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.
Thank you for the thoughts, feelings, art, and aura of warmth and goodness. It is just beginning to be fall here in the South. Now, instead of mourning for summer, I am embracing the new season–thank you.
Susan,
Thank you so much for sharing your vision of positive inspiration. You make my days so much brighter with all that you do. And…viva musica!
My Willard came yesterday but I waited until today to relax with a cup of tea and enjoy
Please add me to your drawing😀
What a joy it would be to win all your beautiful dishes..you are such a joy to read and i have been a follower to years.
Hi and greetings from the land of the long white cloud, New Zealand! As you head into Autumn, we are at the end of Spring going to Summer, so opposite to you. I love Willard and all the wonderful ideas you share, and memories you bring back from younger days. So uplifting! I would of course absolutely love your beautiful china ware, should I be the lucky one! All best wishes to you, Carol
Hello way over there to New Zealand! Thank you for saying hello! You’re entered in the drawing … have a lovely day Carol!
My father was in the US Army Air Corps during WWII stationed in England. From there his crew flew 35 missions in a B-17 Bomber. Your wonderful history & celebration with the poppies brought back so many memories, including being the VFW’s official Poppy Girl for one year back in the 1950’s, I believe(somewhere I have a picture). Thank you for all the joy and love you bring, and the reminders of all we have right in front of us. “Lest We Forget”,
Carol
Enter me please. Enjoy seeing all the new dishes – love them all!
Susan, just starting to catch up after returning from a long trip. Loved reading this…it gave me Autumn in my mind and heart that we had missed whilst away…..after 3 weeks traveling with the British, we have absorbed some phrases ☺️🍁
Thank you for this gift.❤️
I see you whilst-ing … isn’t that a wonderful word!? I should say, Lovely word.
Beautiful designs on the new heart shaped dishes and mugs
Thank you for inspiration!
Love this blog! It warms my heart, it’s so cozy.
Thank you Susan Branch for being here. For encouraging me to make memories. I am going to create something in the kitchen with my daughter now. She’s 13 and its starting to get though. Instead of me moving back, you have encouraged me to move forward and create memories. Teenagers. Many blessings to you and Joe. Can’t wait to put up my 2018 calendar.
She needs you more than ever, but just might not know it until later! I bless my mom every day for the times I said I hate you, and she answered, but I LOVE you. xoxo
Love your peaceful, happy artwork and outlook that is so inspirational. Thank you!
Please enter me in the drawing!
I can’t wait to see the “Come.sit,stay” in an embroidery pattern. I love all the needlework options!
Hi Susan,
Thank you for sharing your writings and your art. So appreciated.
Please enter me in the contests.
Warmest regards,
Ginger Williams
I adore my autumn cup and am sooo excited to have the new winter cup! I did the opposite of you….I grew up with 4 beautiful seasons and moved to California as a young adult. I soooo miss autumn, but your pictures and descriptions take me back! Thank you!
So happy to find and enjoy newest Willard.
Please enter me in the drawing for the new dishes.
Love your Blog and will eagerly await your trip next Spring—especially Beatrix Potter, as usual, and IRELAND!
Paulette
Ohio
Please enter me!
How wonderful to read “Willard” and “Autumn” on this chilly Ohio day propped up under my cozy quilt (quilts forever, I say!) with my darling husband serving me breakfast in bed. After a week of teaching in an urban school, it doesn’t get any better! Thank-you for reminding me of home and hearth and beauty. With all I see of pain and hopelessness every day, I sometimes forget we have the ability to embrace beauty, contribute to it and even create it. We can change the world one home at a time. We are not victims! Thanks so much!
OH Brenda. Thank you so much for what you do. Nurture your creative heart, you are so needed. xoxoxoxo
Thank you, Susan, for the beauty and inspiration you bring to the world! It has been a blessing to follow your work throughout the years. I needed these beautiful words and photos today… you remind us all of what is really important.😊 Much love from north Florida!😘
Have had such a tough week. Your Willard and calming fall artwork and photos as well as blog are just what I needed. I love the little birds you paint! Thank you Susan.
