Hiiii! We’re home!! MUSICA? Yes! It’s great to be here, and we had a WONDERFUL time in California! It was soooo good to see everyone. And I did bring home that special giveaway I promised ~ you’ll find it at the bottom of this post . . . but W A I T, don’t go yet . . . because getting home was the BEST. Here we are racing toward New England in our train room with awesome view . . .
. . . Hoping the whole way that we might still have some leaves on our trees. It was the end of October and normally by then they’re gone. But the way things were looking, we were thinking m a y b e . . . 🍂 🍁🍂🍁
Speeding through upstate New York, I was heartened by the color! Nothing like leaf-peeping from a train window.
We got off the train on Sunday in Albany, rented a car (so we could make the last ferry to the Island that same night) and drove through the gorgeous Berkshires, feeling more and more positive there would still be leaves on our trees at home.
We made the last boat but didn’t get home until after 10, so we couldn’t SEE the trees! Sleeping that night, when we finally got in our very own bed for the first time in a month, was as exciting as the night before Christmas! Would there still be fall when we woke up?
Dawn, from our bedroom window, assurance, and every dream come true.
I raced from window to window upstairs . . .
And down . . .
Then out to the side garden . . .
And around the house to the back . . . soooo
Then all the way back for the long view! Fall waited for us! Leaves blowing down, chill in the air, smell of the sea, sound of the ferry horn, church spire to the sky, sturdy house that has seen it all, everything that says Home. Thank you God. Ommmmm.
My own kitchen, and no noise or rocking, just me and the benevolent ghosts of time gone by. And since I’d done a lot of decorating before we left, we were pretty much ready!
AHHHHHHHH…. Home ~ our bed is pure heaven, cold rooms at night, snuggled under covers, mooshing the comforters around my ears, dragging my cozy flanneled legs out in the morning, stuffing my feet into wool slippers, throwing on an old sweater, padding down the stairs, Jack leading the way, tail high in the air, filling the tea kettle, deciding which cup. We are sitting, and we are staying. So this was Monday, our first day home. On Tuesday the dining room curtains came. On Wednesday it was Halloween. So let’s start with the curtains! Ready?
And of course, I know what you’re waiting for, in the category of “everything that says Home,” Jack, furry soft petty-pet and perfect decor. He seemed really happy to see us. Presented himself upside-down, in wiggle formation, for belly rubs, and gave me a very Loooooong forehead butt, a meeting of the minds, the brain exchange. So here are the new curtains for the dining room. And where does Jack choose to sit?
On them. And why not. King of the World can do no wrong. Reunited and it feels so goooood! 🎶 He’s still my shadow, he still brings back the hair ties, he still cuddles next to me when I read. Now Joe and I aren’t going anywhere for the next year and a half, we are 
I peeled Jack off and we hung the new curtains . . . (Jessica, who made them, with Lowely, my darling friend and neighbor)
And so voila, here they are! What do you think? I’m thinking the flowers make up for the ones we lost when we took the wallpaper down.💞
I’ve wanted “real” English curtains for sooooo long! They make you feel like you live on the inside of a marshmallow! We are now padded head to toe. I couldn’t wait for dark so I could light the candles!
They’re extra cozy because they’re completely lined in heavy flannel (just like the ones in England). They keep your house warm too.
Okay. So here was the problem and the reason I waited so long to show you the living room. I know you won’t think of this as a “problem.” With problems like this who needs enemies? Or whatever that phrase is. These are the curtains we got before we left and I’ve been pondering ever since. They are also very beautiful, thick and cozy, but for me, for the House of Creativity, for US? They feel a little much.
A wee bit too Duchess of Devonshire. I adore the fabric and love the pillows Jessica made to match, and I love the curtains too, they are glorious, but I was afraid after a while I might start doing the circular queen’s wave when I leave the house.
So we tried to tone it down (ps, they look pink in this photo, but they are really a soft beige with pink hydrangeas) . . . the first thing we did was take the decorative trim off the hems of the valances. Which softened things a little and took away some of the formality. This old house is your basic farmhouse with a barn and uninsulated pantry, the bathroom used to be a “three-holer,” and there are rooms you have to walk through to get to other rooms (i.e., no hall). It’s not a fancy house. It has “good bones,” as a dear friend said a long time ago, and also that New England simplicity I love. You have to give a house what it wants. And I try. But I think my imagination was bigger than my stomach, or what ever that saying is.
So next we tried removing the valances all the way. And I liked it SO MUCH BETTER. Back and forth we went, throwing out ideas, me, Joe, Jessica, and Lowely, with the tape 
measure, up the ladder, down the ladder, measure and pin and hold it up, stand back to see what it looks like, what if we get rid of the floral chairs? What if we change the lampshades? No stone was left unturned . . . and what we sort of decided is to keep the valances but bring them down so they aren’t all the way up to the ceiling, and then shorten the valance skirt by about 6 inches so it just covers the wood trim at the top of the window, to the first panes of glass. Make the valances lower and shorter is basically what we decided. And the other end of the room?
