People often ask me what inspired me to move all the way across country, from California where I grew up, to New England ~ to an Island, off the coast of Massachusetts, so very far away from home, where they had this thing called winter. MUSICA? Well, the short answer is the break-up of my marriage in California and the strong urge to escape the pain of it. But the deeper answer is . . .
Not just autumn, but all of it . . . everything New England seemed to offer (from all the books I’d read), deep traditions, romance and inspiration that comes with nature, the authenticity of the old houses that had seen so much~ it all seemed to represent a solid foundation where I hoped I could build a solid new life.
And no, 35 years later, I’m still not used to it. I don’t think I ever will be.
I still see the change of seasons as a miracle. Four-times-a-year for extra celebration, totally organic, not man-made, God provided, and real as real could be. So I thought I’d give you my “Best of Autumn,” just in cases you aren’t yet in the mood 🎃 ~ hopefully when this post is done, you will be, because what I want to do is help you . . .
Is that color possible in nature? No. Not possible. Probably the camera had a piece of red cellophane over it!!! Wrong. But that’s actually what I used to think when I was a child and would see photos of New England in the fall. It just couldn’t be real.
Now that I know better, you would think I would get used to it, but apparently that’s never going to happen. Looks like magic to me.
I’ve walked down a dirt road through the woods to the water almost every day of the last 35 years. The first five I did alone, then I met Joe, and we’ve done it together ever since, in all seasons. I told you, I love tradition. The over-and-over leaves an ownership imprint, and someday far into the future, Joe and I will haunt this place for eternity. When I wear this loosely woven sweater, I can tuck in stems of the wild things I find growing along the side of the road. 🍂Then of course Joe feels the need to hide in the bushes all the rest of the way home!
Is this not romantic? Sooo romantic, little cottage by the sea, we walk by it every day. Simple and surrounded by color . . . in the foreground is bittersweet, it grows wild and free, it makes a celebration where there might not normally be one. You see? Not my idea. It’s nature! We gather it to decorate our front door. 🍁
In the fall you can feel the icy breath of winter in the wind that blows leaves through the air. Black crows fly low across the road, cawing the whole way. Someday I will catch one with my camera!
My traditions hold inside the house too. My little rusty birds, garlands, wreaths, leaves, owls, birds, festoons, out of the boxes they come!
Then of course, there’s the dance of the tea towels . . .
I can tell you about the fall breezes, but here you can see it . . . and we can smell it too ~ and not only the fragrance of the sea ~ but as it flits around the Island it gathers perfume from everything 
that grows wild: goldenrod, clematis, wild apples and pine, blueberries, sandy beach plums, asters and bayberry. 🌻 As I wrote in Martha’s Vineyard Isle of Dreams, “the salty breeze slips in and out of seashells, climbs tree trunks, dives into squirrel holes, slides along old porch rails, stumbles through the bittersweet, skips along picket fences, scoots beneath falling leaves, whistles past ancient graveyards, flits over and under dragonfly wings, and steals all the wishes off the dandelion puffs, flinging them in every direction, wishes for all.” It’s the pure romance of the seasons. 🍂
And my little bo-bo waits for me to come in.
Our very best tradition. Cat-loving people that we are. True blessings are all around us.💞
I brought in the last Just Joey rose of the season ~ in the little blue bottle Joe found while digging the hole to plant our Dogwood tree. And you can see our best tradition peeking out from the corner of the screen door.
The garden isn’t finished yet. I plant things that bloom late so we keep ourselves stocked in garden flowers for as long as possible, till the first freeze.
To some, marigolds are common, but they are the BEST when it comes to fall color right from the garden. Long-lasting flowers that know their job and do it well.
Lighting candles, part of the tradition of the season, for the shorter days and colder nights, wind beating our shutters against the house. And P.S.: LAST NIGHT!!! PBS was golden! The new season of The Durrells started (you would love it), and after was Poldark, and advertised was the new season of Victoria starting in January! So much to look forward to! Right now, while I’m writing you, I’m listening to the BBC production called Byron (as in Lord). I just spoke into my remote, and there it was!
