next will be a layer of topsoil, then a layer of sand . . . For texturizing the soil. It’s a low spot there, water puddles, doesn’t drain. That’s our next step. But take note, holes are dug for fruit trees and they all went into the ground yesterday! Two apples, a lime tree and a cherry tree that has been grafted with 4 varieties ~ joined our apricot, plum, walnut, lemon, orange, fig, and avocado trees. Proof positive…

Here’s Joe, we’re out front making the secret sauce! Putting in the sweat equity, starting a second compost pile. That dark spot is a shovel full of dirt in mid-air! (Joe thinks this might be a good place for a farm stand! 😂 Help!)

And this shot brings me to priority #3. Moi. I needed to lose the stress weight I gained last year all through this move, I’m a eat-for-comfort kinda gal, I need to do it for for good health and so I can open those still-packed boxes that say on them, “Don’t open until you weigh 140 lbs.” Gardening is a huge help, I’m so comforted I forget to eat! ~ and #3a, I need to read books and learn stuff so my brain doesn’t fall into disuse ~ so, to cover everything in priority 3, I walk, 50 minutes a day, round and round this property, while listening to my audible book, which at the moment, is Jon Meacham’s (with a calming voice like butter that takes you right back to the times), book And There was Light, his Pulitzer-Prize winning biography of Abraham Lincoln. So between the walk, and the GARDEN, heavy bags of fertilizer and potting soil, and weeds with roots like large carrots for which I need every muscle in my body to pull, and Abraham Lincoln, I have slowly lost 9 pounds! YAY! Plan is to be able to open those boxes by Gladys Taber’s Birthday!

So in a giant nutshell, that’s it for how I spend my day. Not counting laundry and dishes, feeding cats, etc., this is how I manage time. At least for now. Till The Summer Book is done. So I have about another two weeks. I love doing this so much. When I’m done, I get to spread myself into more garden and more social life! And just a few hours a day of my next art project, not due for what now seems like a long time, which will end up feeling more like tomorrow!Here’s a little story: When I came into the kitchen early morning a couple of days ago Joe had left three fortune cookies on the counter. I LOVE fortune cookies, I don’t eat them, after trying a thousand times I finally realized they probably aren’t even really food ~ but I do love the fortunes. I WANTED to open one immediately, but felt unsure  ~ so I filled the kettle and boiled water for tea, scooped up some of my earl grey with lavender and let it steep while I fed Jack … before I gave in to myself. I was worried because I’m too busy to accidentally involve myself with negativity, hexes, or bad omens ~ nervous about taking a chance with Panda Express. But of course that didn’t last long and I suddenly grabbed one, promising myself only to believe it if it was good. And here it was . . .

 

Wow! How perfect! All I want is to celebrate my Summer Book (and give everyone something of the doily mentality to look forward to this summer), see the sweet peas bloom in an English Garden, rock on the front porch of a New England House, live where I can garden year round, be healthy and strong, and all at the same time. That’s not so much is it? So that fortune was perfect! There were three fortunes to choose from! And this was the one I got. Needless to say, I didn’t open the others. This was perfect. Even Joe was impressed! Two days later, I did open another one, telling myself no matter how good it might be, I would have to ignore it. I already made my choice it would mean nothing. And I got this: Which just made me laugh because there is no trying anything new! I am newed OUT right now.How very lucky.

Blessings on you Girlfriends for this new season and for always. Look for your joys in the little things of home and family. They are what matters forever and in the long run. And may your blessings be bountiful and fully counted . . . because, remember . . .

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SUMMER DREAMS

SUMMER DREAMS???😳 Are you insane? you might ask.😁 No, the good news is you’re free to dream any time of year! Plus, due to my new circumstances, I have no choice but to become a new harbinger of spring for all you Girlfriends who live in snow country.⛅️ What choice do we California dwellers have?🐝 Plus, I LIKE the idea. How about some MUSICA? YES! And, I want you to know, we DO have winter here! It happens most days, sometime between midnight and when the sun comes up, really cold in the mornings, you need a jacket! It’s 44º degrees right now, at 6:30 am, with a pink sky behind the horizon, and I’m wearing a warm shawl. It’s Perfect sleeping weather. 🕯️ I still light cozy candles every night and get under my Grandma’s nap blanket to watch Hacks with Joe and Jack. We are not totally devoid of seasons. It’s just no matter what the temperature, it’s pretty much heaven, only sweater weather. And it’s true that lettuce and chives and sweet peas and grass and lots of other things GROW in this chilly weather. So in the name of love, and because I remember how long these gray winter months can be, I send you from my imagination, Summer Dreams and . . .  