Here they are, the same fabric, but these are simpler and quieter.
Maybe I’m just bad at change! But I have to say, we’ve now been living with them for six days, and they’re growing on me. Most of my life I’ve made my curtains, so I’m used to unlined, crooked, half finished, a bit wrinkled, mostly made out of tablecloths, which is probably the problem! These are too good!
Jessica also made me a curtain for the guest room . . . Which I LOVE. Just a simple little thing, and pillows to match with a tiny blue and white stripe piping.
Just sweet and simple.
So then it was time to get ready for our Halloween party!
It was a pot-luck Halloween neighborhood Open House we were having, after the trick-or-treaters had gone home. Lowely brought cold slaw, Martha made a big pan of Corn Pudding, Carol brought a bowl of Dry Bones, Jaime came with a big green salad, and Barbara brought Brownies. I made Touchdown Chili and
A Pumpkin Trifle
Broken up chocolate cake on the bottom, then pumpkin mousse, then crushed oreo cookies, whipped cream, more chocolate cake, and more pumpkin mousse with a Hershey’s Syrup spiderweb on top!
While I was doing that, my boyfriend for life was outside in the driveway on that perfect fall day, carving away!
Making my favorite star pumpkins for our front porch.
offering me pumpkin seeds . . .
I came back in and did the dishes . . .
. . . then watered plants to stuff into baskets for arrangements for the house, swept the leaves off the porches . . . made sure all the votives and candle holders were filled . . . put Jack’s food and toys upstairs and locked him in our bedroom where no Halloween Cat thieves could find him . . .
We lit the fire,
And lit our ghost in the upstairs window . . . Casper is our “neighborhood watch,” he has a great view all the way up the street.
Bowls were filled with candy ~ We had hot spiced-cider for the moms and dads. We were READY! Bring on those kids! And here they come!
I love this tradition. Parents bringing their kids, waiting behind them, most of them in costume too … Look at this pink princess . . . Adorable or what?
We have friends who live so far out in the country they don’t get any trick-or-treaters ~we invite them to our house to give out candy at our door ~ we share the wealth ~ because, we definitely get kids! From all over the island . . . we are one of the few neighborhoods where the houses are close enough together for kids to get to without walking a mile in the dark! Halloween is huge on our island.
Is it ever! Early in the evening, at dusk, they’re very young, some even babies, in the cutest costumes, cows, and trees and bunnies, oh my!
As the night gets darker, the kids get older . . .
We stop them to take their picture, and they put up with our 10,000 questions!
By 6:30 our neighborhood is in full Halloween mode. The police close down the streets to cars. It’s not just us, up and down our street and around the corner, its a mad house! 🍁
I got my camera and came around out front to take photos of the door … loved the tree shadows on our house from across the street, whoooo! To see the pumpkins Joe made, I had to wait until the everyone moved aside . . .
Which took a little while . . . everyone running in the dark, superheroes and angels, clowns and unicorns, with bags of loot, laughing, chewing tootsie rolls and eating M&Ms!
Other than the one partially finished pumpkin I saw when Joe was doing them, I hadn’t seen what he’d done. I looked at that one in the middle! Whaaat?
And I got closer, laughing all the time. Went inside and Joe got a big KISS for this good surprise! Doing his part to make a cuter neighborhood, and a better world!
We had about thirty people for Chili dinner, and I was so busy eating and talking (receiving compliments on my new curtains!!!) I forgot to take pictures, but it was wonderful seeing everyone (remember, we just got back!) and it ended in the living room, where a girlfriend with a ukulele played while the dregs of the party (which would be us and some neighbors), had a sing-along. 🎃 It was a wonderful ending. And since it’s party season, here are a few ideas to make giving a party a bit easier. No matter if it’s a small party or large, formal or casual, Thanksgiving, tea party, book club, or election night party.
And, speaking of election night parties . . . Here are some delicious recipes, all tried and true, perfect for a roller coaster ride which this night is bound to be. Won’t it be FUN when
it’s over? Then we’ll all live with the results and can stop thinking about it for a while. And then we’ll get to do it all over again in two years! Politics seems to be America’s newest sport! I remember when I was in high school, I didn’t even know what I was! Or anyone else. I think my mom was a Republican and my dad was a Democrat, but they never argued and they both LIKED IKE! ‘Course the two political parties were 100% different then, and we didn’t have as much to worry about as kids do now, we were safe at school. It was a simpler and I would say a rather happier time. One of the many, many things on which we are all in perfect agreement, we all LOVE to eat . . . so let’s start HERE:
Yummy, from my Autumn Book . . . in case you have it at home, otherwise you can print this out!
These recipes are from Heart of the Home . . .
Wonderful spiced nuts from my Autumn Book . . .
. . . which I just made! I use them all season long!
Deliciousness from Heart of the Home. We’re going to my girlfriend Lowely’s house on Tuesday night to watch the results come in, I’m bringing Cheese Bites!
Opened my eyes from meditation, and across from where I was sitting, Jack was asleep on the sofa. 