Happy fall🎃🎃🎃🍁🍂🌻🍂
Your posts are always like a delicious, decadent (yet nutritious!) dessert. Yum. And I’m just realizing I need to order my 2017 calendars! xxoo
2018 calendars! Not 2017.
Oh how I love to read and look at all your blogs, enter me in the drawing please, thank you so much!
My favorite time of you – and of your books – is Autumn! I am so hoping the Autumn mug will come in soon. I so appreciate your work !
Such a joy to read your blog and “Willard” ! I have also joined the list of Beatrix Potter-“Pottering About”! I am a long-time collector of Beatrix Figurines- thanks to my beloved mother. Sounds like a wonderful trip this coming year. I will surely be with you in spirit and anticipate the photos! Please enter me in the drawing for your dishes. Best wishes. J.R.G.
[email protected]
Please, please pick me for the dishes drawings! I fell in love with your cookbooks when your first one was published. They became my yearly Christmas gift from my brother.
Thank you for sharing your beautiful talents! Please enter me.
God’s Blessings to you and your family Susan! Thank you for helping us take the time to appreciate all the wonderful magic that happens when we just soak in the beautiful simplicity of life! So very grateful and appreciative of your positive attitude and love for life! You are a wonderful example of a joy-filled person!
Having just finished reading Willard, I am taken back to mu childhood in Northern Ontario, where the magic of changing seasons was my life. The nostalgia is very deep and my heart is full of memories and longing. Many days I pine for those seasons. Thank you for giving them back to me if only in my soul.
Thank you for your many gifts to all of us!
I see you like Sassafras Trees too (with their 3 different shape of leaf). Did you know that you can make TEA from the bark? And the wood smells wonderful. Just pulled “Spicy Short Ribs” from the oven, oh swoon, delicious, husband didn’t even wait for the rice to cook, ate the falling off the bone meat and gravy on a piece of bread. Hope you are enjoying these beautiful Fall days, and crisp nights. Off to gather eggs from our feathered ladies……
SO happy you liked the ribs! SO yummy! Joe does the same thing!
I always wonder what it would be like to sit in a chair with a blanket over me and photograph your beautiful home all day to catch the sunrise, sunset, and the moon over your home, it’s magical looking!
To me, it’s heaven. H O M E 🏡
You blog put a smile on my face and you made me feel good today. Thanks!
Love your blogs. Please add me to your drawing for dishes. Thanks!
Pretty dishes, please choose me❣️
After reading your newsletter, the only thing I can say is…”I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” And as for your new dishes, would love them…so “Pick Me, Pick Me!!”
Enter me pleeeeeeeeeese!
What a treat to read your Willard… Just what I needed today!!
Such delight your newsletter brings. Our fall is over in here in Alaska, but the cozy hearth fires are burning and your recipes are such a treat. Thank you.
I worked all afternoon in my yard. I mowed and picked up leaves to press in an old telephone book. I sit them in places in the house where people come across them! I just add a pine cone and a gourd for a bigger space, nature inside, Linda
Please enter me in the giveaway. How special for the winner. Your blog is therapy for me. Great stories from the heart, great decorating ideas, & delicious recipes. Making the short ribs again tomorrow….a family favorite😋
MY BFF from highs school and I have loved your art work for decades now! SO glad you are making tea cups and plates and cross stitch designs too!
Thank you for your reply. Mystery revealed!!! I’ve now learned something new about Victorian era architecture. Have a wonderful day!
I love your art and cherish your cookbooks and blog! I look forward to reading your newsletters which bring me a sense of calm in this crazy world! Jack is the cutest🐱1
Just finished reading Book 2 of your wonderful trilogy. I’ve so enjoyed getting to know you through these enchanting books! I bought your Autumn book years ago and was so excited to learn you had written these books about your life, experiences and travels:). Just signed up to receive my first Willard too. Have a wonderful day and thank you for all of the creative ideas you give all of us!!