Let’s start with a Jack Update!👏 I know you’ve all been wanting details of how Jack’s been getting along in his new home. Thank you for your patience. I’ve been waiting too. To give you the good news. Cats do not like change. At least one doesn’t. I worried about him, got him on a schedule the minute we got here; and I was nice when he wasn’t. I worried about him if he seemed to sleep too much. I bought him cat grass. I didn’t push him. Everyone knows naps are healing. We took him to the vet for checkups. And waited. He didn’t like anything, especially he didn’t like the smell of this place.🙀

He would not sleep with us, would not even come into the bedroom or the bathroom for months, in fact pretty much never got out of a chair in the living room where I’d put a soft blanket … or from behind my computer on my desk, where I’d put a pillow so he could “hide.” Leaving him to go back east for Christmas almost did us BOTH in.🙀😿😼

But as you can see from these photos, he’s better, getting used to it here, and coming back to his old self. Joe made him a new scratching post.

He sleeps with us again now, naps with me, gets up with me in the morning, yawns while I make tea, follows me everywhere, stands at the screen doors, front, back, and side, keeping in touch while I’m out in the garden; he interacts better with barn kitties (who we adore) when they come up on the deck. He has nooks he claims as his own, he watches tv with us … sits next to us or on our laps … he rubs foreheads with me, doing brain exchange of love. I know it’s bedtime when he jumps down, looks at me with crazy eyes, stiffens, starts to run, stops, turns, and DARES me to chase him, and I jump up, and he takes off running, and what do I do, I chase him. Because he’s my boy!

He drinks from the faucet. It’s become “something we do.”

While we get ready for bed, he waits in my sock drawer. I wonder how many Martha’s Vineyard smells he finds around the house and what he thinks about that? Every time I rub the outdoor cats, I come in and rub Jack. I’m hoping he won’t know the difference between him and them after a while.

Jack is 13 years old now. Doesn’t that seem impossible? So many of you have known him all his life! Remember? Here he is when we first brought him home ⬆️.

And here he is in my desk drawer this morning… Life is good. We are happy. We have beautiful sunny mornings filled with bird song, and starry nights ~ it’s very dark out here, the moon was in a waning crescent phase last night, the thinnest of the thin, and tonight, it will be a new moon and totally dark, in case you’d like to go out and take pictures of stars!

Cross-country move update: we left this bird bath behind in our old garden back east, if you can imagine.🤯 In our quest to “downsize” and be “good” and “not take too much,” and all that rot, we almost lost our minds! But when got back to the Island over Christmas, I took one look at this rare treasure sitting out there in the frozen tundra, a gift given to Joe for his 50th birthday, and decided to cut out all that nutty thinking ~ we scrubbed it with a wire brush, so we wouldn’t take any critters to California with us, wrapped it, put it onto a pallet, got it on a truck and sent it to California to be with us. And there it is ⬆️, here in our English garden, in prime position, visible from my kitchen window. Bringing all the good ju-ju of garden love with it. 🌿 I mean look what it DOES! ⬇️ 💃🏼 My garden performer.

And remember this old blue bird-house that was hanging in the cherry tree in my Martha’s Vineyard garden?  (I love this picture.  One of our girlfriends did a little computer work on my photo, and made it look like a painting!)🌷 

Well, we brought that too. It’s in the tree next to the picket fence garden, right outside the window behind our sofa. I hope we get a little family to watch! We also brought our old sundial to put out back in the new orchard. Beloved old garden things are lending a quiet kind of magic ~ familiar, ordinary, starts to look like forever in our garden.🌿Here, in the land of perpetual summer I’ve been so happy and inspired, feeling the light, drawn outside to walk and plant and dream. I’ve had luv-lee time to think and reflect, outside, in nature. Even walking out in the morning to feed the barn cats is heaven. I’m getting stronger as the stress of last year (the last five years, or maybe since 2016, when your dad dies, and then your mom, today is her 95th birthday💝, and there’s covid, and your brother Jim dies, and your darling Uncle Dick, and the winter is dark, and you don’t know what’s wrong, and people depend on you, and you feel like you’re letting them down, the kind of normal life things we all experience 😪, happy gene or no happy gene) ~ that overwhelming sadness has slowly been slipping away ~ and then a while back, Joe asked me for the recipe to my Parsley Salad, and while getting it, I realized this year is the 30th anniversary of The Summer Book! Another shock to the system. Set me to thinking. And I realized with a stab of joy in my heart, I’m not done. In short dearest ones, because of that, and in response to so many requests, about a month ago I started writing and painting, fooling around with The Summer Book, then planning a surprise.