I got the evil eye when I put the camera close . . . I SEE YOU, it says in green technicolor.
When we were in California, I picked up a box of my mom’s papers to bring home ~ I went through some of it this morning ~ it was a treasure trove! Saved birthday cards, old letters my grandma wrote, yellowed birth certificates and fancy engraved marriage licenses, hand-written report cards, and certificates of baptism, priceless to my mom, and priceless to me. Above, is a 91-year-old brushed LEATHER ribbon-tied folder with gold lettering, four pages of names and this . . .
. . . my Grandma’s Sioux City, Central High School Diploma from 1927. That’s her, below, on the left. Her class graduated only three weeks after Lindbergh flew the Atlantic non-stop to France! Those 
kids must have felt like their generation was going to own the world! Just a few days after they graduated, Lindbergh’s ticker tape parade was held in New York, which they listened to as a family on a radio the size of a refrigerator. I’m sure my grandma and all her 18-year-old girlfriends shortened their skirts, bobbed their hair, and danced the “Lindy,” . . . they were teenagers during the Roaring Twenties, Calvin Coolidge was president, F. Scott Fitzgerald was the literary star, The Jazz Singer came out in 1927, the first movie with sound! Only two years later, when she was 20, the Great Depression started. She’d already had one World War to deal with as a child. The cards were being dealt. Life was unfolding. And before she fell asleep in her house with a music room on the 3rd floor and nine brothers & sisters, she listened to the most popular song of 1927. I love history, and picturing people in their times. My Grandma shared the planet with Mark Twain for two years. She shared it with Anne Frank, and then she shared Anne Frank with me.💞 Now I have her diploma.
And this! It’s my great grandmother’s 1925 application to join the Martha Washington 
Chapter of the Daughters of the American 
Revolution in Washington, DC. Four pages of family names, births, and deaths back to 1710, all in her lovely handwriting … with “Ancestor’s Services” that tells that her 5th great grandfather (and I guess my 7th), Captain Asa Foster of Andover, Massachusetts, was appointed in 1765 to “oppose the arbitrary measures of the British Government.” Eeeek. My grandma had given me a copy of this when I was in my 20s (part of my dreamscape for New England before I’d ever been here), but it was very different to hold the real thing in my hands. After recently reading a biography of George Washington (Ron Chernow), I 
realized just how dangerous it was to come out against your government back then. If they’d lost (and there was no reason on EARTH they should have believed they could win against the British Empire!), they would have all been hanged! But hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do and he believed in his cause. His son Abiel graduated from Harvard in 1756, was a minister who represented New Hampshire in the first Congress. I could write a book about these people! We found both of their graves, in Old North Parish Burying Ground in North Andover and in the Canterbury Cemetery in New Hampshire.
And this little slip of paper was in there too, written in my great grandfather’s hand, showing the 
dates of birth for his parents (my great, great grandparents), and their children. I met Merrill James 
Orr, born in 1871, the man who wrote this, the father of my grandma ~ that’s him holding me, my mom’s on the right, my grandma’s on the left. I feel the generations behind me, and I see younger members of my family going on into the future. Such a connection. And the threads of that connection go on and on, out in all directions. Pretty soon, as you research your family tree, you start thinking you’re related to EVERYONE. Then you get your DNA done and find out you absolutely are!
And now it’s my turn to save little old pieces of paper, tiny fragments of a lifetime of memories. I guess I got that from them! 💞 Like here, in the England diary I’m now illustrating and rewriting in my “good 
handwriting.” You can just imagine how much I revel in the magic I feel when I write, spellbound in the dream of it (hours and clocks mean nothing), about the history we found in Enchanted England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. My pages will be peopled by spirits of the past, Winston Churchill, Beatrix Potter, Jane Austen, hill forts, stone circles, and fairy winds . . . all that and Rachel too! I’ll do it as the leaves blow, as the snow flies, as the cat naps, and when the daffodils come again, I’ll still be here in my old house, fireplace glowing, shawl pulled tight, pen noises scratching, paint brush ringing on the side of the water dish I bought in Disneyland before I knew I could paint, Jack at my side, living the dream with my boyfriend for life, loving the road, because
I kept Joe’s pumpkin for our front window . . . like keeping a light on! Never forget our fathers and grandfathers fought for this right, so that today, no matter how we came to this country, we get a say in the kind of government 
we want. It was EVERYTHING to them, their lives were on the line, and there’s nothing quite like it in the world. The right to vote. Honor our ancestors. Go vote, and take someone with you. Don’t think you don’t know what you’re doing, because believe me, you probably know more than most! The world has fought for civility since time began, fought to overcome human nature prone to barbarism, it hasn’t been easy, but despite all, we keep bringing it forward, so families everywhere can live in peace and prosperity. They’ve told us that we have nothing to fear but fear itself, and proved it time and time again. Because we can solve all problems when we come together. I know they’ve made it hard to tell truth from 
lies, the water has been muddied, even on Facebook, where we put our family photos, and share recipes! But it’s not impossible. No source is perfect but we can find a balance. When I have specific questions, I go to websites like Politifact, a Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-finding website. They can answer almost any question, “Did such and such REALLY happen, Did he REALLY say that, Does America have open borders, What is the Caravan made up of, Which members of Congress take money from the NRA, Who IS (fill in the blank)” ~ even old questions, like “Did Iraq have weapons of mass destruction, what was the Fairness Doctrine, what happened when the banks failed?” On and on, they have researched it all. Huge help for lovers of history like me.