Lounge lizard.
More wind, crunch leaves, sweet smelling sheets . . .
This is a sandy driveway where the leaves have been driven over so many times they are imprinted. I thought it would make gorgeous fabric.
And we’ve been cooking too . . . this recipe cooks at 250 degrees for 7 hours! Makes the house smell heavenly. It’s Spicy Short Ribs, I made it for you last Christmas in another post . . . just click HERE and scroll to the bottom for the recipe. It’s so good!
And here’s the Marmalade tea bread! (Recipe is HERE, just scroll to bottom of this old post.)
All for my favorite thing, setting the table, with my purple Windsor Ware . . . and, here’s a little tip: flowered dishes look best with striped, plaid or plain-colored napkins.
Some things are a must at this time of year . . . homemade pie crust is one of them. I have to say, if you haven’t had a real homemade pie crust in a while, you don’t know what you are missing. Fill it with pumpkin . . . homemade is best! There is nothing like cooking and nurturing to make you feel 100% better about the world.
Am I right, or am I right?
I love this photo. It was on a door of a tea room we visited years back and I just love it ~ it screams halloween! 🕷 Or maybe I scream halloween. But definitely, someone is screaming! 😱
And this foggy day showed all the dripping little webs that normally you don’t even know are there. In our woods they’re on the ground, between every leaf and twig. . . sparkling in the mist and dew. 🕸
And now, about pumpkins . . .
We found these pumpkins at a craft show. They are easy to make, but you have to grow them and mark them while they are young ~ it’s so easy, you can put your family name on them, read HERE for a How To. . . it’s pure magic for children! 🎃 There are so many interesting pumpkins available these days. Below, the warty ones are called Knuckleheads . . . there are Cinderella and Lakota too, beautiful and fun to grow, remember for next spring! Put it on your calendar so you don’t forget!
I’m a star pumpkin girl myself, but Joe always does a few faces . . .
Don’t forget to put cinnamon and nutmeg on the inside of the top of your pumpkins for wonderful smells when lit.
And of course him. Casper. Our ghost. SUCH a tradition. This house would not be a house without our ghost. How many years have we had him now? Maybe twenty!
We have a street coming toward the house, with a stop sign out front, and for twenty years Casper has been in our upstairs window saying HELLO to everyone who goes by. I’ve never seen another one like him, but I think it might be possible to make one (not by me, but I think Joe could do it, or maybe you can! Or perhaps you have a Joe of your own who might like a project that will last forever) …. would you like some photos of his innards? I can do that!
You can get an idea of his frame by seeing the light through the cloth ~ its like a wire dress form. The cloth is cotton, starched to the nth degree, and lightly covered in the finest glitter. There are two tiny lightbulbs attached inside to the frame, top and bottom, and one inside the pumpkin all on one cord that we plug into the wall.
Here he is from the front, holding a pumpkin . . . which is also framed in wire ~ its fabric is felt.
There are two round frames, one on the bottom (which you can see in the photo above) which is what Casper sits on, the other is visible in that first picture ~ from the back ~ up toward the top of the head. And all the vertical wires are hooked to them.
The little arms are separate, and here’s how they are hooked to the main frame.
There are two lightbulbs fitted into the two round frames.
There’s a tear in the ghost fabric to hook the frames together, to hook the pumpkin to the ghost, and for the light for the pumpkin to go through. The pumpkin hides the tear.
And voila!
You can see him up top center window.
There have been a lot of Autumns at this house. Tradition, authenticity, romance, endurance, security, dreams, and somehow, despite everything, a symbol for the continuity of life, the manifestation of my childhood faith in forever. Cue the Musica . . . 🎵 I would love to see how it looked inside on the day this photo was taken, what they were doing in the kitchen, go to the barn and see the horses … go for a ride in the carriage down to Main Street . . .
