Hello Everyone, welcome HOME . . .MUSICA
As we have discussed before, I’m a house person, I love them ~ I’ve loved them forever. All sizes, big and little ~ some so little they can fit on the shelf on top of my stove, and some even smaller that light up with votive candles. I even loved the little red houses in our 
monopoly game and seeing them all lined up, even if it was just Baltic Avenue, was a feeling of great comfort! I wasn’t even that wild to change them for a hotel. I liked my houses.🏡 So today I think I’ll show you lots and lots of English and Scottish houses and some New England houses too; houses we walked by, houses we went into, houses we lived in, and houses famous people lived in… and some we just drove by while I scrambled for the camera. Won’t that be fun? But before I do… We have some unfinished business don’t we Girlfriends? We have some prize winners to announce. I thought we might do this a bit quicker than usual, because, as you know, Vanna can take FOREVER to wake up, she’s such a princess. So when she came in last night, while she was still alert, I got her to draw the two winning names! Brilliant eh?
So here we go! Over 3,000 of you left comments to enter the drawing which sounds like a lot (a real lot if you ask me!) until you remember how many millions of people buy lottery tickets ~ you have a MUCH better chance of winning! This is my favorite part of the drawing… the 
moment in time where everyone is still a winner. I do not like announcing the actual winner, no matter how happy I am for them. I just wish everything would divide itself into loaves and fishes and pass itself around. But let’s be excited, because here we go . . . The first name Vanna drew will receive what you see above, a personalized copy of the 30th Anniversary edition of Heart of the Home, plus, a bird-in-a-gilded-cage ornament (that I found in England), and, in addition, two of our limited edition Dream Charms for your necklace or bracelet: 
“Christmas Joy” and the new “Heart of the Home.” SO. Are you ready???? Here we go!! Fireworks please!
The First Winner is . . . Sandra Stephens (who wrote in her comment that she has a “new dream of visiting England”). Congratulations Sandra‼️I hope winning this prize sets you on a path of luckiness that takes you everywhere you want to go!♥️
And now, for Drawing Number Two:
And here’s the second prize, the teapot I bought in an antique store in the Peak District in England in 2012… I painted it for A Fine Romance, and now it’s waiting to hear about its new home ~ that, along with two personalized books, A Fine Romance, and Heart of the Home, and a 
“Girlfriends” Dream Charm.
And, the winner IS, eeeek, . . . . . Joy in Alabama‼️
Congratulations to you, Joy💛 ~ hopefully this will bring you even MORE Joy! I’ll write both Sandra and Joy to find out what names they’d like me to write in their books and to get their addresses. Thank 
every one of you for your amazing, wonderful, funny, evocative, sweet comments. It’s you that makes this Blog such a nice place to come to. Thank you for your contributions!! LOVE YOU!♥️
Now. Not really a runner’s-up prize, but still, something quite nice: Houses. Shall we?
We’ll start with one of my little top-of-the-stove houses ~ this one only comes out once a year.💛
And now, in no particular order . . . Homes sweet Homes. Rainy day or sunshine, in focus or not, houses have such sweet allure. Much more than just shelter from the storm, they are havens of hopes, dreams, memories, births and deaths, grief and joy, youth and age, school days, holidays, snowstorms, daffodil lawns, barbecues, careful economy, report cards, grilled cheese sandwiches, energy, creativity, birthday cakes, new shoes; our homemade, everyday lives. All of these houses have one basic thing in common, besides the fact that normal people, like us, just trying to get through this life with everything intact, live there ~ it’s also something about the mystery in each of them that makes me think that I might like to live there too. One of my favorite things in travel is to see how others live. What home looks like to them.
So many houses in England have names . . . Just like my own Holly Oak, which must have had English roots to have always had a name. A name always makes me wonder. Why? I like to wonder why. I come up with all kinds of plausible and implausible possibilities, and Joe is my victim. He’s trapped in the car with me as I muse out loud. Luckily he doesn’t listen to me, other wise I might drive him crazy. 💛
Thatched roofs are not something you see too often in America. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one. But there are many in England, and in Scotland, some of them are made with heather.
Just like in the USA, different parts of the country use different kinds of building materials…mostly what was available locally and most plentifully.
Joe and I stayed in Owl Cottage for three glorious weeks and church bells rang everyday.
Walking home from shopping in town passing church on the right . . .
Charm is a dime a dozen in the United Kingdom, I think you will agree. This is just a normal house in a normal town on the Fife Coast in Scotland (highly recommended) that just coincidentally 
has bunting draped across the street. Perfectly normal. But doesn’t it make you wonder who lives there? I love the putty color, the red door and the step roof. Scotland, land of Highlands and Lowlands, lairds and lasses, pipes and lochs, legends and faeries, shepherds and dogs, castles and plaids, bagpipes and unicorns, castles and cottages.
This is another house in Scotland. Looks like not too much from the outside, but it was one we could go in, because it’s part of the Highland Folk Museum ~ 30 historical buildings that show how Highland people lived and worked from the 1700s up to the 1960s. Lots of interesting homes here, and best of all, they are all furnished and you can go in! Here’s what this little house was like inside:
Sweet and simple. The people who decorated these houses for the museum worked hard to collect just the right vintage for each house.
They kept it real so we could get a flavor for the times, running water and everything. This would have been an amazing luxury compared to some of the houses we saw there. 
Like this one, for example. I’ll have to do a whole blog on this Highland museum, because there were some fascinating things there I know you would love. They were re-thatching this 17th century house in several colors of heather which sheds most, but unfortunately, not all, of the rain which Scotland is somewhat famous for. 
These stone houses were amazing. Living here was NOT easy. There was an open fire in center of the one big room, smoke was everywhere, but supposed to go straight up through hole in roof. The homeowners and their children would have sat on wooden benches around the fire, cooked either in a pot that hung from chain over the flame, or on a huge hook that hung from another chain. There was no heat or light except the fire, no windows, no running water, and btw, no bathroom. Eeeek. This is precisely why I steered clear of every stone circle we came to. I touched nothing. With my luck I’d go back in time and there would be no Jamie, only motherhood, trying to keep the kids out of the fire, in one of these wet, drafty, dark, dirt-floored houses while hanging naked rabbits on hooks. We have it so made, Girlfriends.
Anne Hathaway married William Shakespeare in 1582. This was her family’s picturesque twelve-room, thatched-roof farmhouse in Stratford-Upon-Avon where Will came a’courting. It’s open to the public, you can wander through it and around the lovely gardens, but watch your head.
Though the timber-framed 500-year-old rooms were many, they were made for very short people, and rambled from level to level.
We also went to see Shakespeare’s Birthplace ~ when we walked in the door to get our tickets, these three women were already singing the Star Spangled Banner! 🇺🇸I don’t know why! They didn’t even know we were coming!🎵 We immediately joined in and that made us all laugh. So cute! I think they liked their jobs!
There were costumed docents in the house where Shakespeare was born, full of detailed information, bringing history to life, telling the story of the place where William Shakespeare did his childhood dreaming.
I loved the bonnet she had made and embroidered and asked for a closeup. She was embroidering a little bag to match when we walked into the room.
This of course isn’t a house … just something I saw in one of the villages as we were driving by … a luv-lee decoration on the second floor over a bookstore. Wonderful, eh?
Tudor style hotel! Built around 1500! Still standing, loved, used, appreciated.
This is the famous city of Bath (“Bawth”), we stayed in the house with the black door. There was a darling little shop on the ground floor, we had the three stories above where we celebrated Rachel’s 50th Birthday. I’ll have to do a whole blog about that too!
Coming out of a pub driveway, this darling brick house was just in front of us. Good spot. Live there, cross the street for lunch, go for a walk out back.
And this adorable loaf-of-bread cottage was just around the corner from where we stayed in the tiny village of Chacombe. I could happily live here, wear 1940s aprons, make Hot-Cross Buns and Victoria Sponge for the church, drink tea from a chipped crockery cup, and ride a cock horse to nearby Banbury Cross to celebrate Remembrance Sunday.
In the middle ages, every workman was an artist. Wm. Morris
So true, but William Morris did not have this ⬇️and I know he would have LOVED it: MUSICA
This traditional oast house was a discovery on one of our walks … first through a field of cows and then past this wonderful place.
Had to show you these chimneys! Building was a little hit or miss in the old days. Nothing seems to stop anyone, not roof heights, not beams, not levels and they felt perfectly fine building a house with a much bigger top than bottom. The rules were different. You did what you needed to do, even if it meant this.
There ain’t no rules around here, we’re trying to accomplish something! Thomas Edison
Walking to Rachel’s house from town, crookedness at its most charming best. Another Tudor style house on the left.