“All shall be well, all shall be well, all manner of thing shall be well.” 💞Julian of Norwich, the first woman in recorded history to write a book. And aren’t they the perfect words!
SO, we’re going off for a walk to the water, but before we go, as promised, last but not least, NEXT Saturday, Joe and I hop on the ferry to the Mainland for the day, where I’ll be at the West Falmouth Library answering questions, signing books, and reading the first chapter of Enchanted, just like I did at the Apple Farm in California. If you’re coming, or even if you’re not, click here and please print out this name tag/bookmark. Write your name on the bottom so we’ll know each other! And yes, for everyone who’s going to be there, you each will be getting a copy of your own first chapter. I’m sorry tickets for this event are sold out, but I promise I’ll be out again in the future, and we can try again. And if you remember, waaaaaaay back when I started this post, I promised YOU a giveaway! So here she is! To win, just leave a comment at the bottom of this post (you’ll see tiny gray words that say, “comment” ~ click there and say hello, and you will automatically be entered. And if your name is chosen, you will receive your very own signed copy of the first chapter my new book!
In fact, Kellee made me FIVE 23-page booklets, all just for you💞 . . . so, this time, there will be five winners! Yay!!! I hope one of them is YOU!
I wanted to start at The Beginning with a love story, like I did with A Fine Romance, so I did! I hope you enjoy it!
That’s it for today darling girlfriends. I shall return! Have a luv-lee evening. Keep the home fires burning!
I save your news for a quiet time when I can enjoy and savior every word. You are a treasure. I feel as though I am whisked off to Never Never Land when I read your blogs. Thank you for just being you.
Hugs, love, and blessings, Dotty
Welcome Home. Joe, good job on the vote pumpkin.
Welcome home. My daughter and I traveled to Scotland, England and Wales the first weeks of October. So much beauty and so many fun adventures. I drove for the first time on the wrong side -whew. Used up my cuss-word allowance for the next two years – those narrow roads and round abouts. But it was marvelous – wonderful memories. Scotland looked like a little bit of paradise. So looking forward to your next book!
Bursting into LOL! Once we were going around a tight bend in the road, between the rock walls and hedgerows, Joe driving of course, chicken wife on his left, and there’s a BUS, tires hanging over onto our side of the road, my eyes are as open as they can get, not a moment in which to cuss, but out of my mouth comes, “This is IT!” … Joe has laughed at that ever since, and said it over and over again on the rest of the trip, because, as you know, it didn’t happen only once! Brave you! I could do it now, I think, except for when it get’s complicated in the roundabouts where you are a whirling dervish of weaving. Like a jigsaw puzzle that you have one second to solve. I wouldn’t want to take the chance!
Love the dinning room curtains. They look wonderful with the pink walls.
I enjoyed your post very much, as I always do! I love seeing your photos of fall and of your home. I’m sure you’re very glad to be home!
I love your books, new curtains and all the wonderful pictures of your festivities!! I am from LaGrange Ga. Happy Fall!!🎃🍁🌻🍂🌾
Love hearing where everyone’s from . . . ties a big bow around the United States, and the Un-united States too, and even the world!
Hmm…not sure my last post was received. (Those darn web Gremlins!). Loved your post. Thank you for letting us into your home and your lives. Utterly charming.
XOXOXO Sally!
Love the new curtains! Everything looks so welcoming. ❤️
My dear, dear Susan, you are one in ten million – I LOVE your blogs and look forward to reading them when they hop onto my computer screen. Love your new curtains and also your historical family adventures. Isn’t life fun??!!
Love to you, Joe and Jack.
I love your new curtains and the pink walls in your dining room. Your house is simply gorgeous in every way!
Love catching up with you and Joe and Jack. Glad you made it home to see the Fall colors. Love your new curtains, however they end up. Give Jack a big forehead butt from me.
Best and most important words of all…VOTE!
Fall splendor personified ! 🍂🧡🍁
Your posts are always so charming and fun. I love having a cup of your Private Blend tea in my Home Sweet Home Jack cup while I slowly look through your blog. Halloween at your house looked magical. And just when I thought how wonderful your adventures were and how good it must feel to be home, I saw the Willa Cather quote; how strange….I’ve just finished reading her book Not Under Forty. Thank you for the book marker and for sharing your adventures. Waiting ever so patiently for your new book; I would be more than ecstatic to be one of the lucky giveaway winners.
I love the new curtains and the pink paint in your dining room! Your home is simply gorgeous!
Hello and welcome home!! Would love to win the giveaway!! So happy the leaves stayed until you returned. Happy Fall to you!