Gathered from the woods, from the farmstand and from Michael’s Crafts.
We are ready! Bring. It. On. We get a jillion kids at halloween. We have a responsibility to give back some of the magic we’ve been given.
Our other house decoration is our big BOO in the window!
Lovely wonderful bittersweet. Another miracle from nature.
Last year we were in England for the fall . . . I’m standing in the 13th century churchyard looking at the moon across from where our dear friend Rachel lives. Whoooo . . .
Here we are at Carrie’s darling house in Oxford! Lots of you know her from Twitter . . . go say Hi! Aren’t blue and orange perfect together?
And here we were, apple tasting with our friend Siobhan in the glorious English Countryside . . .
Perfectly wonderfully charming . . . an apple on every fence post . . .
Last October 19 we were busy setting the table and decorating the dining room in a house in Bath where we were staying (with Ray’s friends and family) to help celebrate Rachel’s birthday! Yes, balloons and hats and bunting, streamers and candles!
While we were doing that, she was waiting in the kitchen ~ no peeking! Drinking wine and overseeing the cooking of the birthday dinner. 
Here’s Ray’s cake, with all of our rings on board, ready for her to make a wish and blow out the candles. It was a wonderful time and a luv-lee memory. And now, here we are, one year later! We can surprise her again, Girlfriends 🎉 . . . click HERE and say HAPPY BIRTHDAY 🎁 … or, HERE . . . or, if you live in the UK, go HERE, and get a sample of the amazing Sugar Moon Brownies she makes, packs and sends in the mail! Her birthday is on Thursday and I’m not going to say a THING . . . 🤐 shhhhhhh.💞
In the meantime, I go to my studio every day . . . making new things, painting for the 2019 calendar with my little three haired brush . . .
And this week, I’ve been choosing thread colors for my new
Coming soon . . . Have I told you? Yes, we found someone wonderful in the USA to make them for us . . . coming to our web store soon.
This is the newest . . . just finished and needs ironing, but I think it’s going to be darling! This is cross-stitch, but some of the kits will be printed too . . . Nothing like needlework to take your mind off the cares of the day and leave it to wander and dream in an aimless, do-something kind of way. Hand sewing and old movies go together like ice cream and cake. I speak from lots of happy experience. I tell you more very soon.
Jack’s been helping us plan our next trip to the UK! Maybe not helping, perhaps blocking.
Also, for you who’ve been asking ~ two of our “Sold Out” cups came back in! The manufacturer let us know they had some “leftover” decals ~ and asked if we wanted them to make a few more . . . we said we’d take them all . . .
So, there were two . . . the 16 oz. Martha’s Vineyard . . .
And the 11 oz. Autumn cup ….
We didn’t get many, but I hope this will fix it so that everyone who wanted one, gets one!
One more of my favorite fall traditions: I just bought the most delicious new flannel jammies. I love thick cottony flannel for our wintery nights . . . the best ones I’ve found are at Garnet Hill . . . . when I find something good, I need to tell my Girlfriends! 💋
So off I go to write a new WILLARD . . . in case you don’t know, WILLARD is my Newsletter, you can sign up and every so often it will just appear in your mailbox . . . lots of interesting things to tell you about . . . it should be going out sometime next week. Until then my dear, darling Girlfriends, remember to choose love.
I alwas love to see Willard pop up n my mail. Great dishes! Please enter me!
Thank you for your beautiful words in the Fall Willard!
I really can visualize everything – so cozy and warm in your kitchen!
Please enter me in your contest for your lovely dishes.
Please enter me , I’d love the beautiful dishes!!!
I love getting your newsletter! Enter me 😉
Oh, please enter me!!! I LOVE everything you do!!!
Your new dishes are beautiful. Would love to win them- but I’ll have to have a teapot plate one way or another!