After a very long and hot Texas summer, it’s invigorating to follow your autumn posts! Thank you for bringing a bit of Fall into our world!
You were at my dining room table in “spirit” this week. My book club had dinner with me and we had read Martha’s Vineyard Isle of Dreams for the month of October. I made your stew recipe and granola with ice cream dessert. Three of my friends knew about you and we introduced the other five members to you with this book. Two of friends had been touched by your artwork and spirit….one friend used some of your stationary to invite people to her new home after she had gone through a divorce, so you helped her with her new start in her new home. My other friend had been given a journal to use during treatment for breast cancer and the journal was filled with your stickers to help her along the way. Your artwork and inspiring thoughts were instrumental in their healing. Happy Autumn.
You bring tears to my eyes Susan. Thank you so much. Please give everyone a big group hug for me the next time you see them! xoxo
I will…They are great friends and our group has been together for a long time and know the meaning of being a girlfriend….xoxo back at you.
“The meaning of being a girlfriend” ~ there’s a subject! We are so lucky we have each other!
Enter me
Please enter me, thank you!
Having recently “bash” read your three books, I am now your new BFF. I feel like we know each other and gloried and suffered through our childhoods, our first loves, our travels, our love of family, and food!!! Although my food seems to hang around in the form of poundage more than yours does!?! Thank you, thank you, thank you for your art, your optimistic view of the world and all its treasures, and for your lovely heart!
Thank you right back Cathy, for those sweet words! XOXOX
Bless you. Having met you and your fella I must say it was almost surreal reading this. I could hear your voice in my head. So neat. Even though I am a bit laid up physically, my “Joe“ and two friends are planning a long-boat trip to Ireland in 2018. I’m getting a lot of inspiration on things to do but now I must go request sweetly, of course with a kiss, for my sweetest to install Acorn programming. Thank you Miss Susan. The world is a better place for your presence. Please enter me into your drawing.
With these days of negativity, I find respite in reading your blogs and the Willard publications. Your thoughts and stories have generated many smiles on this face.
I love Susan and Joe and I love Ireland!
Our Trick or Treat is over and I’ve had my family to my house for or Halloween Get-together but Halloween is still two days away. So what shall I do on the witching day to celebrate my favorite time of year? Why read your blog of course and enjoy all of your great pictures! Thank you for adding so much joy into my life! You are wonderful!
Thank you for being an inspiration for living your dream and doing art!
I love your books, Willard and your art.
Please enter me.
Enter me, please!
Enter me, please!
I always look forward to Willard. It’s like getting permission to stop and pamper myself with all the yumminess that is Susan Branch. I’d be over the moon to win something from your beautiful collection of goodies. Please enter me in your drawing.
Please enter me into your drawing. Thank you for the loveliness you bring to the world, Susan! 🙂
I feel somewhat silly leaving a comment thinking that you might read mine from the hundreds you receive, but here goes…
Please enter me in the drawing but more importantly please read my comments. Thank you.
I don’t remember when I first stumbled upon your Heart of the Home books. I do know it was many years after you were first published. But when I read the first one (I think it was Summer) I was a fan and have added to my collection ever since.
I too am a lover of quotes and was warmed by your selections and accompanying art work.
In your books I was able to escape into a beautiful world filled with comfort of home, warm memories, savory and sweet smells from your kitchen. So much joy to relive memories from my childhood and inspiration to surround myself daily with homespun beauty and gratitude.
May I be completely honest with you and you not think I’m some weirdo? When I feel anxious or stressed I take down from the shelf one of your books, leaf through it – pausing at my favorite pages, and I immediately begin to feel a stillness within.