A lovely surprise to find your blog on the eve of Election Day with the pumpkin reminder to VOTE! Thank you for your kind and wise words and the always, always perfect inspirational quotes. You’re the BEST!
Absolutely wonderful post. I especially loved the pictures of all the trick-or-treaters ~ such fun!
I love the beauty of your blog. I love the curtains lined with flannel… I can feel the warmth ! Your home looks so inviting. I also love your recipes… your quotes… I really enjoy your posts. I also enjoyed the pieces of your family’s past… I have a notebook kept during the Civil War on one side of the family and the beautiful handwritten records of my family going back to the 1820’s in Scotland and then in Nova Scotia … the births, deaths, marriages and land deeds… all in beautiful handwriting that is lavish and full of loops and flourishes. Another part of our family was here before the English… they were Cherokee and I have old tin type pictures and the early written language of the Cherokee. I need a chart to read it, but it is very interesting. Family History is so very interesting to me. Sometimes there is heartache and sadness to be found when you read the names of babies who lived but one day… or a baby of less than a year is buried in a coffin that cost only $11.00 in Boston in 1905… written on beautiful paper with lovely letterhead… every letter mattered. Life was hard for every generation of my family going back to our humble beginnings in Scotland and in North America. Freedom was something that came at great price to each generation. Your new book looks lovely … and who doesn’t like a love story ?
You’re a Campbell? And I’m a Murray and a Stewart. So hello cousin! Loved your words, you must love grave yards like I do!
Your curtains are luv-lee and so beautifully made!
Aren’t we fortunate that life has Octobers and Novembers so we can enjoy the sights, smells and sounds of this wonderful time of year. I think I would be completely happy if Fall hung around for six months! Happy Fall to everyone!
So agree, so far I’ve never gotten tired of it, only wish for more!
It’s good to be home, with the cozy season closing in, treasured papers to go through, parties to plan for, a kitty to play with, projects to do….enjoy !
Susan so glad to catch up on all your news. I love the curtain fabric and I agree they will look splendid with hanging the valance lower away from the ceiling. How nice to have them lined too, that will surely make your rooms all the more cozier.
Your Halloween festivities look like a lot of fun. I don’t have as many trick or treaters as you but this year besides giving away candy I gave all the kids books that are from my kindergarten classroom library. I switched grade levels this year and needed to downsize. It was so fun to hear the excitement of the kiddos as they chose their own book to keep. I don’t think I would have had enough for the crowds you have.
I look forward to hearing and eventually reading your newest book. I have so enjoyed the others. My K5 class is “polishing” up their best personal narrative stories this week and rewriting them neatly so we can publish them for our classroom library. We then have an author’s celebration to share our stories.
My young authors are so excited to share their writing.
Thanks for all you do to inspire and cheer us.
Books! What a brilliant idea to fill up those candy bags! All blessings for your young authors, and for you, such an inspiration! Thank you for what you do.
Your blog is always a most welcome invitation to take a break and remember all the lovely, important things that enhance our lives- family, friends, home and hearth – nature, books and music- food, fellowship and a spirit of adventure. Thanks for all the inspiration!
Susan, reading your post is like visiting with an old friend. And reading all the comments makes it clear you have created a community of kindred spirits, lovely people who appreciate the beauty of nature, the warmth of the home, and the importance of friends. Thank you. And for all our sakes I hope the election coverage cheers us and makes us hopeful again.
I love that you read the comments. They are so beautiful, and from everywhere! Years back, before computers, I’d receive wonderful snail-mail letters from readers, as I read I would think how MUCH these letter-writers would love to meet each other . . . such kindred spirits, so much in common, such kindness, those letters taught me there is way more good in the world than bad. I always wished there’d be a way everyone could meet, and now, through some sort of magical genius miracle, here we are! xoxo Thank you Joan!
I loved reading this. I had a trip to England this past June into July and loved it there. And yes, they do have substantial curtains.
Yes, I have already voted! I was lucky enough to be a senior in 1971 here in California when 18 year-olds could vote for the first time. Our awesome government teacher gave us the assignment to work with a candidate to become more aware of the system. I happened to choose a candidate, unknowingly, that I did not at all agree with….still a huge lesson at a young age.
I am ALWAYS renewed and encouraged by your blogs, books, calendars, cups, etc. Thank you for being all that you are to so many people, Susan and Joe:)
Lastly, my friend and I since third grade/eight years old, are going to England together in May of 2019. We are using your book, A Fine Romance, plus your blog from this year’s trip to plan. Any chance your new book will be out by then? We’d LOVE to have it with us to read along the way…..please, please, please, please?
Your draperies are lovely! It looks like autumn waited just for you!
I love reading your blog. It always brings a feeling of home and friendship. Thank you! Kay H
Thanks for the smiles, glad you’re home….no where like it! Yes? As always you’re so generous. Enjoy!
Glad you’re back!
Thank you for sharing your world with all of us. We love going along for the ride!
Hello🤗
I love your curtains – so beautiful. My mother so loved florals. I can’t wait to read your new book. Thank you for your sweet blog.