Love your blog. Please enter me in your drawing. I’ve really enjoyed your books too. Do you have any more information on the possible movie based on your books?
Not yet. Haven’t heard anything lately . . .
I seem to have so many sensibilities that you have.
I’d love to own these dishes to bring feelings of love and pease into my life!
Love the new cups!
I love reading Willard and your blog ! I have been a long time fan of yours!!
I just love reading both the blog and Willard with a cup of cider and my 2 black kitties on my lap (Sniggle and Fritz). Thanks so much for the imagery in your words, illustrations and quotes. Makes a bit of an oasis in the busyness of life.
Many thanks, and many blessings.
I wish Southern California had seasons to enjoy. Thanks for sharing yours!
Please enter me! I met Susan at a little store in Menlo Park Ca. called Twin Concepts in the 90’s. I love and have all of her cook books and the wall calendar. Thank you so much for brightening our days with your wonderful stories.
Please enter me
I find your posts, blog and cookbooks inspirational and look forward to each post/blog – very entertaining
thank you
Marcia
I love you and your beautiful work and words.
I just returned from a long weekend trip to Boston to visit my son. I visited a cranberry bog on the cape and enjoyed the beautiful colors/weather there. Temps were perfect, as were the colors. I flew back on Tuesday to a pleasant temperature here in Louisiana. Welcome Fall! Thank you for the Fall Willard!
Hi Susan, Enjoyed you and walking with you through the different seasons for many years.
Thank you,
Wendy
Thank you for your Willards…they always make my day!
I simply cannot stop reading your blogs, your Willards, and everything Susan Branch. I too have been a fan for literally decades. Love all your adorable illustrations and the added quotes. Thank you for sharing your travels, so that we can enjoy the English countrysides as though we were there too. I look forward to your upcoming visit to England and Ireland. Bless you for all you do for us girlfriends!
Love to have you here Sallie!
I can always count on you to put it not words and beautiful drawings, just what my heart is singing,especially during call. Thank you for never getting to tired to share god’s blessings for us each year. Thank you also for including us in your beautiful family. Happy fall. Hugs from Wisconsin!
Enter me please!
Hope I win!
I love being a part of your cozy world. Thank you for your gifts of music, art and design.
Please enter me in your giveaway. I love your blog and Willard as well. Seeing your name in my “inbox” makes my day!
I love the new heart shaped dishes. Enter me to win some. They will make great gifts just like your mugs. Blessings to you. Angie
I absolutely cherish you!!! And am thankful for the lovely way you share your wonderfulness with all of us <3 Please enter me in your exciting give-a-way!!!! Merci!!!
I can definitely relate to changing over of the closets as marking fall has officially arrived!
I have not done so yet, as it has been delightfully warm, but it is coming… oh my, it is a task!
L
Getting my Willard (I am old enough to have gotten them by snail mail) is like taking a little respite at a spa complete with music. Thank you for your ministry to me and thousands of other women.
And I’m old enough to have sent them!! xoxo Thank you Joyce!
Love your art – enter me
Happiness is finding Willard in my inbox!!
Please enter me.
Love, Love your work! Please enter me in the drawing. Many Thanks!!
Enjoy all your inspiration and encouragement!
I would adore winning your new china set. It would make me so happy and what makes me happy makes my border collie thrilled. Pick me for my collie dog!
Love, love your books and stuff. Please enter me!
I am so inspired by your latest Willard that I’m going out right m
nowto cut some marigolds and decorate my den for autumn!
Would love to win some of this darling china!! Enter me please!
Beautiful newsletter–full of tradition, memories,whimsicality, and beauty. I love the poem In Flanders Field–so poignant.
reading Willard, drinking from my “bluebird” cup…awww, watching the leaves fall out my kitchen window and the birds at the feeder…love this. would love, love, love to win more, more of your dishes!!
