SO MUCH! Right? How was your Thanksgiving? Are you done decorating yet? Done shopping?🤣 What are you doing for the holidays? You know we’re having our Christmas on Martha’s Vineyard . . . but before we go there . . . A. Musica and B. other stuff . . .🌺
How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was perfect! Just enough and not too much! Here’s our Norman Rockwell moment …. (we would have made more room for Shelly if our niece, Trish, who was taking the picture, had told us she was there!😈)
I was in the supermarket shopping for Thanksgiving, suddenly overwhelmed by the ABUNDANCE of food around me, the CHOICES, the fancy cakes and cookies in every shape, cheeses and butter from all over the world, shelves of fresh, nutritious vitamin-filled everything ~ everything you could want or need, just toss it in the basket! And over the loudspeaker, “Come to the pharmacy and get your free flu shoat!” For me it’s a short hop from all of this, to the suffering in this crazy world of ours. It almost made me cry in the vegetable department!! Half from joy and half from sadness💔, and all from gratitude.😪😅🥲
Our little house …🏡 Joe, and my sister Shelly 💞, so much. We had our Thanksgiving on Monday, so the nieces and nephews wouldn’t have to travel on the holiday ….🚗
Shelly’s twin boys, Paden on left, and Mason on right, are 21 now, totally immersed in those imprint years, with girlfriends, Dani and Kayla, becoming aware of the world, the opportunities, figuring it all out, dreaming dreams, living the good life and making our lives more fun!☺️
I started nice and early, before they got here, setting the table, getting the house ready, doing flowers, cooking, puttering, all those homey soul-filling things that the holidays bring.💖
Yes I brought lots of good Thanksgiving dishes with us, and interesting, as always to me, because every house I have lived in has done it, the house says what it wants. It does not want a tablecloth! It wants wood! I tried a tablecloth… but the house was right, it wasn’t warm enough, not cozy enough, so as usual, I give our house what it asks for! And it thanks me by being all the cozy I need.♥️
We had it all ~ my grandma’s stuffing and gravy, my mom’s Waldorf salad, Joe’s delicious broccoli/cheese casserole, Shelly’s green bean casserole, Trader Joe’s rolls, my Rainbow Jell-O and Pumpkin Cheesecake. And we held hands as I said my Grandma’s prayer … 
After that, I forgot to take pictures! Too much fun! Too much eating! 🍗😋
They took their new memories and went home Tuesday morning, and Joe and I instantly jumped into the car and went here!🎄
And bought this short fat little tree. It’s little, but it fills the house with pine smells, and we wanted to celebrate here for as long as possible. Our train pulls out of San Luis Obispo, heading for Chicago, then through the cold and snow to Boston on Sunday the 8th . . . but until then, happily have Christmas in our California tree house! 🌳🏡🌳
We cozy in, light the candles🕯️ with matches in the little house on the table ~ see it there? No way, too tiny . . .
Here it is, in all its glory, fulfilling my favorite William Morris recommendation, 
Or cute, I might add! And doesn’t this little house of matches have it all!? Some of you got one of these when I showed it on the blog before… hope you have it out, now is the time it was meant for! I think we might have a few left … I know Kellee ordered them!
We’ve been watching every wonderful old Christmas movie we can find . . . like here, It’s a Wonderful Life!🍿
me, Jack, and Joe … not missing one minute of this delightful dizzy month of December!
In the meantime, lots of things need doing before we go.🪴🪷🪴 I’ve always wanted a little Potted Garden with ode to Beatrix Potter included (never to be forgotten). In New England you have to empty your pots every year, the dirt expands when the pot freezes which breaks it, so California is the best place for this! I’ve been saving things for it, even brought things from MV . . . pots and bunny etc… we already had the watering can here.👏 And when we cut down that giant tree a couple of months ago, we opened up that area to the sunshine, and the big stump gave me a little platform to build on!