This is one of the manor houses near Bolton Abbey (some of the most romantic and prettiest walking country there is), just south of the Yorkshire Dales. . . and owned by the Duke of Devonshire since 1775. (See the duck in the grass?)
I’d be perfectly happy with the little house on the right. Excellent location!
Or this, pure charm, Dove Cottage, in Grasmere in the Lake District. We went here in 2012 ~ it’s the first home of William Wordsworth where he moved in 1799; planted flowers and vegetables, watched birds and butterflies, read, talked and wrote some of his most famous poems. 
Just another example: in England they can put a garden on a postage stamp! Sometimes less! Climbing roses grow out of cracks between sidewalk and foundations!
Purely pretty. Like the rest of the country, all handmade, no two houses alike. No two windows, or roofs or chimneys are exactly alike because the hand of man is all over this place!
Another drive-by. I was thrilled that this wasn’t too out of focus and you can read the name on the garden gate of Buttercups Cottage! I mostly just hung out the window with my camera all the time, because, as everyone who’s traveled through the English Countryside can tell you, this kind of charm isn’t just here and there, it’s EVERYWHERE.
Luv-lee Lacock, a mostly 18th century village owned by the National Trust.
This was the house I thought perhaps we should have as our clubhouse. What do you think? Knitting lessons every Thursday afternoon? Sunday dinners at 4?
The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life. William Morris.
One more drive-by shot, look at the fox and ducks on the roofs! Look at that thatch design ~ not a fancy house, just a perfect house . . . had to have a photo…
A nice little neighborhood . . . imagine the road is dirt, now picture the people walking by in 1806, carrying baskets, there are horses and wagons, food comes in pots, tins, boxes, and barrels and no one here ever throws anything away! 
Honey Cottage, home sweet home.
Just so you can see how England brought their architectural sensibilities to America, this is where Paul Revere lived during the Revolutionary war. The house was built in 1680 and is the oldest surviving structure in downtown Boston. It’s made of wood, because there was lots of it in the New World and not so much heather or Cotswold stone.
And this is another luv-lee old New England house ~ we have many beautiful historic homes here ~ beautiful in all seasons, but in the fall, they shine.
In the winter too…. here’s Louisa May Alcott’s “Orchard House” where she lived with her Marmee, father, and sisters in Concord, MA. Open to the public for tours.
And Gladys Taber’s 1690 Stillmeadow Farm . . .Gladys was born in 1899 and wrote lots of wonderful homey stories about life in her Connecticut house.
Another Massachusetts Charmer.
Then there’s this one, our house in the snow.
I’ve always loved painting houses for my books and calendars …
I was even able to send love of houses to the far east via the Chinese edition of A Fine Romance!
All my best to you Girlfriends, happy home, happy life! 🏡 Thank you again for your wonderful comments! 💛 Shall we go to Highclere Castle next? 👑 Or maybe to Carrie’s House in Oxford? 🇬🇧 Or, perhaps we go to Bawth and make dinner 🍾and decorate for Rachel’s Birthday?💐 Or, shall I make you some short ribs in a crock pot right here in my own kitchen?🍽 You choose! Bye for now❗️ Hopelessly devoted to you . . . ❌⭕️
Dear Susan,
Please, please, go to Highclere Castle next. Still having Downton Abbey withdrawals and I know your words will embellish all our warm memories. I’m so glad you are home all warm and cozy. Happy Holidays and a Blessed Christmas!🎄
Very soon Susan! They don’t let you take your camera inside, so steel yourself for that, but it really looks like the show, AND it’s not as big as one might think, really quite a family home in the country. Just a little daunting when you look at that facade.
What a lovely addition to my supper tonight—a new blog post! I just LOVE those thatched roofs—it looks like they have stitched upon them with a big giant needle of some kind? The loaf of bread house has it all around the edge and the Buttercups cottage has a pattern up at the peak! How did they do that—ingenuity at its finest. I vote for going to Highclere next. I was able to visit the traveling Downton Abbey exhibit as it come through a town near to me. It put me right into Downton mood. They had a lovely gift shop where you could buy all sorts of Downton souvenirs and the theme song played in the background. I have asked for the complete DVD set for Christmas. That way when January rolls around, I can pretend like nothing has changed and it is still on as I watch my way through the series again.
They used thatch to design all kinds of borders and shapes around windows … they cut it like hair and can do lots of different designs. Those really old houses had no cutting! They were just very hairy! There was a GREAT gift shop, as you might imagine, at Highclere, and they let me take pictures in there!
Yes please all of the above mentioned topics and more, I just can’t read enough of what you write. Merry Christmas to you and Joe! Are you celebrating Boxing Day, and just how does one celebrate Boxing Day?
Do we need another holiday at Christmas? No, I would say not…. but here’s what Boxing Day is, which I suggest you ignore as quickly as you can: “As servants prepared to leave to visit their families, their employers would present them with gift boxes. Despite its name, Boxing Day, which is celebrated on December 26 in Great Britain, has nothing to do with pugilistic competition. Nor is it a day for people to return unwanted Christmas presents.”
They are now suggesting all of THIS … But think twice before you click on it. I think the day after Christmas, you get up, you eat leftover dessert for breakfast, you nap, you put some wrapping paper into the trash, you nap again. You watch an old movie, you eat a turkey sandwich with gravy on it, and go to bed. Boxing Day, 2016. xoxo
❤️
Hahaha, Susan!
And we do NOT need another holiday at Christmas!
YOUR description of Boxing Day sounds like PERFECTION!
You nap, blah blah blah, you nap again! So True! By the time the day AFTER Christmas arrives, I am BOXING MYSELF to stay awake after all the previous weeks of hustle and bustle!
And isn’t there such a distinction between a “house” and a HOME!!! Love ALL these sweet sanctuaries!
Pretty soon they’ll have Black Friday Boxing Day sales and we’ll all have to kill ourselves! LOL “Boxing Myself!!!” too funny. Yes!!!
On! That sounds a lot like like what we do here on the 26th! We should call it Getting Fat Day what with all the eating, sleeping and watching television. LOL!
I was taught about boxes for servants too.
Yes, but do we have servants? I think we can safely say, no we do not!🙃
This is exactly what I am planning on doing!
Oh Susan you are so cute and I love your Boxing Day, I’m going to try it and forget the rest. Take care and happy holidays to you and yours.
We celebrate Boxing Day in Canada! It’s a lovely day that involves rest, relaxation, being with family in a very casual manner. Up until last year our city didn’t allow the stores to be open on Boxing Day so it truly was still part of all the gentle, Christmas celebration. I still like the idea of two days in a row where we put aside our insatiable need to shop. There is a quietness to Boxing Day and I adore it.
That sounds exactly like what we do too, only without a name! Yes, the movement to “go out and shop” isn’t making people happier here! Just a wee bit more stressed!
Oh in my family it is my Son’s Birthday, and We have always made it special for him….even birthday decorations …special meal and cakes. The best one was when he asked for a pumpkin pie for his cake…..I always make two so I hide one of them that year….no one ever knew…but I saved me some time the next day hahahaha We still make his day special at 32, and of course all the other children. I rest after that…and no boxing on that day..even though both of our fathers (husband and mine) were light weight boxers. hahahaha Enjoy the journey of preparing for Christmas , Love, Susan P.
I just spent an evening researching and writing on this subject for my blog last week! I cannot find any mention of how much it cost the average well~to~do family, but by the time everyone received their Christmas Box {term still in use today} it must have cost a fortune! Even the man who sold brick dust to the footman for polishing the knives got a Box! It was a fascinating subject to do and I learned a lot, even though I’m British and grew up with it! Thank goodness, for most of us, it is just another day off work now!
Well, but think of this…they were paying them, what? An average of 25 pounds a year… 2 pounds a month, or $3.00 a month ($66 in today’s money). So probably those Christmas Boxes, although generous and all, might not be as expensive as we imagine. Is that right? I may have figured it wrong!!!
Knitting lessons and tea…yes please…
and short ribs for supper…….be right over!
I’m dreaming of all those luv-lee places…..
I forgot to say that the ribs melt off the bone and have a sauce that is to die for.
Is the recipe in one of your books?
No, it’s something new.
Will you post it? Sounds yummy!!! Merry Christmas, Susan and Joe!
Yes!
Oh, puh-leeze!! I read and read this delightful blog, clicking my way through all of the fun links ~ and now it is past the dinner hour and I am STARVELOUS (as they used to say in the Betsy, Tacey and Tib books). Your kitchen smells delicious, all the way down here in Georgia!
Go eat, Terrie! 😘
Please tell us the recipe!