Loved your blog as always!❤thank you for spreading happiness and joy! You are such an inspiration! Love reading your blog and books! ,❤
Enter me in contest 😘
It is really hard these days with what is happening in the country; so nice to recieve a beautiful Willard filled with kindness and love…..and beautiful drawing. I would love to go to the Lake district in England sometime. I love the Miss Potter movie with Renee Zellweger and everytime I read your England blogs, I go watch it; I never tire of it!
Me either! I can watch it over and over. It’s like living in England when it’s on in the background while I’m painting!
Thank you for your great blog. Just finish A Fine Romance and loved it! Please enter me for the dishes 🙂
Lisa
When i see your name on my email, I immediately get a smile on my face. I feel as if one of my best friends has written me something joyous. Thank you for sharing all you love. I wish I could afford to buy all your dishes, but alas I can only afford my calendar each year. Maybe Vanna will draw my name.
I would love these dishes. I live in Oregon and it gets awfully gray here. The dishes would brighten my day as does all your art work😊
Receiving Willard is always such a joy. Love your artwork. Please enter me.
WINNER! Fingers crossed!!!
Please enter me in the give away.
I opened my inbox this morning and saw Susan Brand “Willard” and it made me so happy.
Pease enter me. Love the new dishes!
Branch! Yikes! Sorry.
Don’t worry! 😆
Please…enter me! Thank you kindly.
What a Joy it is to see Autum through your eyes!!
Susan Branch is adorable!!!
Susan,
I always look forward to my Willard newsletter and I love everything you create. Love traditions and things that create wonderful memories. would love to win!!
Susan I’m not a very good baker but your description of those molasses cookies has inspired me to try them…yumm! And the needlepoint/embroidery ornaments… thank you!
I loved hearing about your fall preparations. You are just the sweetest👒🍁🌳🍃
Hi Susan! I am sitting here getting my third chemo treatment and reading Willard! So look forward to them! Ali’s just found the breast cancer bookmark, will be printing that! Love everything you do, thanks for brightening my day!
Love to hear from you . . . xoxo
Fall is my favorite time of the year!
Oh my -SO excited about the embroidery kits!! Actually gave me goosebumps!
Please enter me in the giveaway – I’m off to shop the website…!
Your new plates are awesome! So much fun!
I always love when you add a new post. They are never too long in my opinion.
Please enter me. Susan – I have been following you for many years. The first I heard of you was back in the early 80’s at a home show and I bought your cookbook. I have many of your cookbooks. You make everything happy, happy, happy. Thank you.!
I can’t imagine a world without Susan Branch!
Serendipitous! Nursing a cold, I cuddled on the couch with Celestial Seasonings Tumeric Ginger Tea, saw Willard had arrived on a cold breezy autumn day here in PA while the sun played hide and seek with the clouds! Clicked on musica and began to read! Healed and inspired–thank you! A warm shower and I am off to pick up 6-yr-old Maddie Ruth–blonde, willowy, creative, dancing through life one moment at a time! Be blessed!
Enter me, please, and thank you! 🙂
These are wonderful!
I just received my Willard…and immediately took the time to read your wonderful words. I thought I already left a comment to be in the drawing but I went through all the comments (so many thoughtful ones) and I didn’t see mine. So just in case I didn’t write before, I am now letting you know I greatly appreciate your blogs and Willards. Here in Michigan the frost was on the pumpkins last night, the colors are at their peak and it’s now time to bring out the sweaters, heavier jackets, and go for a long walk in the crisp, fresh air.
Would love to win some of your fabulous dishes!! Please enter me!!
Enter me. Thanks@
Please pick me…………please, please, please. Thank you
Enjoyed Willard as usual and of course your latest blog. Love the dishes, hope I can win one! Thanks for the opportunity.
Oh, how I wish Central Florida could give me the taste of Autumn that I enjoyed growing up in Chicago. Still, reading your blog or chapters from a Stillmeadow book are sweet reminders of a treasured season. Fingers crossed that I may be lucky enough to win your contest!