I so enjoyed reading this post and seeing the photos of your lovely house. All the curtains are beautiful, and the floral fabrics are gorgeous! Halloween on your island sounds magical, what a great place to be a kid and grow up! Thanks as always for sharing your life with us all!
Loved this post, fall is my favorite season, just not long enough.
It was wonderful to read your post today with a cup of tea, its wonderful that fall waited for your return. Your curtains look lovely, they go so well with the wall color.
I joined DAR 3 years ago and am now a Vice Regent. Its a great way to volunteer in the community and honor our local vets. Right now we’re in the process of putting together gift baskets and cards for patients at our local VA Old Soldiers Home. My “patriot” ancestor also served in the Revolutionary War in New Hampshire. I’d encourage you to take a look at our website DAR.org, there are volunteer opportunities for almost every interest. In answer to a previous comment DAR thankfully has changed with the times and is very inclusive.
I love reading your posts and can’t wait until your new book is published next year. Meeting you in the Lake District at the picnic in May was such a thrill! I am a huge Beatles fan so am so impressed you got to meet them “back in the day”. Lucky!!!! Enjoy being in your lovely cozy home!
Oh I hope I win ! Can’t wait to make a cup of tea and snuggle up with your new book ( or at least the first chapter for now).
Always a pleasure – thanks for sharing!
Welcome home! Love the curtains! Jack is the sweetest fluffiest kitty ever-
hope to win-but 1700+ comments so far-oh my!
Happy Fall! :o)
Happy Autumn 🍂🍁 Enjoyed your updates in this blog.
Love those colorful trees and all the party inspiration!!
So glad you are home and happy!
Xoxo
Lisa Hay
So happy that y’all made it home safely. I love to travel,but I love coming home. “Ah, home at last..!
Your new curtains and pillows make me this of the wonderful place my daughter and I stayed in Porlock.
Can’t wait to read your new book. Have all the others. My favorite is Martha’s Vineyard. God bless you, Susan! Keep writing for all of us.
Your curtains are lovely. And I make your Dry Bones recipe all the time and everyone loves them. My husband says they are better than any we get in a restaurant. 🙂 I’m glad you’re home. Not fall yet here in Texas, so I’m jealous of your foliage. 🙂
I always get excited to see a new blog in my email!! I wait until all chores for tomorrow are done and I am cozy in bed with my tea, and then slowly read, go back and check out this or that more closely; special highlight of my evening! I am in love with fall too and loved to hear and see how much you enjoyed your homecoming!! Thanks so much for sharing your beauty, creativity, writing and art and love of the simple things with us. Blessings to you ~ Anita
Love your books. Love that you include Jack in each post.
Can’t wait for the new book!
Welcome home! I envy you all the trick or treaters and Halloween fun! It snowed on Halloween in Colorado Springs this year!
How I love the days when I see a Susan Branch blog in my inbox! I know I will have something special and joyful and beautiful to read and savor. Thank you for sharing your life and home with us. I am so glad you had colorful fall leaves to come home to! May the next season ahead be full of wonderful moments in your cozy home on your special island with your boyfriend for life! I can’t wait for your new book to come out! That will be a treasure!
Welcome home! Your decor is beautiful. Loved your recipes and Joe’s pumpkins.
I loved seeing the photos of your lovely Halloween celebration! We live very rurally and don’t get trick or treaters. I’m glad you were able to share that experience with some of your friends!
Welcome back! Love all your pictures!
Welcome Home! My “boyfriend for life” and I love to travel also. Like you, one of the best parts of the trip is coming home! Have a wonderful
Thanksgiving, and a very Merry Christmas!!!
Thanks for hope and reason and love for beauty and calm. Happy November, dear Susan!
Alo-ha-ha Susan … I can’t seem to find my original comment with your reply (November 4, 6:30 pm PST) so I’m here again .. Yes, I did read your October 17 blog and now I remember
your photo and update with your Mom!! My memory cells are shady as we were in HNL for my Mom’s memorial in Punchbowl National in July; and my Aunty’s funeral again in HNL on October 3… my Mom was also born in 1923 as your Dad and she was 95…
I am grateful she lived with us for 10 years and many memories fill my heart but my heart feels empty without her being here… Thank you for always helping me feel better❣
Xoxox Evie in San Diego
I love your new curtains 💗 👏🏻
Hello Susan Enjoyed every line of you new blog. The new curtains are so pretty and add so much to your decor. You have a magic touch. Both elegant and homey. Joe did a terrific job on the pumpkins especially the Vote. We can’t be reminded enough that it is a privilege we should not waste!