I’m going to cook it for you and take photos and then give the recipe. stay tuned!
Congrats to Sandra and Joy! They will love their lovely prizes. Loved all the houses especially Shakespeare and Louisa May Alcott because they are my distant cousins!❤️
Of course they are related! I didn’t know!
I think of all the houses, I love yours the best!
It’s hard to say, but kinda me too. Probably because I’ve lived here for so long! And all my stuff is here, and Jack and Joe.
I have always been house crazy too! Many times I ‘ve driven by houses in the evenings and their windows were still open and you get a tiny glimpse of the inside. And wish you could go inside to see more!! It was such a treat seeing all the homes you photographed. We lived in England for 2 years and I was always enchanted with the names of the houses. We stayed in one called “Friar’s Rise” in Burwood Park until our house was ready. Our house was called “Whytecotte” on Castle Road in Surrey. It was a lovely old 3 story home and had off-white stucco with light blue trim on the exterior, thus the name “Whytecotte’ meaning White Cottage. Such wonderful names!
How lucky that you got to live there! Joe and I talk about it, but we are so in love with our friends and our Island, now we just want to clone ourselves!
Thank you, Susan, for showing us all the charming, cozy houses. The 17th century home with different color thatched roof looks likes it’s growing right up out of the ground! I too love little crooked homes. I’m a big fan of Hugh Comstock homes in Carmel by the Sea. He built his first cottage for his wife’s rather large doll collection. His homes look like something in a Disney fairy tale. Since you’re originally from the west coast, perhaps you’ve seen them?
Congratulations to the winners!
Yes, I love those little fairytale houses. I lived in Carmel for a few months when I was young ~ it looks like an artist’s colony.
Thanks so much for the new blog. I always feel a little left out after the prize drawings…been a fan since Country Living days. But congrats to the winners …hope they enjoy their gifts.
Loved this the houses of England…went to a few of them on my travels…was in awe of
Anne Hathaway’s home…and the gardens were amazing…we ate some currants from the garden…yum. The tea,knitting and dinner sounds great!!!
Happy holidays to you,Joe, and all the girlfriends.
Kathie from Limerick
Ps…also was very impressed with the house of the he Alcott family when we were visiting in Concord,Mass.
Kathie from Limerick
Oh, I so agree… love “feeling” the lives that were lived in these houses.
I know. Choosing only one or two winners is a terrible thing! Happiest holidays to you and yours! xoxoxo
Happy Holiday to you and you’d too 🎄🎄🎄🎄🤗🤗🤗
Kathie from Limerick
I call my home “Dove Cottage,” too. And I didn’t know Wordsworth did.
For years I had consecutive dove families raising little ones in a small tree I had in my back yard until one year a hawk discovered their nest. They never came back after that. And some people think doves are not smart. I disagree!! I loved “my” clever little mourning doves.
You picked a beautiful name for a beautiful reason!
We have named our house “Crow’s Nest” there were so many Crows when we first moved in, not as many now. We are the only ones that like them..
most can not stand their “Cawing” but we like them. Not a pretty name, but ours.
I like them because they look so pretty and graphic; but they do what comes naturally, which I don’t exactly like. Crow’s Nest is great, there are always small treasures in a crow’s nest!
Susan,
You made me smile when I saw your response. There have been many treasures in our “Crow’s Nest” My children and grand babies, husband and family and wonderful friends. Yes treasures for sure! thanks, Susan P.
It is so funny. I was thinking of Outlander just before you mentioned Jamie in your blog! I love shows like that and Downton Abbey, and Doc Martin, and Poldark……I could go on and on. Why can’t we have more shows like those here in the US? As I was reading through your blog I could so easily see the life occurring within those homes back when they were inhabited by the original tenets. If I could go back in time I would love to stop in for tea with Gladys Taber, or Louisa May Alcott and talk to them about their lives. I think it is impossible to read your words and not find oneself dreaming. Thank you!
I know, and one of the ones I would love to talk to, Ralph Waldo Emerson lived just around the corner from Louisa May Alcott. She got to use his library when she was little! It’s so wonderful to learn the connections!
I wonder where a newbie should start with Ralph Waldo Emerson? Any suggestions? I am immersed in Martha’s Vineyard, Isle of Dreams, and I am a newbie to you, as well, but have been delighted again and again and again with what I’ve read so far……only one page 183 . and I’m slowing myself down because I want to make your book last longer. I have another on the way. You inspire me so much.
I fell in love with him through my quote books (“distilled genius”). When you hear his good common sense, you can’t help but think his words should be required reading for the whole world ~ he is the perfect teacher: “For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” OR “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.” OR “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) These are just a few I’ve starred in my quote books, but I could really go on all day. You’ll love him. xoxo
Thank you Rhonda! I’m so glad you’re enjoying my book ~ You are a sweetheart to tell me!
Dear Susan I would love to eat short ribs in your kitchen with you and Joe. I loved all the wonderful houses especially yours. We are all so blessed. Thank you for sharing with us.
Thank you Freda xoxo
Oh Dear Susan, you can take me anywhere. I’m looking forward to seeing and hearing about all of your adventures. England really grabs a hold of your heart and won’t let go. I’m so enjoying visiting again with you. You picked the perfect home for the girlfriends. We’ll all chip in and make it happen. Love to you and Joe and of course Jack. XOXO ♥
Perfect! And if we do it virtually, we can all afford it with plenty left over for tea cakes! xoxo
The house tour was exquisite. Thank you for sharing with us!
Please invite me to the clubhouse for tea! Thanks for the heart squeezing pictures. Is your rib recipe in one of your books? (shame on me for not knowing the answer!) Merry Christmas to you and your family and friends!
Not yet!
Well you know, wherever you want to revisit, we’ll be right there because that’s how girlfriends are !
xoxo Esther!
What a delightful respite from daily concerns! I’ve enjoyed every minute spent here with you. You had a lovely time, didn’t you? Sorry for being redundant, I felt it for real through these photos. You’re a good girlfriend for sharing such details with pictures and words.
My ancestors are Armstrongs; sandy and red hair, and fair complexions crop up intermittently–and DNA testing explained the evidence. No one teases or uses the word ginger though! Our family is almost too big to count these days. And we are spread too far across the country and overseas to be puled close at any one time, yet I’m the only one of hundreds who has a desire to travel to Scotland, where our male ancestor hailed from. Can you believe I subscribed to Scotland Magazine? Claire makes living with Jamie sound romantic but I shudder at the thought of how sparse food and medicines were back then. Such thoughts should make one run from romantic liaisons with the most handsome Scotsman! All the hard work that went on from sun up to sun down makes me so happy to be in my here and now. The book is much better than the movie but the story is still a lovely one. Details, details, details! You make me forget some of the harsh realities of those times. Your photos here soften even my cynical heart. Thank you.
I have this thing about baths too, like often. The 1700s seemed like not such a good place for that. Can love overcome EVERYTHING? I would not wish to test it.🙄 There is an old book, called Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins that rejoices in redheads, thinks of them as magic, and suggests they come from another world! xoxo
Aloha from the Big Island,
I so enjoy the reading, looking at your photos, & dreaming. I may never see the beautiful country side of England but it’s fun to dream & hey …. that’s why us girlfriends have you. We can see thru your eyes. Merry Christmas Susan & Joe & many blessings for the new year.
Hugs,
Georgia
Hi Georgia, aloha to my favorite Hawaiian Island.
Just keep writing and taking us to these fabulous old homes. I love it! Merry Christmas~
Carries’s house, Rachael’s birthday dinner then Highlere please. Carrie is your friend with the little dog named Jack, right? She lives close to the Bodelian (sp.) library in Oxford? Can’t wait to hear all about all of it. Is her little dog better? And Rachael is your friend that sang the sweet little Irish? song? You stayed down the street from her near the end of your visit? Want to hear all about her too! Can’t wait! The short rib recipe sounds good too. Glad you are home and safe. Debby
Yes, that’s Carrie, and her dog Jack is all well! Running and having a wonderful time on our walks around Oxford with us! Carrie just left a comment about 5 from this one! Rachel, yes sings, among other things, is also a famous brownie-maker too, and my pen pal since the early 90s. Short ribs also fabulous. SO we’ll just have to do it all!
Dearest Susan,
I loved this post of all the houses, especially the little cottages that beckon you inside to warm and cozy and good smells from a kitchen stove… Just so charming. I can only imagine the insides of most of those homes, but they are endearing …… Thank you for sharing your time in England and Scotland with us and also the homes of New England. Some of the New England ones I have seen and am always curious about what they are like inside too! I know you were asking about what you will write about next… I know what I would love to see and hear about is Christmas on Martha’s Vineyard and the homes and the downtown areas decorated.. Maybe some homes interiors and businesses interiors all decorated for the holidays….But yours especially and your kitchen buzzing with Christmas goodness from the oven! That would be my Christmas wish for the next blog …….Thank you again for this posting! I love all of them and am always waiting for the next one!!!! Merry Merry!!!! love from my island to yours xo
Merry Christmas to you Susan! From one Island to another!