My bff has been my room-mate for 27 years! We bonded decades ago over a shared love of tea parties, old movies, good music, and all things British! Can’t wait to give her and then have high tea with your new Girlfriends mugs.
Happy Fall! Please enter me!
I so love your work, please enter me and thank you for sharing your amazing gifts with the world! <3
Enter me!! I love it all!
Your blog makes me happy!
I would love to win. please enter me.
I love your newsletter as well and would love to win the gift of dishes! You are so generous!
I just love reading Willard! I went to the Lake District with my daughter in August. We just loved Hill Top and Beatrix Potter’s house was beautiful. I told my daughter about Castle Cottage next May and she is going to look into it. I hope she will be able to go and I wish that I could go with her. Please enter me in your drawing for the dishes…I so would love to win them.
Hope you can make it Donna!
New Mexico is a long way from New England so winning would make magic memories of when we loved there eons ago.
Thank you for sharing your beautiful pictures – I love, love them! And I also love your new mugs and plates. They are so pretty! I set my table for fall every year and they would make a beautiful addition!
Please enter me! Thanks, Susan. Love it when “you” come through my InBox!
Wishing upon a Star…..hope it mcomes true .. enter me… please.. thanks
I tried to post once and it said there was a problem. Not sure what happened. Here goes another try. LOVE my bluebird cup given to me by my sister, Kathy! Hot tea is perfect with the first chilly weather we’ve had in the South Carolina Lowcountry. All of your new dishes are so dear and like everyone else, I would feel so lucky to win them.
Enter me please I have enjoyed your many books post and blogs for several yrs. since 1986
Please enter me! I am always thrilled to see your email pop up! I read every word twice. Thank you for bringing me such joy. Bless you.
Please enter me in the new dishes contest. I received my first email from you and enjoyed it very much, a real ‘pick me up’.
I love getting Willard and reading your blog!!
Happy Fall!!
I loved the latest Willard. I am sure you know just how much we all appreciate your uplifting words and pictures.
Reading your WILLARD and visiting your blog are to take a journey to a sweeter time and place. Thank you for the blessing!
Love you!❤️
Wonderful Willard post! Yes, traditions of home are very nice. I have gotten a twist on mine to my amazement. I used to buy my daughters dolls for the holidays growing up. Now the tables have turned and they are now buying them for me. It is a nice hobby that we share.
I also never saw a dish that I did not like! Cheers to you Susan!
I have been following your emails/blog for about a year now. I love seeing the email come in. You bring “home” into our homes. I have a friend in Northern Maine who lost her husband 4 years ago, I am going to forward your email to her as I know she feels the same way as you. Small closets, her other season closed go in tubs in the basement LOL
Thank you for much filling my heart with warmth and a feeling of love!
Sylvia Brun
Salem, Oregon
Love, love, love Autumn Across America. We’re all experiencing the same Season. Please enter me in this give-away!
Thank you for brightening my day please enter me in your contest.
I’d feel so loved if I won. 🙂
Love, love, love Autumn Across America! We’re all experiencing the same thing. Please enter me in your give-away!
Sorry for this again. I didn’t think it posted.
It’s okay, Vanna knows to choose from only one of each address! xoxo
Thanks!
Happy Autumn
You continue to amaze and inspire. Thank you Miss Branch!
This Texas Girl needs some Autumn down here please!🙏🏻❤️❤️❤️🍂🍁🍂🍁 Enter me please!🤗 Thanks! Kim
Susan…loved reading tbe Autumn Willard ! I grew up and have spent my whole life in New England and love everything about it. Autumn is my absolute favorite season…I even named my kitty Autumn 🍁🍂🐱 All of your tea cups, plates, etc are beautiful ! Of course I have the Autumn one…love it !
Your products make me happy & hopeful! Enter me, please!
You are such an inspiration! I love your art and your stories. Enter me in the drawing please…and Thank you!