Susan – I’ve never commented before… I’m really pretty new to most things of yours. Although I’ve had your calendars for several years and your Autumn book (which I display on a cookbook rack and turn the pages every day for an Autumn decoration each year), I just recently read A Fine Romance, Isle of Dreams (twice) and The Fairy Tale Girl and now you feel like a dear sister! My daughter is turning 21 tomorrow (on Election Day) and is a student at Cal Poly in SLO! When I started reading your books (especially Fairy Tale Girl), I couldn’t believe you lived there! Last February, I went to visit my daughter, thinking it would be warm in California February and it never reached 60 degrees the whole week. But the sun shone and I stayed at the Apple Farm and saw your books in the bookstore there! I had no idea at that time that you would visit there! What a charming town it is. My daughter is graduating in June next year. So I am going to try to go visit in January this time as she is in the dance company and she is going to be performing in ballet performances. Blessings to you my new girlfriend!
I love the vote pumpkin!! What a great idea Joe had😀
Truly your posts are like letters from an old friend. Like your recipe for a good party, they have color, good taste, imagination…
So glad you’re home safe and sound. I really like the VOTE pumpkin. Have you seen the movie Iron Jawed Angels? It’s about American suffragists, the incredibly strong women who worked so very hard for us to get the vote here in America. It’s a great movie even though parts of it are hard to watch. I am reading Marta McDowell’s wonderful book called Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life. It’s inspired me to reread all of her little books, they just make me happy!
Dearest Susan,
I absolutely LOVE the new curtains…even with the valances and trim! But, I guess I’m an English girl at heart…your house looks so cozy and lovely! Thank you so very much for sharing so much of your life with us. You inspire me every day…I have a pile of your books by my bed and I can’t resist diving in each night to re-read favorite passages. Hopefully you will come down to Pasadena some time whenever you are in California. Enjoy the rest of Fall, and thank you for the reminder to VOTE! BIG HUGS! Lori
😘 Lori, thank you!
I love reading about your adventures, travels, parties, recipes and everything else! It looks like you had a lovely trip home. A train ride from California to the east coast sounds like a dream to me, especially ending up in such a lovely home in a wonderful town like Martha’s Vineyard. It’s all so beautiful. I can’t wait to read more in Enchanted!
I love the new drapes and light colors for your home’s decor. The walls remind me of a soft sunset. I also used this color for two rooms in my house, one a bit lighter than the other with a little more beige to it. I also love the idea of not just putting special, little bits of autumn on the windowsill, but also on the ledge that separates the two windows. Is that called the window jam? I don’t know. Ha! Thank you for another lovely post and also the chance to win the copy of your beautiful, new book. Dream on and wait for your, little mermaid.
Everywhere there is an inch of shelf-like space is fair game!🤣 xoxoxo
I can’t wait for the new book. It’s so true ,the saying, there’s no place like home.
What a fun giveaway! I love your books. I’m glad you have autumn at home, and that you’re enjoying your pink walks and floral curtains. Lovely!
Can hardly wait for “Enchanted”, the entire story!
I am a make everything from scratch person ; a do -it – yourself person. I have grown children, grand children , and great grand children. My house and yard and gardens ground me and my husband. However, we make time to understand what goes on locally and nationally and, we often drive 7 hours away to visit. So …. your blog is like a familiar friend. I appreciate when you don’t insert anything political into your blog ; we can all get that 24/7, on overload. It’s nice to just focus on food, family, outdoor beauty, and kitties. I hope the upcoming holidays give you more precious memories to tuck away. Sincerely, a fan.
Think if one of our girlfriends came along and said, please never talk about pies. Or could you leave cat talk off your blog. Thing is, as women, as growing, vibrant, being-the-best-we-can women, as daughters, sisters, moms, grandmas, great grandmas, as Girlfriends, we are everything. xoxo
Dear Susan, Glad to hear you and Joe are happily home again! Thanks for sharing photos of your fall trees and the Halloween festivities! Your party sounds wonderful and I could almost taste all those good things! mind how you go, YvonneJ
Hello Susan,
I’m so glad fall waited for you. I was in Martha’s Vineyard with my college girlfriends while you were away . That day was a bit rainy but we enjoyed anyway. The Gingerbread houses were so pretty.
We toured New England and LOVED the color. I brought many leaves home with me and they make a lovely fall arrangement with my pumpkins. We get a little color in Texas, but nothing like New England.
I just recently bought a home and painted my bedroom a similar green color that is in your living room. I just love it!
I always enjoy your posts. I have been a fan for decades. You were the inspiration for our New England trip. I am looking forward to your new book. I hope to win Chapter 1. 🙂
Always enjoy your adventures…even the daily ones.
I so enjoy reading everything you write and your drawings make me smile one of those slow smiles of satisfaction in your work.
As always, loved reading your post. Somehow they always seem to come at the best time. Thank you.
Love getting your emails. Save them for last so I can savor reading them. I love how you describe your home, makes me feel as if I am there. So beautiful and cozy.
thank you for taking us along on your travels and for sharing fall in new england. it’s a joy to experience your journeys even if it’s just vicariously.
So glad you and Joe are home safely and had a wonderful trip. What would we do without all your decorating trials, your recipes, and Joe’s pumpkin carvings? Love the new look in your house, too! Love you, too, Jack 🙂
Welcome home, dear friend. I read your blog while soaking in a nice warm bubble bath with candles lite all around me. I was in my joyful place. Thank you. 💕
So happy you made it home safe and in time for fall foliage! I think I squealed in delight when you wrote about the giveaway! I can picture the treasure displayed on my Susan Branch shelf! Have a wonderful holiday season and a great Christmas!