Since I live in perpetual Summer now 🌸, how about a 30th year anniversary revision? I could introduce it to a whole new generation! I’ve been waiting to tell you till I was a little further into it. Kellee and Judy loved the idea, so we all decided … this is the DAY I would tell you and we would put it up to PRE-ORDER. Because we think this book says Hope. I’ve probably gone a little crazy, thinking about what you’d like, I added a bunch of new pages and a new cover, new endpapers, lots of new recipes, sections on tea, and homemade jam, more self-sufficiency, and more about the garden . . . at my art table here, surrounded with the sounds and smells of summer, even though it’s not even spring, there is dirt on my hands every day, and look what happened!!☀️

Isn’t it pretty? The Summer Book has turned from blue to green!! Of course it did, because my whole life turned green when we moved to California . . . so while Jack naps in my desk drawer, I get my morning tea, listen to the birds, watch the sun rise, and work on my new book . . . look how it’s coming along . . .

My new pages are building and I’m having so much fun doing it  ~ I can’t stay asleep! One peep out of those birds, one moon beam sliding in from a corner of the window, and I’m UP. We’ve been told if I get the art to the printer by the end of March, we can have the brand new Summer Book in the studio by the beginning of JULY!!! Is that perfect timing or what? And thirty years! I’m working in a time machine, all those memories! Do you realize we didn’t have cell phones thirty years ago? It almost seemed normal to hand-write a book! Everything has changed. We can use a good celebration!💃🏼 And be more in touch with our beautiful healing earth and all of its charms. Sign up HERE to PRE-ORDER your very own copy that will come with a bookplate which I plan to sign for all the new books we send out from our Studio!💝 We have to think of something fun to do to celebrate!

Inbetween times, I’ve been testing new recipes for my new old book! Look at this happy DELICIOUS pink dip … YUM! I GREW part of it in my garden! Not telling you which part yet.😄

And this big potato pancake . . .for the crunch! I didn’t grow the potatoes, too early in the season, but I grew the chives. Everything counts!👏 Know what else we brought along with the bird bath and house? All my old pots and pans I bought when I was in my 20s and have used for every cookbook I’ve done!👏 Can you imagine I tried to leave them.😪 But they’re perfect. Thank goodness we got a second chance.💞 (No, house hasn’t sold yet.🤨)

Here’s another new recipe for the Summer Book . . . a tray of the best cheese blintzes in the world, that you can freeze and have anytime! You don’t even have to thaw them to cook them! And recipes for jams to go with them! I’m glad most of you have the original book, because this will be almost a a whole new book . . . I can’t help it, I’m so inspired by my garden, the dirt, the compost, the potting soils, my new wildflower orchard to-be, the mornings and the moons at 4 am, and every sweet green thing growing. And after thirty years, I find I have more to say about the subject!💚

And there will be a recipe for this, my new go-to healthy yummy lunch, a plate of crunchy, nutty, garden-grown delights . .. a pasta kale salad, YES, there is PASTA under there . . . Can’t wait to write about the secret that goes into this dish, why it’s so easy, so fast, so good, with an Asian flair that’s different than any others I’ve tasted.😋So besides this, as if it’s not enough, what else new do we have for you . . . Mostly little things . . .

Like these dishtowels! Cute, don’t you think? They look great with that salad ⬆️, did you notice? It’s the Green. And the red is good too! Means they go with everything, even Christmas, even Valentine’s, and definitely summer, because Nature goes with everything. Ever since we made the big move to California, I’ve been trying to make my house into a garden. I love my new dish towels ~ they’re perfect, 100% cotton …and I got lots extra for you, just in cases.💞 OH! That reminded me ~ have you seen the new Mad About the Boy Bridget Jones movie? Throw your jaded heart into the sea and get ready to believe again. Took me about 20 minutes! It’s so CHARMING! EVERYONE’S in it! The writing is brilliant … not only Bridget Jones, but watch for hints of Miss Potter and Love Actually, too!

 Our creative girlfriend Janie made us new springtime heart banners with birds and flowers to hang in our windows!🌷

I left my old one in the window of my Vineyard house, so she just sent me a new one! So when people drive up to my house, they know what to expect!💝 (This one is actually white, which do show up best, but all that light on the other side makes it look black!)