I would love to see Highclere Castle for Christmas, please.
I, too, love houses. I still have to put out all my Dept 56 Dicken’s village for Christmas, speaking of houses. Lighted houses are even better. Never have been able to explain why I love all different kinds of houses, but have collected an assortment over the years. Thank you, Susan, for showing us all of the wonderful houses.
It’s something of the heart…xoxoxo
Oh I LOVED this blog soooooooooooo very much! Home, what a perfectly perfect word, isn’t it? I would just like to end by saying, more please Susan! And thank you!
Okay Mary, and thank you Back!
I cannot stop smiling at your description of talking nonstop and driving Joe crazy if he was listening. That describes our the success of our 40 year marriage: I talk nonstop about anything and everything, real or imagined and my husband (who is not listening to a word) says uh-huh. I love it! I am enjoying your travel photos so much and am so glad we have all those posts to look forward to!
Ha ha, well it’s a “thing” ~ seems most of my married girlfriends have that same “challenge.” Sometimes I think I could call “Fire,” but the house would burn down anyway.
The house with the thatched roof and the fox and the ducks, I loved the scallops and the detail in the thatch. So cute.
Merry Christmas to you and Joe🎄🎅🏻
I found out something about the thatched roofs when we visited England last. The design on the thatched roof is the mark of the builder/artist who roofed the house, not to be copied by another.
Some are such works of art.
Makes them so special … homemade!
Thank you so much for all the great pictures of England!! My dream is to go there too!!!
Thanks for all the wonderful posts all year. Wishing you a happy Christmas from here in Southern California and a great 2017 ahead; hope for you that it’ll be one where you can be home a little more than was the case in 2016 because, of course, you ‘heart’ that lovely house of yours…and MV! Jack must be glad that things are ‘back to normal'(!)…
That is the PLAN, Vicki, more home. Except for one month in California, must go have my mom’s birthday with her. Jack is cuddling heaven, getting better every day!
So Good to have you back in the USA . I’ve been to England but it was a whirlwind trip and need to go back to take it in at a slower pace. Your pictures are beautiful. I also love houses since I was a little girl collecting pictures from magazines of houses. Isn’t it fun to imagine life in and about those houses.
Whirlwind trips are not bad because they give you the lay of the land and make the second time about a hundred times easier! xoxo
Thank you soooo much for giving us a little tour of Houses. Glad to see a new blog. Where, oh where do you find the time? Oh, there must be 2 of you!
Do you know of the book, The Cottage Homes of England, by Helen Allingham and Stewart Dick, both born in the 1800’s? She was born in 1848. Her paintings of the cottages and people in the English Countryside, mostly in the South east, South and a bit into Hampshire, Oxford and Cheshire, are breath taking. He tells the history of the evolution the cottage homes, and much, more. His writing poetry.
I lugged the book on two trips looking for as many as I could find. Many are gone now, but we did find a few. Best of all, the search led us through some of the most wonderful landscapes, even if somewhat changed and meeting people who remembered some of them. As we know, though, the English cherish their green spaces and old buildings. I’m sure you must have seen entire road ways diverted several yards to avoid a house or an ancient tree. Some of the houses had suffered the indignity of being scraped by a lorry or two. Can you imagine sleeping in that corner room?
We built our Maine house based on a center hearth that actually holds up the loft. Nice big beams and a huge, locally made brick hearth. I drew the whole thing out on a piece of graph paper and we and 4 carpenters built it, except for the basement. I would be there 12 months a year but that Tom hates the cold, and adores golf. He’s earned it!!!!
Love the art of Helen Allingham, but haven’t yet run into the book. New thing to put into the “hunt!” Your house sounds perfect, like it just grew there from natural everything. xoxo
Yea! You “got it”. That was my goal. It fits so snuggly into the land. We love driving around the dirt road to the other side of our little bay, a mud flat full of birds at low tide, and seeing that we can Not see our house. We can see the water and sky, but hoped not to disrupt the place too much. Thank you for that, Miss Susan!
Debbie
Very thoughtful house building! xoxo
Congrats to the winners. Vanna does an awesome job. I love all of the cottages. I have dreamt of a cottage in Ireland with sheep in a field and stone fences,a thatched roof,a garden and a warm fire. My favorite is in ” The Quiet Man” one of my favorite movies. Thank you for sharing the pics. Just wonderful. I love your home. A light in the window, all snuggled in from the snow, oh I love it. Enjoy your home and I look forward to all the new things you will share.
Love that movie, and that white cottage with the green door, and that whole thing including the hat on the post with the ribbons blowing in the wind and the most wonderful song, Isle of Innisfree, that breaks your heart from the beauty! Bing Crosby does it best, but you have to listen to an ad, and I have an aversion to them! You got me started Deborah! XOXO
First of all, congratulations to the winners! Next, thank you for the wonderful tour of beautiful little houses and the treasures you found in them. Yes, you have so many choices as to what subject to blog on next; I will leave it to you! I hope that at some point in time you will write another book, I sincerely believe you have plenty of subject matter and tales to tell!
Wishing you and Joe a beautiful, blessed and Merry Christmas filled with love, laughter and joy!
Oh I think I do too! 😀 I have to STOP myself!
I have always loved houses, too, particularly thatch-roof cottages and any of the quaint houses in the UK. Love the pictures! Please yes do a post on Highclere Castle! I watch as many UK shows as I can on Netflix and Hulu, and one of my favorite things about them is the houses – big and small. Midsomer Murder is especially great with little villages and houses. Sigh. I so hope to both go to England one day and have a house of my own again.
Me too, hope that all comes true for you Janet. xoxo
Congratulations to the winners! And a Happy Christmas to all. Loved looking at all the
houses, enchanting. It sets off dreams. Thank you Susan, enjoyed this post.
I love that! Dreams being set off. My fave! xoxo
So sorry to not be one of the winners, but really felt like a winner reading this sweet blog post. I also would lovetheknittinglessonsin that charming house. Everyone was my favorite. Thank you for sharing. God bless you and yours.
Thank you Pam, same to you!
Ohhhh, I love houses too! I live in a nice neighborhood of cute houses, jumble of styles: Craftsman, Tudor, California Mission, etc. I think my wonderful little 2 bedroom house is old, built in 1939. When I take my evening walks I try to sneak a peek through windows to see arched doorways, tiled fire places and built-in cabinets with glass doors. Sigh.
I am currently researching hot chocolate recipes; who knew there were so many.🙂
Thank you for this post.🏡
I have two great ones (if I do say so myself) in my Autumn book. One is a delicious chocolaty mix (that includes cinnamon) you can make and giveaway, best with homemade marshmallows (recipe included) and the other is made with melted unsweetened chocolate, and is best served with freshly whipped cream!
Well, I am embarrassed, I have your Autumn book! Off to buy unsweetened chocolate 🍫 and whipping cream. Also, I see the recipe for Pumpkin Latte, I’ll give that a whirl too. Thanks! (I’m getting carried away with the emoji’s 😉)
Oh don’t be embarrassed. I don’t memorize cookbooks either! Also the Pumpkin Cheesecake, if I may say so, it’s Killer! Also the corn chowder with the scallops and mashed potatoes! I could say more, but I’m sure you have other things to do! xoxo
Gracious! I’m in the midst of making your pumpkin cheese cake right now! Convergence, huh? Happy, happy 😉
LOL!
Also the Iowa Corn Bread and the Cranberry Apple Crisp! ♥ So many wonderful recipes from the Autumn book have become part of our family traditions. Big hugs, dear Susan! ♡♡
And the Corn Pudding too! And that Texas Chili! We’re making me hungry! xoxo
I love the old buildings!
Dear Susan,
Yes, all the above! We want to hear all about and see everything! I can totally relate to everything that you have described in this blog, the houses are breathtakingly lovely, big, small or tiny! So charming!! Speaking about the naming of homes, my Auntie and Uncle’s home is named “Bryanston” after my Uncle, he being the only son after 4 girls and it is the family home where my Mom grew up. She always had stories to tell about “the house”, when the bombs fell during the war it cracked the beautiful stained glass window in the front door and do you know that the door is still there and the crack too! It has an outside toilet attached to the house, for my Grand-dad and Uncle to use when they were out gardening, during war-time my Mom was just a teenager, slept on the ironing board in it one night when she returned home from a dance after curfew and was locked out of the house! So many other great stories she shared about her “home”. My other families homes were named “Ashanti”, my cousin lives at “Malt House” which has a 300 year old barn and the main house was once part of an “estate”, and my cousin in the Cotswolds home is “Cotswold Chine”. Yes, you hugged my heart with this blog post!! Thank you for sharing!!