I’ve slowly been filling the pots with herbs and flowers, with still a few more to go. I really wanted to get this done before we leave so I can come home and go…
So this makes me happy.
And this makes me happy ~ my walk, round and round our property.
Thinking we could build a “Fall Garden Room” here with a lawn in the middle, and surround it with color and have picnics and leaves could fall on us! While I walk, I’ve been listening to a riveting book, The Alice Network. This is a book that builds with every chapter. And with only two hours left to go, I’m on edge. Torn between wanting to see what happens, NOT wanting to see what happens, and not wanting it to end. 💃🏼
How much I love this as round and round I go. I throw my arms in the air as a murder of crows takes off from the fence and pull it all into my heart, the whole blue sky, the green fields, the clouds, all of it! And repeat our Thanksgiving blessing: For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies. 🌤️🌁
Joe was out picking oranges yesterday . . . getting them down from the top branches.🍊
Aren’t they beautiful? Almost match my tennis shoes. We have the juiciest best oranges, we’re taking a bunch of them back to the island with us! They make the best Old-Fashions EVER! You can smell them right through their skin, they perfume the kitchen and make it smell like Christmas!🍊
Even Jack is curious!
And we still have plenty left to ripen-up while we’re away. Moving here was the right thing to do. Decisions like this are never fun. Took us forever to decide. It could all go so wrong. But it’s turning out right. A nice flat house, a nice flat dirt road, and free oranges.
And, huge plus, cats in trees!
XOXOX
These two kitties, Simon (in the tree), Sammy (with the freckle) have lived their entire lives on this property. They were studio cats when our house was the Studio for our business, but now that we’ve moved here, we all decided we couldn’t move them from everything they know and love, much too traumatic, especially after watching what Jack went through … and that turned out to be a win-win for Joe and me, because now we HAVE them all!!!
Good for us, but not so much for the King Bee! He’s wild about them, but not in a good way. In a wild way. With teeth and claws.
Although we don’t give Jack a chance to use them. Simon is a big calm, happy, loving mooshey kitty. See him out there on the deck? He doesn’t care who is boss. Live and let live, just rub my tummy is his motto. Sammy is a small tuxedo kitty who thinks he’s boss 
because he got here first. They are both used to living outdoors and they love each other. And then there’s Jack, the smallest of them all. Simon will wait outside on the deck forever to be friends with Jack. But Sammy wouldn’t touch that deck with a ten foot pole. And Jack? Snarls. Growls, Yowls. So we wait. I hope somehow they become friends while we’re gone, when Alfredo is in charge. I haven’t the nerve to simply open the sliding glass door and “see what happens.”👀😳🫣 I would love to have them all in the house. Sammy and Simon eat and sleep in the barn, we let them out in the morning. But Jack can’t go out. Stay tuned for the rest of the story!💞
I finished all four 2026 Calendars the day before Thanksgiving! 👏
We go out and sit in the sun under blue and white striped umbrellas and have lunch. Because we can.
And we go with friends … that’s my darling Joe in front, behind him is Diane, then Cliff (yes, my ex, who, since a million years have gone by, we don’t care, we are always going to be friends👍. (we all did the best we knew how back then and I’m sure you can see why I say he was a guardian angel for me, and why guardian angels don’t always wear white ~ angel things change us, in ways that seem awful at the time, but can turn out to be a starting place for joy), and next to him, his WONDERFUL wife Lynette (thank goodness this was the one he married or it never would have worked), a Texas girl, funny and smart, an award-winning golfer⛳️ and tennis player, and I would say Cook! And next to her, old friends Sharon Lovejoy📚🪴 and her husband Jeff Prostovich! So fun, beautiful, on the last day that our favorite restaurant ever will be open. Spyglass Restaurant, closed forever last month. We had to go. For the memories. Ch-ch-ch-changes. Bah humbug.🤣 I shouldn’t laugh, but I really do hate it!🤣
Just got an email from Amtrak, “Your train leaves in 5 days!” Time to pack! Last lunch with Diane today!