A treat for my very own self.💝

XXX

We got a new bird feeder. It’s green of course, that’s why I got it. Plus I wanted something homey, not a contraption. Who knows if it will work, but it’s cute! And not expensive. It’s metal. I love it so far. And so do the birds! I’ve already taken about 4,000 pictures of it. It hangs about 10 feet outside my kitchen window and it packs more joy into it than you can imagine. A narrow tray seems to keep the bigger birds away. I haven’t seen squirrels yet, but it’s new here and so am I. We may not even have squirrels! I got it at a local hardware store, but since it was the last one, I looked for it on the internet to try and put it on our website. To no avail. So, just in cases, I checked out Amazon. And voila! SO, because everyone on Instagram who saw that video ⬆️ was asking me where I got it . . . so, I’m giving you the link. (FYI, As you know, I’ve been sharing links to things I love for years ~ I WANT you to find things, and I love it when you tell me the good things you find! But recently Judy thought Amazon should start paying me when I do this! So, we are trying out the Amazon Affiliate Program. Because our company is so small, we want to keep it up and running. So if you get one of those birdhouses, you should know, Susan Branch Studios will get a little bit for pointing you in their direction. But don’t buy it because of that, buy it because you WANT IT!💝 What I really need is to find a Skechers Affiliate Program!😂)

Back to real life, these cards just came back in, just in time for a springtime note to a girlfriend . . . or sister, or mom. They come in packs of 10, from me and Emily Dickinson!💝

I am so in the mood to celebrate sunshine, so we had more of these made, because why not dream a little? And another reminder, something else you can do to be ready for this spring and summer . . .

I love these food umbrellas, so Vicky (Victorian) . . . no bees in the lemonade! No flies in the pie! And since I wanted one, Kellee went looking for them so we could put them in our webstore, and she found them! It’s big enough to go over a pitcher, and makes the table look wonderful.

I’ve already used it! Twice!I know this is the moon MOST of you are seeing now, it’s COLD out there, I check east coast weather every day . . . I remember it very well, never think I don’t miss the charm of it💞. And, interestingly, 

. . . to this harbinger of spring, while researching a little for the new Summer Book, I happened to read that even looking at PICTURES of blue skies, dirt paths, grass and flowers, birds, dogs and cats, gives our worries a break, refreshes us, reduces stress and depression, sharpens our brains, and brings mental well being. That makes me so happy.💃🏼 You don’t even have to be here . . . it means I can help right from my desk!!!💝 Bird peeps HAVE to be good for us.🌿🌸🌿

I’ve always love nature and every year the feeling has gotten stronger. Can you see me there? I’m like a very large chameleon lizard on that tree.

Here’s the little chunk of dirt out back that Alfredo threw a packet of wildflower seeds into last year, and now, when I walk out there, there it is, just coming up, in its 2nd year! Just saw the first lupine in there yesterday! Thank you Alfredo. And Thank you God. I say it every day. This whole thing feels like a small rebellion to the tyranny of time. Because it all comes to a stop in the garden.🌷

Here’s our new spot for the end of the day … rocking away on the front deck . . .

Found out, after the birds ate most of the seeds we put down the FIRST time, that we needed to cover the seeds lightly with hay.🙀 Who knew? Apparently NOT Google. So we did it again, more seeds, more water, and HAY.

The seeds are now UP, the tiniest of the tiny. Don’t forget your glasses if you wish to see them, but they are there!👏 It’s going to be gorgeous! Anticipation is thrilling! Don’t even THINK I won’t be taking you for a walk here!💞

Along with the dream, which is essential, it’s good if there’s a plan. Sometimes you don’t know the exact dream, so instead of trying to get it whole, look for the clues. Little things you think, like “I’ve always wanted to do that” . . . Nobody automatically knows how to make a plan, especially if they aren’t exactly sure of the dream 🤣, it took us YEARS to figure out how to do what we just did, pack up, give things away, move … we all have to make it up. Nobody likes making it up, it’s hard, because it’s very likely that you might have to give something up to have your dreams come true, and what if we make a mistake? But one foot in front of the other, and those steps will turn into seeds that will give you your flowers of tomorrow. So it’s worth it.💝 Something like that.💞 I know you know . . .This is the plan for the path in our new wildflower orchard … the wildflowers will go everywhere, but as they grow they will be mowed in a pattern much like this, only one lawn-mower width, through the flowers.🌸 Established fruit trees are where there is an X🌳, Zeros are where the new trees🌿 will go, and the whole thing will have a hedge around it, and paths will go through the hedges, as “doors,” which will lead to other gardens, when we get done making what we have. Decorating will never end!👏 Our old sundial will go right there, at the 4-way stop. Might let two of the lolly-pop trees grow together to make an arch at the entrance. If we don’t feel around 5 years old walking that path this summer, then I have not done my job correctly.🌷🌷🌷

A letter from one of our girlfriends ⬆️ . . . of course I kept it. I remind her, she reminds me, and around we go. Because if I can find my magic, and she can find hers, that makes it very likely we all can.💝

Bye for now Girlfriends. Remember, hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune with no words, and never stops at all. . . . Spring is coming, soil knows it even if you don’t yet. And Faith? She is the bird that feels the light and sings while the dawn is still dark. Okay, Grasshopper (as my dad would say), tell us about optimism.

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