Congrats to all the winners in the give-away! Hugs, Candice xo
Well, you hugged my heart with this lovely comment, Candice. So interesting. Bryanston 😘 too cute. We were there for Remembrance Sunday this year. The Brits relationship to their veterans and the World Wars was so touching and seems light years away from ours. It’s like the wars were fresh in everyone’s minds, like it was all yesterday, all the celebrations and remembrances, the flags waving, flowers on graves, the applause and singing in the town squares, the wreath laying, everyone wearing poppies. I imagine when your country gets bombed, civilians become as much a part of the war as the enlisted people … it probably hits home much deeper than it does when it’s so far away. We have Veteran’s Day too, and many people do remember, but it’s a much quieter event here.
Today, on this my wedding anniversary. My husband passed a way a while ago, it would have been 24 years. A few remembered to acknowledge it for me, very sweet, the memories are with me still.
Thinking of home, warm and sweet and peaceful.. warms the heart.
Thank you for sharing this today 🙂
It’s lovely when others remember such things. I always call my mom on my Grandma’s birthday and we just talk about her to our heart’s delight. xoxo Happy Anniversary Daralyn!
It must be lovely to live in your own home with no neighbours’ noises coming through the walls.
Some of us live in apartments most of our lives, but we often dream of country cottages with a little garden around!
Dreaming is such a wonderful ‘free’ thing to do. I live in a neighborhood, down the street from the grammar school, so we have children’s voices, lawnmowers, cars, church bells, stuff like that. But I’ve lived in every kind of place, in downtown apartments, in a tiny house in the middle of nowhere, even rooms in other people’s houses. I like neighborhoods best. I grew up in one, so it seems most normal to me. In my downtown apartment, I lived on the second floor, so I found a little window box, and hooked it on the outside of the kitchen window, and grew four lettuces in it, some herbs and little flowers too. I had a tiny baby rake that I mooshed the soil with, and picked the lettuce one leaf at a time for fresh salads. Made me feel good, that little spot of earth.
🙂 Window boxes are fun!
As my mom always said, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” And there is!
Dear Susan,
Just wondered if you have ever visited the Jacquie Lawson site for lovely English greeting cards, Advent calendars, and such?
You always bring warmth and charm in everything you write!
Take good care.
Fondly,
Debbie from Southern NJ
I’ll have to check it out!
Oh you must! My mom sends me a Jacquie Lawson e-cards ever so often. I love them! Debbie C. thank you for reminding me of those.
Sincerely,
Amy from NW AR
The Seaside Advent Calendar is marvelous! Like being in England as the days lead up to Christmas. Although you have missed the first 13 days, you’d love to buy it and catch up with all the activities in the Advent Calendar.
Real Estate candy. LOVE to look and dream.
I’d come everyday for knitting classes Sign me up.
BTW, ribs, please.
Okay! xoxo
Home Sweet Home…So many thoughts and we all think them when we read your blogs! This blog is the format for a British/Scottish book. Your photographs are wonderful and the regions are ripe for camera lovers…thank goodness for digital or you would be taking up a donation to pay for your film development!!
Thanks for charming us, yet again. This blog is perfection with powdered sugar and a drizzle of honey…sweet, nummy, warm, beautiful and best of all calorie- free! I am off to bed here in CA and thank you for the dreams that will dance in my head…not sugar plums, but cottages, trees, gardens, clouds and visions of you hanging out of the car window telling Joe to slow down or that a U-turn is necessary NOW, darling, Joe…TURN AROUND NOW!!
Congrats to the winners – toast the gang with the tea from your new teapot! Susan is SO generous.
I’m taking the rest of this year OFF OFF OFF, except I just designed something SO darling, which I HOPE I can get made, so I don’t want to excite anyone until I know for sure, which makes me hap-hap-hapoy, because it means the creative juices are still flowing! It’s so cute, I can’t wait to show you! XOXO
Ah, she’s at it again…luring us on with her tantalizing ideas…so now we can’t wait either! xoxo
Bath and dinner sounds delightful. Bath is on my bucket list, although I have no idea when I will be able to visit. In the meantime I will keep on watching Persuasion on DVD!
It’s a good way to do it!
Here’s an idea I LOVE and would want in a SB book collection – A Fine Romance Journal – Volumes 1 & 2. A two-book collection of your actual journals from both trips…scratch-outs, scribbles and all the journal-writing “warts” included. Ribbon bookmarks, of course! A boxed set? Hmmmm, perfecto!! It would be so much fun to read and a great, homey fireside, tea-drinking travel reference reading…cats in laps…A MUST!
It would be in keeping with the paths that your favorite authors have taken…letters, journals, etc., preserved and many times published for future generations to adore…fans dreaming of future bucket-list trips to MV to stand in front of your home and visit your studio museum (Fairy Tale girl’s 1st MV home). I am still keeping my fingers crossed that the current owner will sell it back to you in your lifetime so that you can immortalize yourself just to make your current girlfriends tickled-pink!
Here’s to reading your journals one day…soon! 💗💗💗
LOL! 😘
Susan, do feel worn out just thinking about this?
I’m taking some time to let my creative self fill, from the trip, from being home, just being for a while, so I’m not really thinking about it yet!
I too love looking at houses. I always have. When I was about 13 my mom took us to Weston Missouri for the Homes Tour. Many of the homes on the tour were Antebellum homes. That was a new word for me at the time. People still lived in all the homes we visited. So beautiful. My sister has a house with a name on it in San Diego. Her house is called the Garden House and she has a lovely rose garden in front and lots of interesting things growing in pots on the back patio. There is an engraved rock that sits by the front door that reads Garden House. Thank you for the house tour. Would love another, anytime. Whatever you write about, I know I will enjoy it. Snow is just the icing on the cake for any house.
Perfectly said, snow is the icing! It is! Pure white Fondant! xoxo
Would love the rib recipe for the slow cooker. I’m meeting friends for our Christmas lunch today. We may be naughty and open our gifts today or nice and wait till Christmas. Always fun to anticipate. My friend and I love B.P. figurines. Another friend just came back from England with 9 little critters. They still have their little price tags in pounds sterling. I’m buying them all and giving them as gifts. So much fun to buy in bulk, lol. The prices widely vary from a low of £15 to a high of £50. Did you see any in your travels, Susan? Well, I’m off to have breakfast. Little Daisy is sleeping on the couch. She’s a little like Vanna – loves all the attention we shower on her. She’s not impressed with the snow! Hugs, Elaine
I have seen them, but for some reason, at least the ones I saw, were REALLY expensive in England. I expected them to be less, thinking they might have more of them than we do, but it wasn’t that way where we went. Very lucky! And wonderful gifts from you!!! You are going to make someone’s day! Is little Daisy invisible to everyone but you? Or, is this a petty pet?
Daisy is a small, older, cat who adopted us. We thought she was a stray but turns out she was adopted as a companion cat to our neighbour’s cat and dog. She was allowed to roam free despite the fact she had been declawed and lived in an apartment most of her life. She likes us, she really likes us!
Hugs, Elaine
Of COURSE she does!!!
… firstly, congratulations to Sandra and Joy !! and then , good morning everyone !.. as always, you’ve given all of us such comfort and joy with your posts to us, dear Susan !.. as that old saying goes : “be it ever so humble, there is no place like home” !.. happy Holidays !!..’been trying to “be an elf” myself these days and loving it…. “take joy”..
You too Mary, thank you!
I receive 2 magazines from the UK and follow several friends blogs…and I love seeing the homes, jam making, knitting and gardening of them all, but especially the local fairs and trunk sales. It’s a magical place…
Truly it is.
The nicest blog post; thank you Susan! It’s still dark here and out every window I can see neighbors’ houses all lighted for Christmas. A beautiful thing to wake up to. This is a complex season for some of us and HOME always is a consstant. Have a wonderful sparkly day. Lee
It’s the safe spot. I too just love to see lit up houses at night. Something so comforting about the light shining out into the street, or onto the snow. Thank you Lee!