Funny story, but I swear it’s true. My husband and I spent five months this past summer living and working in Yellowstone National Park. It was a pretty big deal since we had no earthly idea what we were headed for as we traveled across country from our home in Florida to live in our motor home in a place where you don’t walk out your front door without bear spray strapped to your hip. Our first week in the park (May) it snowed 18 inches and we thought we would surely die! We’re both native Floridians.
I anticipated and planned for an unpredictable summer adventure. I suspected it to be filled with amazing discoveries and stressful moments and was not disappointed. So what did I do in advance? I packed our little camper all my Susan Branch books! I reread your trilogy, lost myself in favorite recipes, dug my toes into the warm summer sand of your island.
You are an amazing artist and writer. You are an inspiration to me and so many others. Thank you sweetly for it all!
I love the comments, and read every one of them. I can’t always answer (have to force myself not to or I would never get anything else done) but I do love reading them. And yours is one of the big examples of why! I have the NICEST SWEETEST Girlfriends!!! Thank you for all your kind words! And, love the stories too … you stayed in Yellowstone! How fun! I knew they were hiring couples to work in the different venues up there ~ Joe and I have even talked about doing it ~ I’ve always been partial to the high mountains ever since my parents took us camping as children. Glad no bears got you! Fun adventure for your memory book. Thank you again! Happy fall Maria!
Oh Please enter me in your drawing, I would just love to have a set of the dishes. I have been a fan since day one. I have also been collecting Beatrix Potter figurines for several years. Always on the look out for them. One of these days I’m going to go to her cottage. It’s on my Bucket List.
Please Lady Luck , be with me.
Please enter me as it would be a red letter day to win your beautiful dishes!!
Aloha……………. Please enter me. I am a die hard fan……. have been for years and years when I first starting using “Day’s” as my gratitude journals.
Thank you for making me happy!
Love the Willard and your calendars. Always ask for one for my Birthday in
November.
enter me
Enjoying my Autumn mug every day! Have a wonderful Halloween!
Just purchased on ebay a new in package sachet LOVE to embroider!
I learned STAMPED EMBROIDERY stitching when I was six from my grandmother and still have that towel marked GUEST!! You are so right, pick up your needle, listen to music, or catch up on PBS’s Masterpiece theater, and stitch away! Thanks, Susan, for your creativity and inspiration!!
Enter me! The
I love the escape your writings and drawings offer. Please enter me.
I can’t tell you how much I look forward to every blog post you write and every Willard that I receive in my email. Your lovely way of writing, your beautiful, whimsical drawings, the quotes, the photos of your beautiful home, food, Joe, Jack (he is one of the cutest cats I’ve ever seen – and I have three of my own!), the gorgeous English countryside (dying to go back…haven’t been since 2000) ~ everything is a balm to my soul. And please…enter me in your wonderful giveaway! xoxo
The frost is on the pumpkin; Fall is in the air…Yeah!!!
Coincidences are amazing. This week in my French Conversation class, I gave a short presentation about the poppies in Flanders France. Then I received your email and you talked about it too! I only wish your post had arrived first and I would have referenced it in class.
I like to savor your posts and sometimes it takes a while to get to the bottom. Everything you write about becomes special and I start to see things with much more appreciation. Thank you for writing.
I luv’d reading the latest Willard! Please enter me in your latest giveaway. Thank you.
I love all your productions! It all makes me very happy. Thank you! Please enter me in your contest! Can’t wait to follow your new trip to England. We got to live there for 3 years. It was so great. Sincerely Beth
I love all your productions! It all makes me very happy. Thank you! Please enter me in your contest! Can’t wait to follow your new trip to England. We got to live there for 3 years. It was so great. Sincerely Beth sorry I repeat myself,
Hi Susan!
I have been a fan of yours for years, ever since my sister gave me your Christmas book as a Christmas gift one year. I admire you as an artist and a person that loves all things “home.” I too am one of the latter – where we love is home. I just returned from a 10 day trip to Ireland and can’t wait to see and hear about your adventures. We visited the “thin places” of Ireland, meaning the more spiritual sites. I have many recommendations for your visit if you’re interested. Wishing you many happys this Autumn. xo
Good Lord Woman,
I am so overly incoherently excited I can barely type “pleaZe EEnter ME” in the drawing…!OHHAPPYDAY- People, Happy Day!!! Doing the Hamster Dance or Happy Dance- whatever it is…OHYES please enter me!