Speaking of which, did you get your calendars? Time to put on your special dates for fun in 2025!
Here we are, in the back seat of a cart, being driven through LA Union Station, outside to board the train. I took that photo of us in the driver’s rear-view mirror the last time we went. And in 5 days, we’ll do it again! So lucky. I hope everyone has their Christmas Lights up, that’s my favorite part about being snug in our room with a view on a train in the snow. The Christmas lights!
I think I’ll put Twitter from the Twain on BlueSky this time. Bluesky Social is available in a free app in your phone . . . come join, it’s NICE! Bluesky Train pulls out December 8th!
Home to our old house🚂 on Martha’s Vineyard. It hasn’t sold yet, so we are going to get one more Christmas there.👏 And hug all our friends.🥲😅🥰 And go on our walk through the woods to the sea. Which is all I want for Christmas! What a gift. In the house where we lived for 35 years, the house that knows all our secrets and loves us anyway ~ and always will whether we live there or not. Will we have snow? I don’t know, but in case we don’t, here it is. I insist! Elaine called me this morning to say, “It’s 31º here this morning, get ready.” We are so ready, hats, gloves, scarves … it’s all ready to go.
I’ll take pictures! Next Blog!
We all send love.♥️ No matter where we are, we are always
And on January 5th, we will train right out of that cold, back to the blue sky and golden sun . . . and a new year. With an orchard to plant! And plans to make, because we’re going to England in May!!!! Oh my gosh, I just realized, I could go on here forever! I keep thinking of other things to say! Read my last blog post if you didn’t get the part about the trip to England! Love you dear hearts! xoxoxo
Oh, I am so excited to be able to follow the blue skies as you travel on that train!! I’ve left the other place….for the most part….and remember that your train travel was what enticed me to join there in the first place! This trip will be via a new site! Yay! Very doubtful that all those kitties will ever be friends. Our two weren’t exactly hospitable to our daughter’s kitty when she brought it along for a visit. Christmas on Martha’s Vineyard! How lovely! Wonderful to have your orange trees and to share the harvest with friends back east! Will be watching for the journey come the 8th! – xoxo
Safe travels!!!!
Love you!
Laura in Illinois
Prayers for safe travel. Merry Christmas Susan & Joe! ❤️💚
Great post….your Thanksgiving was beautiful!
Prayers for safe travel. MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Great to see your California home and so good to see the old house on Martha’s Vineyard again. I miss it.
I also seemed to have missed the bookmark you offer of the full moons. Is it available somewhere? I make enough for all my children and grandchildren to put into the books we give them for their Life Shelf of great reads. A tradition for about 6 years. Please let me know.
Looking forward to BlueSky on the train.
Jeanne of Iowa
A-lo-ha-ha Susan … safe travels to Home in MV … and when you return Home Sweet Home to CA… what a beautiful CA collage w/photos you shared .. warming my ❤️ at this much needed time … Xo Evie in San Diego
Have a wonderful trip! I can’t wait to follow along on social media. I hope it snows in MV. I can’t wait to see pictures.
🎄Merry Christmas🎄. Safe travels to your eastern home…I’ll send some ❄️your way…here in northern Michigan we had a lovely long fall, but now the snow is coming like CraZy! You have the best of. Oth worlds like we did when we lived in Savannah GA~we were there in the winter and in northern Michigan in the summer…enjoy every single minute❣️
Along with your books, Sharon Lovejoy’s “Sunflower Houses” was one of the constants in rotation on our bookshelves. Such fun to know that two favorite authors are friends!
Seeing Christmas lights from the train sounds so wonderful! I hope you have a very special Christmas back east. The views from your property are incredible. As always thank you for sharing the beauty of the earth and the glory of the skies.
Hi Sue! You and Joe have settled in so nicely in your California home. It suits you and the house seems to have embraced you and your spirit. It looks and feels like a Susan Branch house. I commented on blue sky that your window sill looks just like your widow sill on Martha’s Vineyard. It really does!