Love, love your post on houses. As my friend and I drive by some of the homes in neighbourhoods I often imagine what the interiors look like or what it would be like to live there. We’ve seen some very unique homes. When we were in England one of my favourite travels was to the country side. The rolling hills, the fields of yellow rapeseed, the quaint villages and their cozy homes. Thank you for bringing back memories of my visit to, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful places on earth. I would love to see a post on Highclere Castle. Sadly it was not open to the public on my last visit to England. I imagine it is spectacular inside. We only got a glimpse of it in Downton Abbey.
Wishing you and Joe a very Merry Christmas.
It is spectacular, more than I expected. The gardens are wonderful too. Thank you Paula!
I really enjoyed this post! I’ve always had a love of houses too – especially the fairy tale type. In October, my husband and I stayed on the grounds of the Biltmore Estate in Asheville…and they were beginning to decorate for Christmas, as it takes 4 weeks to complete. I saw Cornelia’s wedding dress on display along with some period costumes worn in movies. It was magical & the grounds are beautiful. I’m so looking forward to seeing your Highclere photos!
Also, I’ve been watching The Crown on Netflix — is anyone else watching? It’s soooooooo good!
We are! We are hoarding it! We have it on Netflix, and could binge-watch the whole thing, but we are doling it out to ourselves nightly; we are on episode 7. So Good!
I love seeing the world through your eyes and always have–ever since we first met in 1986. xxxooo
Old friends are soooooo wonderful! xoxo
How did you two meet? And Carrie, do you ever just go and sit in the Bodelian library?. Do you have a favorite place there. That place should be considered one of the wonders of the world. Soooo special.
It should be. Just looking at the Bodelian was an out of body experience, to have it so close. I think Carrie said that you can’t go in there unless you are a student, or even more than that, I forget. Carrie and I met on Twitter! Then she came to the BYO Picnic Basket party, then we stopped to see her and her husband in Oxford. Connections!
But she said you meet in 1986. No Twitter then? Let’s see, must be when she read your first cookbook? How far away from Oxford was your picnic?
She met me through my book Heart of the Home, which first came out in 1986. But we never met in person until the picnic. After the picnic Joe and I went up to Scotland, then came down through the Cotswolds and while we were there we visited them in Oxford (which is likely a two or three hour drive from where the Picnic was). I’m still learning the lay of the land over there!
Debby like Susan said, there are parts of the Bodleian Library that the public can’t go into–mostly because of the priceless books and manuscripts held there, going back to medieval times. There are wonderful parts of the Bodleian though that I go to or walk through all the time–almost every day, and it feels like magic every time. My favourite thing in Oxford is our home. It’s 500 years old, has ghosts, history, wobbly floors, but mostly just because it’s home. I hope you can come visit one day. xxxooo
I’ve always loved houses, too. I believe they are living, breathing organisms — imagine the stories they could tell if they could talk. Thanks for this post, Susan. Have a very Merry Christmas.
Candy
I listen to my old house all the time. It says, I want this, and don’t change that, and I try to do what I’m told. xoxo
Ooo thank goodness!!!!another house lover!!! My family thinks im crazy because i llooveee houses and imagine.what life was or could be.like living in them. Thanks for the post
Nope, YOU are the normal one! xoxo
Susan,
ahhhh, “home sweet home”! “Home is where the heart is”…..”a house is not a home without a cat”…..”A house without books is like a room without windows”. What would we do without YOU, and your books, and stories of cats and homes, dearest Susan? Making us all happy and jolly, and feeling like we are ready to spread good cheer to our loved ones.
Home-sick….That’s what I feel, looking at the gorgeous pictures, knowing the feeling of seeing something wonderful at every village…
Thank you for brightening up my day, just woke up from a nap, feeling tired and feverish, yuck…But all the better for discovering your post, yeah!
Made your gingerbread cake with lemon sauce and my boys insisited I NEEDED to make it again the very next week YUMMM!
Merry Christmas to you and Joe and Jack
XX Nicoline
Hope you’re not coming down with anything Nicoline! Good you are napping! You always help me enjoy the little things in life, all your good reminders! Hi to the Boys! And the husband! Merry Merry to you all!
Thank you!! They ( sons Tim & Mick and hubbie Gabriel) are all saying Hi back to you!
Naps are wonderful, especially under a quilt and with our sweet ginger cat called Emily!
I wish I could find a way to post a picture of her, Jack might like a new friend from over the pond…..
Merry Merry back to you and lots of OXOXOX
Same to you Nicoline!💝
Just the best to wake before the sun, come downstairs to light the Christmas tree and candles, put on Christmas music, drink coffee and delight of delights find a new post from you, Susan! Then a wonderful tour of houses across the pond and in the northeast. A gift from you with the best of your descriptions included. I would love to gather in any one of the houses (except the ones without indoor toilets) for tea and a visit. We send our love and wishes for a wonderful, cozy, homemade Christmas to you and Joe.
Yes, very smart to choose the ones with bathrooms. But some of them, I have to say, were just darling, the way they were furnished, even with quilts and gorgeous dishes. Merry Christmas Christine! xoxo
So charming Susan! I adore old houses (the older the better!) and all of the stories and memories they hold. Heartfelt thanks for this glorious house walk! 🙂 One of my favorite travel blessings is staying with faraway friends, enjoying their homes, and imagining just what it would be like to live in that country. There is so much to learn and appreciate! The candles on our Christmas tree today instantly transport me back to a magical Christmas in Germany with my dear friends.
Can’t wait to see more homes, inside and out! I’d love to see Carrie’s lovely home in the B&B and have a special tour of Oxford, too.
Enjoy the magic of the season, cozy at Home Sweet Home, dear Susan & Joe!
Snowy hugs!!
Love,
Dawn (in Illinois)
♡♡
You’ll love it Dawn. I had NO idea what Oxford was like. It’s beyond amazing, it’s profound. You can’t believe your eyes. Hugs to you too!
Home is the nicest word there is 🙂
One of my favorite things is when it’s evening, it’s dark out, and house lights are on–driving past (well, someone else is driving) and looking at the coziness, imagining what goes on in those houses–what are their jobs? What do they do for fun? Is it a laughing house? Do they drink tea? Does it smell like cookies?
Yes, in the summer Joe and I walk around in the dark through our little town … I took pictures and wrote about it … it’s called “Night Moves.” xoxo
Oh my goodness! I had a feeling we were kindred spirits but this post has confirmed it. I love houses, too, the older the better. The houses in England and Scotland are amazing. I often like movies just because there is a wonderful house or apartment in it (Little Women, You’ve got Mail, A Good Year, Four Weddings and a Funeral…). I read a blog written by a woman in Skipton, UK, her knitting group is call Knit and Natter (Attic 24), maybe you could borrow that name for your group. I wish you lived next door so we could compare favorite house photos!
My knit and natter group loved the cranberry teacake.
Merry Christmas to you and Joe! I can’t wait to see what comes next.
LOL, Yay, I’m so glad they liked it! Me too, I wrote about movies and houses in my Girlfriend’s Book… An old movie called “Love Letters” with Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotton has darling English cottages, “Dear Ruth” with William Holden has great wallpaper and curtains, and the house in “Suspicion” with Cary Grant was wonderful too! Those old houses were mostly how I learned to decorate! Merry Christmas Elizabeth!
So “Suspicion” is the only one that Netflix has. Where can I find the other two? Cary Grant and an interesting house, what a combination! I’ll have to reread “Girlfriends”.
They play them every so often on TCM … or you might Google them and find them on Amazon. Watch the shadows Alfred Hitchcock used in Suspicion. Brilliant! SUCH a wonderful (and a bit odd) movie.
Susan …. you put together such an interesting collage of homes, houses….would love to see more of this, maybe in more blogs, or yes, more work for you, another book! No rest for the creative!!
Here in Seattle, developers are tearing down old cottages and building box designs….many who care about history, and the character of Craftsman style homes, homes that are welcoming with porches, and stoops, where they can sit and talk with neighbors, are concerned that the modern style doesn’t invite community….”porches” are on the flat roof, far from needing/inviting interaction with a passer-by…..many of us hope this “fad” changes, and we hope young people in the cities still want the beauty of “home”…..in Seattle, near the University, they actually built an apartment building, where the room is 180 square feet, with no kitchen (shared in the building)……the future of “home”? What an interesting topic for you to write about and share more about…..thanks for the beauty, the history, the diversity of the homes you featured….
Once, when I was young, I came to a wide boulevard that I’d been traveling most of my young life. I loved it because it was lined on both sides with huge old oak trees that went up and over the street and almost touched in the middle, like a long green leafy tunnel. One day I turned onto that road, and the trees were all gone. Whooshed away by developers. I was young, I never read the paper, I didn’t know then that could happen. It was a big eyeopener, because once they start, they keep going, and when something like that comes down, it’s forever. Makes you into a little rabble rouser, even when young. xoxo
Oh Regina, I live in Ballard/Seattle. Such a cute little “village” when I moved here a while back. Now that has been torn down to become giant condo boxes that ordinary mortals cannot afford. So sad. My rent has doubled but I don’t want to live anywhere else. At 82 the move would probably kill me anyhow. Its a dilemma.