My new 2018 Susan Branch Calendar’s arrived in today’s post – I’m so excited!
Hi Susan,
Please enter me in your drawing. I hope I’m not to late. Thank you for the feeling of home that you give. I had to come back East after living in San Diego for 3 years. I needed the seasons and all that the seasons do to my soul. I didn’t realize until I moved away how much I missed them.
Welcome Back!
Enter me! I’ve loved your writings, books and things for years, Susan. The first time I saw your “Heart of the Home” book in my library, I was hooked! I go to my niece’s for Thanksgiving every year. It’s an unspoken ritual that I make your Corn Pudding every year! Thank you for all your wonderful drawings, writings – everything!
Happy holidays!
Me too! The ritual of the Corn Pudding! 🎃
Please enter me .thanks
I love the fall and everything about it. I did grow up with all the changing seasons, but have never gotten used to the beauty of fall! Every year I get so excited when Sept. 1st comes knowing it is almost here. Then following it, the holidays!
Thank you for everything. The books, your art and writings have been part of my life since the beginning.
Please enter me! I love your blog and Willards!
I love all of the new things! Enter me!
Thank you for being such an inspiration for so many years!
Lovely post as always!
Dear Susan,
Dear Susan,
After I ask if we could all have you for our best friend in life, I will add a little something for you to share with your dear Joe: from The J. Peterman Company Holiday 2017 Catalog: “A beret is probably the most universal hat of our time: worn by jazz oboists, by commandos, by torch singers. Worn by Hemmingway at the running of the bulls. Worn by Jean-Paul Sartre contemplating existence, or only another cafe au lait. Worn by Che Guevara, Tyrone Power, Groucho Marx, Picasso…. (and it goes on). Thank you for another wonderful blog! Love, Brenda
Would love to win these!
Thanks for Willard – its like a mini vacation with a best girlfriend! Please enter me in drawing.
I wanted to leave a comment here because I already commented on the newest post to be entered for the drawing of your wonderful gift. You are from California and the horrible tragic fires that have cost so much of human life and homes and everything each of us considers normal. So this lady’s house burned down that her husband and her built 16 years ago and all the memories housed within it of generations of her and her husband’s family. I don’t know if you will post this or not, but let’s face it you have quite a platform to be able to effect change in many ways. http://jenjoycedesign.com/2017/10/21/recovering/
she is a designer too and a knitter and spinner.
thank you in advance in what ever way you might assist her. I bought 3 of her patterns and I am not even a knitter but now I have an incentive to give it a go. Take care and happy Autumn from Iowa
Lovely that you thought to put the link here, Melody, I hope everyone sees it. These fires have been devastating. It’s one thing to lose a roof or trees or a car, its another thing to lose it all.
Me, me, me!!!!
Willard is positively energizing.Truly, you are the prototype mentor for the current Mindfulness that stabilizes the psyche. What a miracle–reading Willard brings peace AND energy for me.
Willard is positively energizing. Truly, you are the prototype mentor for the current Mindfulness that stabilizes the psyche.What a miracle; reading Willard brings peace–and energy for me.
I have loved your creative work for years….thanks for brightening up my life!
Please enter me….:)
A Cape Cod fan and avid collector of your cookbooks and artwork for many many years. I first met you at a book signing at Chart House Book Store in Hyannis in 1990. Sadly the book store eventually went out of business and is no longer there. But thankfully you’re still going strong and continue to inspire lots and lots of your girlfriends with your recipes, your travels, and your decorating ideas for every season. And I would say that’s very good news.
Wishing you a phenomenal Autumn and a Happy Halloween tomorrow night! Enjoy your candy!