Hello, I am like you, I love and keep cherished memories, photos and papers:-)
Welcome home again! All will be well, and Vanna: PICK ME! 😯🤗
What a wonderful give away.
Looking forward to the Holidays.
The documents you found from your ancestors are truly treasures! I am so fascinated by the items and stories that connect us to our relatives from long ago. Glad you were able to get home in time to enjoy the fall colours, 🍁🍂!! I would love to receive a copy of the first chapter of your book to enjoy as the weather begins to turn colder and we snuggle in for the winter!
Dearest Susan,
Your are such a heart lifter! For years I have been trying to figure out how you manage to inspire, delight, and hold a beacon of light for all all of us to follow and tonight it dawned on me that you are so blazingly devoted to being the truth of yourself that it lights up everything around you.❤️💖
It seems that you can sing the praises of all that joy inside and find ways to not only share it with us, but invite us to celebrate our own true selves. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for that amazing gift. With love and gratitude…
My arms pull close, entwine with hands under my chin, shoulders around ears, reading your kind words. I analyze how I got here too. Maybe you are right, for better or worse. I would say there’s a simple sentence in my head, I’m just trying to help. It’s oldest-of-eight-children-syndrome. Next life, I’ll be a teacher. Thank you dearly Jena. xoxo
Susan …. believe it: you’re a born teacher (coming from me w/31 teaching experience K-12) … with your first book, blog and personal appearances .. you INSPIRE and that’s really teaching❤️
Xoxox Evie in San Diego … A-LO-HA-HA ❤️🌴❤️
A-lo-ha-ha dear Evie!
Susan Have you read anyKatherine Swift books?I’m reading The Morville Hours my ordered them online for me and The Morville Year has beautiful color pictures of the gardens in it .The first is a hardback the second one is paoerback
It’s always wonderful to get home. I bet your bed did feel really comfortable. The leaves on your trees are beautiful. What a sight to see and I’m glad they waited for you. I always love your blog. Thank you for letting us in on a little corner of your life
Loved this post,Susan! So many fun and beautiful things to read and see. Very inspiring!
Thank you…
thank you, for always sharing your life, hope, and dreams with us girlfriends. We are not without hope, for you keep dangling those dreams for all of us to reach. Some of us can’t blaze our own trails, for what ever reasons, but we can hitch our wagons to you, and away we go!!!!!!!!!!! Stay strong, and healthy, the world needs you.
The documents you have from your ancestors are treasures! I love any items or stories that connect us to our relatives that lived long ago. I would love a copy of the first chapter of your book to snuggle in and read as our weather turns colder. We have already experienced a bit of snow up here in Canada. The fall season goes so quickly! I’m glad you were able to make it home in time to enjoy some of the fall colours! 🍂🍁.
Home Sweet Home!
Oh Susan, this has to be one of my favorite posts…….this election season has been full of ups and downs and anxieties; thankfully it’s almost over. But your thoughts and stories and descriptions of the wonderful parties you throw for your friends, your appreciation of your family history, and your overall love affair with life, all have left me with such a positive peace. Thanks for reminding us that, although there are some things in life we can’t control, we can always create wonderful moments that give special meanings to our lives.
So true, we have it all at home. A pie comes out of the oven, the nap blanket beckons, and all is right with the world.
So very happy to find your post today! Welcome home! Thank you for the goodness you send out into our world, Susan. We need each and every thoughtful, reasoned word in this election season.❤️
Was just thinking, we have wild words from both sides, but where do we go for quiet reasoning, historical context and common sense? These are the BIG questions! 🤔 Thank you Darlene!
Another wonderful post from you Susan- it made my day!
There is nothing too fancy or stuffy about your gorgeous new curtains. THey look inviting and classy and perfect. You were right—it is just about change–the older we get the less we like change and maybe that is as it should be.
Glad you are staying home for awhile–your traveling is making me tired! HA!
Happy Fall!
Linda from Idaho where it is finally getting cold & we have lost most of our leaves–now it is raking time!
Susan, you simply amaze me! Such a wonderful post. I’m glad the leaves waited for you. I so enjoyed the part about your mother’s papers.
Keeping fingers crossed and thanking you in advance for a chance to win the first chapter.
Nancy (from Bakersfield)
Looking forward to reading Enchantment when it’s finished
I love reading anything you write… your books, your recipes, and of course your blog posts. I believe we must be related, by heart and spirit, if not by genes. I’m a Susan too, born in central California (Atascadero, near SLO) in 1947.
I hope to meet you in person someday.
What a fantastic pumpkin surprise – a great reminder for tomorrow. And, I especially love the historical and sentimental papers with such beautiful cursive. Welcome home!
You look like your Florence Orr!🌻
Glad you’re back home safely, Happy Thanksgiving!
Lovely lovely, all of it. Like the idea of shorter valances. Will look cha cha! The material is to die for.