Susan, I just loved this blog of houses! I had a jigsaw puzzle as a kid which pictured a lovely English thatched house with rose garden in front. I worked that puzzle over and over knowing nothing about England then except that bombs were falling over there at the time. Now I have seen so much more thanks to you 🙂 Thank you so much for expanding on that old fantasy in such a fun way. xxoo.
We travel well together!
I want to see EVERYTHING, and have the recipe for crock-pot shortribs, please!
Not to sound greedy…
Okay, I think we can do that!
I love all of these houses, especially the little cottages! My niece is a student at Lawrence University in Appleton, WI, where Gladys Taber grew up. My sister & I visited in October and drove around looking at some of the beautiful old houses near the university. I wondered where Gladys Taber lived, but could not find anything about her in Appleton. I do want to visit Stillmeadow someday!
You know who knows everything about Gladys, is her FOGT, Friends of Gladys Taber Newsletter friends…. They are wonderful, and the Newsletter is wonderful too. Click HERE and you can write them and ask any questions.
When I visited Appleton a couple of years ago, I too was looking for the house that Gladys lived in. So I went to the local library and they had a vertical file of information about Gladys. In this collection was a video that had been made of the house before it was sadly torn down. The person that made the video did an excellent job of relating information about the house and Gladys and her family. When in doubt always consult the library….you can find the answers that you seek.
So true!
Thanks for the info!
Thank you!
First, congratulations to Sandra and Joy for winning the contest. And now, wow..what a wonderful post on houses! I love seeing the different homes from over there, beautiful old structures that people have lived and loved in, taken care of. And don’t mind the crookedness of some, because they are still standing and still lived in and used! The little gardens and flower beds are so charming, the way they use small spaces in some but get so much beauty out of them. One has to wonder if they get bored with all the charm because they’ve lived with it, see it all the time. I don’t think I’d want to go back and live in those 1600’s or 1700’s though, too much modern convenience to give up, too much disease, unsanitary conditions, everything would have been very hard just living day to day. But of course, they never knew anything else. At least they’ve preserved some villages and museums to tour so you can see what it was like. And as you’ve shown in your pictures, so many people still live and maintain these old old homes. Thatched roofs and stone, like a fairy tale!Your house is Christmas card perfect too with all the snow and you are so fortunate to have it, lots of Hygge you’ve put into it! Please keep the pictures coming, Highclere would be good next, but you pick what you want because it’s all so good, like being on vacation again with you. Thanks so much!
Thank YOU Barb! Fun being on vacation with you too!
I, too, adore houses and thinking about the lives of the people inside them (in my mind, the families inside are always happy – it’s that fairy tale thing, isn’t it?!). And I know of two thatched-roof houses in America. One is in Seattle, and one is here in my home state of Indiana. I adore them both (even though I’ve only seen them from the outside). Thank you for today’s dose of romance! It goes especially well with the large fluffy snowflakes falling outside. God bless our homes! Thank you, Susan, for your work!
Lucky you…snow! xoxo
Totally enjoyed this new post. You have inspired me to dig out my collection of David Winter cottages that has been packed away since we moved several years ago.
We were fortunate enough to spend two weeks on Martha’s Vineyard this fall. One in Vineyard Haven and the other in Menemsha (we were able to bring our dog along!). We found ourselves walking around Edgartown one fall night and I so enjoyed looking in the lighted windows of those beautiful homes.
We are planning a trip to Savannah in April and are looking forward to touring some of the beautiful homes there.
Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.
That sounds really fun Kathy! So happy you enjoyed the Island!
Yay for a new post!!! Love all the houses!!!! Can’t wait to see more!
Dear Susan, forgot to mention in my post, I urged you to read A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. Starts out in Bodelian Library…it’s about Diana Bishop a reluctant witch who lives in the same house her ancestors have lived in for centuries, and since they are all witches the house is naturally haunted. the house is an actual character in the story and is obsessed with Fleetwood Mac. So cleverly written, I sometimes laughed aloud. I think you and Carrie and Rachael would love this book. You will know about many of the places. Buy it for yourself and read it on Boxing Day!
LOL, I might just do that. I have a pile up to my knees of “haven’t read yet” which I promise myself I MUST get to soon!
The three books are brilliant ~ they’ve rekindled an interest in Elizabethan history for me too. Deborah Harkness is an brilliantly clever authoress.
Okay, the Debs are all behind the Deb ~ are you allowed in if you are merely a Susan?
Congrats’ Sandra & Joy! Enjoy your wonderful treasures!
Susan, I too, am in love with houses. I remember as a little girl we went to visit an “honorary” aunt we didn’t get to see as often as other family members. Upon our return home, my Mom asked me about auntie’s visit. All I talked about was her house, shiny pine floors, and her back staircase. Mom always told that story through the years, and reassured everyone that not once did I mention the fun, the food, or the abundance of goodies an auntie provided. I was 8. I was definitely born with a “house gene.” I’m also in love with DOORS!
Bliss & Blessings, Everyone!
Marie
Me too, I took lots of pictures of wonderful old doors when I was there! xoxo
I know we’re kindred spirits like many of the Girlfriend’s. I always notice the doors in all of the houses you post, Susan.
Thanks for sprinkling our lives with love, warmth, coziness, and kindness…not just at Christmas, but always.
Joy to you, Joe, and Jack! xo
Susan, I just loved your blog post and cannot wait for the next. Wishing you, Joe, and Jack a Merry Christmas and blessed new year!
Good Morning Susan,
I do not know if I can post a website on here . . .
Just for fun, after enjoying your new Blog and sipping my coffee this morning, I searched the web regarding a song I like about Home and came across a list of top-20-songs-about-home. : ) Home is a Good Thing !
Welcome Home Susan & Joe and . . .
Merry Christmas !
With Love from Our Home to Yours,
Linda C. of So Cal : )
Thank you Linda! No place like Home 🎵 for the Holidays!
Susan, Thank you for sharing the photos of the beautiful houses. I just read the Willard newsletter and enjoyed it so much. I especially love the way you ended it with an appeal to come together post election and to stay united for all the children.
Thank you Elizabeth!
Thank you so much for that wonderful post! I was trying to fantasize which house I would live in if I could have my pick and I couldn’t choose just one. Love them all! (Well, maybe except for the one room cottage in Scotland with the fireplace in the middle of the floor. Eeek!) And I LOVE the idea of the clubhouse. Count me in. I would even learn how to knit! Looking forward to future posts. THANK YOU for sharing your journey with us. So much fun to dream!!
Love having you Anne!
Wonderful post! LOVED, LOVED the houses. they are so magical compared to the cookie cutter houses of today. But those can be cozy on the inside though!
I wanna go to “Bawth” 🙂
Susan….. Merry Christmas to you and Joe! Hope it’s a great one!
I loved all the pictures of the houses far and near. I love to see the homes back east whenever we come back to Upper State NY. They are so regal looking. I loved the Victorian home we lived in in Eureka, CA, but it wasn’t the same as living in one back east. I think it’s due to those homes being established back in the early times of our country.
I’m looking forward to a post of Rachel’s birthday party. But, any post that you do is great and well appreciated.
Carol M
Yes, I agree…everything is so different now. Plus hallways have to be such and such wide and so forth. No hidden secret passageways anymore!
Hello Susan!
As I’m reading your blog with a window behind my laptop, I noticed those tiny, unique little white specks falling from the sky. The caramel brown leaves that are left on my pin oak have a thick coating of white on their tops and the maroon and pink stone bird house that attracts chickadees now has a shading of white from the wind blowing the snow.
Short ribs in a crock pot from your very own kitchen sound wonderful this time of year.
Wishing you, Joe, and your families Happy Holidays!
Same to you Janet, enjoy your snow, our sun is shining, it’s about 38 degrees, and blue skies over the pond this morning.
Such a beautiful blog. Imagine how hyggelig it must be to have tea by the fire in those houses. Yes to the clubhouse and yes to the short ribs. (I’ve been having a hankering.)
ME TOO!
Hello Dearest Susan,
Thank you for the lovely post all about houses! I love, love, love them too! When I walk or my husband and I take a drive I am constantly looking at houses. Wondering what each looks like inside, how they are decorated and how the homeowners live on a daily basis. Thank you for sharing the wonder-filled photos!!
It doesn’t matter what you decide to blog about…it’s all delightful! I do miss Downton Abbey terribly and I am not sure what I am to do come January when it isn’t on!! Sad Face! 🙁
Thank you again for sharing your world with me. I can’t tell you how much it makes my day when I see a new post from you! GOD Bless! Much Love and Lots of Hugs, Tricia B.
Thank you Tricia! And I always love to see your name here too!
Oh my goodness, I’ve loved houses since I was a little girl too. I used to make them out of shoe boxes and pictures from the Sears catalog. So much fun!
Creative!
Your post brought me back to our journey this spring to the Cornwall and Devon districts of England. Such charming homes and lovely cottages! And so old! here in California we have an “old” house, nothing as old as England! where they are valued. Ours was the Grove house for the Culver family orange groves 1911.. Here lovely old houses are torn down! Makes me so sad. I so love seeing your pictures and read your priceless commentary! Takes me right there!! Thank you so much!
Thank you back Christine!
Oh, I have such a long to-do list but when I saw you had a new blog post…you can guess what came next. Even when I don’t win–and those were really wonderful prizes–I feel as if I’ve won something just to have a new post of yours to read. And of course everyone’s comments, always so interesting and a pleasure to read and envision everyone in their own cozy homes.
Please do keep on sharing those enticing photos and tales of England and Scotland–we love them as you see. But my fingers are crossed that you get to Ireland some day. I know you will love it, the magical land of ‘forty shades of green’.
Oh we are definitely going, already talking about it. Not for a while though!
It would be more than wonderful if you added Wales to that trip!
I think there’s a good possibility.
I can do a good guided tour around our cathedral where my Grandfather was verger for about 30 years! lol
💗 Sounds delightful! Not going until Spring 2018, if all goes as hoped for!
Oh my goodness, Ireland and Wales both? That would be amazing!
That’s great! You will love Ireland. But yes, definitely time to enjoy HOME for a good long while.
OH MY OH…you have outdone yourself here, Girl…LOVE this post…THIS IS WHAT I long to see…so comforting in a harsh word…with plenty of hard places for us of late…hard for us on 4 separate and unrelated area…wow, hope we get to spend some time in such places one of these days…one can dream at the least!! Sent to my daughter who loves all sorts of such as I do like this…thanks for sharing!!
Thank you for sharing Elizabeth, and hello to your daughter! xoxo
oppsss, meant to say harsh world…sorry about typo…
LOVED this post! I’ve just discovered Still Meadow Farm books, she’s extraordinary! Love seeing the actual homestead!… I visited your previous link – thank you for sharing.
I’ve always loved homes too.. when I was a young girl my grandmother and I would walk the neighborhood after dinner and I would peer in the windows of others lives, admire the decoractions on the front doors and in the little yards.. could not wait till I had a home to call my own.
Me too, checked out the wallpaper, listened to their music!
Hello Susan, Merry Christmas to you both. I think that not only you are a collector of houses but a collector of hearts also. I see that you collect hearts stones from the beach all the time like I do. I kind of think that’s where Heart of The Home came about. It’s in your blood. I know I collect like you also. I thought it would be so cool to make a fairy house. So, I have been collecting all kinds of thing to make this fairy house. I think I always wanted a doll house with all and now I decieded to try my luck at a fairy house I can keep forever. Kind of love that thatch roof, so nice. I wonder how it would look on a fairy house? Hmmmm. I collect much more like all your books, seashells, lighthouses,hearts and much much more. Love all your pic from UK. Keep them coming. I feel so luck to travel all over the place with you and Joe. Thanks so much. Linda T.
Oooooh, I think a thatched roof would be perfect on a fairy house, Linda! xoxo
I also love houses. I am a quilter and have a house quilt on my bucket list!
Wonder when I will get to that. . . . .
Houses on quilts are perfect!!!!
Marveeee-lus post! I don’t know what makes those houses so wonderful…the style, the history, the places you find them?! All of the above. Where to next? Anywhere you want to take us, but I am interested in cookin’ in the kitchen with Susan (sung to Someone’s In the Kitchen with Dinah)!
I’ll do it soon Judith!
Aww…hopelessly devoted to you too Sweet Susan!!!!
LOVE that house with the fox and the ducks on the rooftop!!!! Do you recall where that is? I would love to meet those owners!
I adore England too and have seen the most charming everything there–houses, teahouses, gardens, cars, just everything!!
Most of my drive-by photos are just impossible to guess at the location, sorry Susan! … xoxo
Thank you, Susan for a perfectly delicious trip through Scotland and beyond. I’ve been to Ireland and loved it. France a few times, too. Also, a place in my heart to return to. Scotland is on my ‘bucket list’…. Blessings and thanks so much for sharing and making part of my afternoon a wonderful visit ‘abroad’. Now, back to my quilting projects with a happy Heart! Happy Christmas to you!
Happy quilting Nancy!
Although my traveling days are over — I get such pleasure from yours. Thank you, girlfriend.
You are so welcome!
Thank you for this virtual trip to the English countryside!
Hi Susan,
I so enjoyed this blog and seeing all the cute neighborhoods and houses. I love houses too-I have a small collection of Dept 56 Snow Village houses/shops. I keep them out all year long! If people think I’m odd they don’t let on 🙂
Cheers!
Donna
You have sweet (smart and charming) friends!
I loved the photos of the houses! So much nicer than the housing tracts nowadays. I’ll have to send you a picture of a thatched style cottage here in San Angelo, TX. It’s just somebody’s home (wish it were mine!)
Send it to Facebook! I bet everyone would love to see it Janet!
So happy for The Winners! Lucky ladies both ~ well done!
I don’t live in an old house, so no profound or intriguing histories attached, except it was built, every inch of it, from the breaking of the ground to the raising of the roof by my lovely Daddy. I was raised in an old house though, about 200 years old and full of ghosts, which I loved, of course, and lots of history because it had been in the family since Victorian days.
You would probably love my Christmas mantle, it’s filled with my small collection of David Winter Cottages and I got a bargain two weeks ago when I added four beauties to my collection from the local thrift shop! One man’s rubbish and all that!
~~~Waving~~~From Across the Pond~~~Deb in Wales xoxo
House built by your dad! Who could ask for anything more!
I, like so many others really enjoyed this post!! It took me longer to read the comments! which are just as nice to read! I love old, and young homes. The older ones have so much character. I would like to see everything you mentioned too, Highclere would be a great Christmas present. Boxing Day- I’m with you on leftovers, relaxing enjoying my husband’s company and maybe a little snow falling down. Thanks for the post and Merry Christmas!
You are so welcome Anne!
Be it ever so humble……..love your home tour and can’t wait to try those ribs. I would listen and muse along with you. That is how things are solved and imagined. You have an artists soul!
xoxo
Pam
Aw thank you. My Girlfriends always listen to me! xoxo
John and I just read this latest Blog edition…we always look forward to the next one. We are thrilled to read whatever you write about…we feel we are right there with you….houses, trips, memories, recipes, whatever….we love them all!
We wish you, Joe and your family a Merry Christmas and Happy 2017.
BTW, congratulations to the winners of this latest drawing…how exciting to see your name drawn by Vanna!
Thank you Sherrill, and hello to John!
hi Susan …… you and Joe captured the essence that’s for sure…I can feel the coziness from here…makes me want to whip out my teapot and brew a spot. Truly lovely.. and speaking of tea, keep a keen eye out for the best fruitcake E V E R…. should be arriving any time soon … great with tea😋and ✨🎄M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S 🎄✨
love,
cindy
Guess what? I just sent out 12 of them myself. I remembered!!!!! Oh boy, we get one too! Thank you SO much, Cindy, for deliciousness AND for inspiration! 🎄 xoxoxoxoxo 💝
hahaha!!! I thought you might remember!! They are yummy and the back story is very sweet…. all the best…xoxo
Same to you Cindy!
I am looking for your “keepsake planner, a place to record each day of the year” with the title “Days From the Heart Of the Home” . I don’t see it listed under shopping . 2016 had a green and pink cover. Please tell me if it is available for 2017 and where I can get one.
I’m so sorry, but has finally gone out of print. I may have to design a new one soon.
Oh please please do . My desktop will not be the same without it!
I’ll miss it every day of the year!
Will try!
Jan, check out Ollies Bargain Outlet.
Please please let’s go to Carrie’s house!! (picture me jumping up and down right now) lol I to want hug her and kiss little Jack! We can bring all the lollipops for a joyous meeting all together! Thank you for bringing so many of us along with you. Such kindred spirits we all are and I love it!
xoxoxoxo…..
Lisa Hay 🙂
We’re going, no doubt about it, Lisa, you will LOVE her wonderful house! xoxo