Your Thanksgiving celebration looked wonderful. I can’t believe how grown your nephews are. So handsome and their girlfriends look so cute. We had 10 here for Thanksgiving and it’s as you said, “just enough and not too much”!
It was a little crazy with two kitties and dog and a one year old but so much fun! I decided to set a bare table as well. I just love making things pretty and festive and spent the days before setting the table and arranging flowers and baking pies. Im always the last one to sit down at the table when it’s time to eat. I love to pause and look around the table and take in all the happiness and love that surrounds me.
We are in full blown Christmas mode now! Two trees are up and lots of shopping is happening. It will be so much fun having a little one here on Christmas morning.
I love your orange harvest and that fact that you are bringing some back east. I just know your old house is going to hug you and welcome you back. I can see you snuggled by your fireplace sipping old fashioneds. I think it’s good that the house hasn’t sold yet (although I’m sure that causes you and Joe a tad bit of stress). It gives you a little more time to ease into the transition after you have lived there for 30 plus years. Give the old girl one last hug and plant a few more memories into its DNA. I can’t wait to see you tweeting from Blue sky. I will be along for the ride! Bundle up! It’s freezing here! It’s currently 18 degrees this morning!
Sending so much love and hugs your way,
Your friend, Mary
Have a WONDERFUL Christmas in your Martha’s Vineyard home ♥️🏠‼️
I simply can’t believe it hasn’t sold yet⁉️
Nasturtiums in December! What a wonderful thing. And then a New England Christmas, and then back to balmy California. It sounds like you and Joe are members of the Lucky Duck Club. My wife and I are, too, in reverse – living in New England and then heading out to my beautiful former home state of California for a visit when the SAD lamp (which I learned about from you!) is not quite enough to lighten the dark Maine winters. We Lucky Ducks have a lot to be thankful for! So, so much. Each other most of all. Happiest of Holidays to all the Girlfriends!
Thats so nice that you can have lunch with your ex. I worked with Lynette at First Bank she really nice lady. Have fun in Martha Vineyard.So glad your back in California.
I’m really crazy about her! She’s so much fun! He’s a lucky guy! Always has been!🤣
I love Simon kitty’s Benjamin Bunny jacket!! Too sweet!
Happy Holidays to you and Joe…enjoy your MV vacation.
Once you finish The Alice Network go for The Rose Code, same author. Unputdownable!
Hi Susan,
Wonderful holiday blog! The Christmas season is upon us!! I just signed up for Blue Sky. Miss your Twitter from the Train.. No longer on Twitter.. Have a wonderful trip!!
“For the Beauty of the Earth” is one of my favorite hymns. I asked for it to be sung at my mother-in-law’s funeral because it was she who helped make me a passionate gardener. It always brings such loving memories and gratitude for a special relationship. Thank you too, Susan, for sharing your Thanksgiving and Christmas with us. Your wooden table out there is just beautiful and it must have been fun to have family with you both. No snow yet here in Massachusetts but maybe some tomorrow tho MV is on the warm side of the front. It has been very cold so glad you’re bringing your fuzzies. Merry Christmas!
I am looking forward to your travel posts on BlueSky!
We put our old, skinny tree up the day after Thanksgiving. The house, inside and out, is all decorated with my gnomes, Santas, gingerbread men, angels, and lots of little houses lit from within. All of my candles and melts are pine and Bayberry scents. Hygge!
Thank you for sharing all your fun photos. I am thrilled to hear how happy you are. California suits you. We live in a small one story house that we rent from the best landlady ever, my daughter. One flat story, no stairs, is perfect at our age. I know you love it too. Enjoy Martha’s Vineyard, so hygge for Christmas. Merry Christmas, Susan and Joe. 💖
I hope you have a wonderful, relaxing Christmas on Martha’s Vineyard and a wonderful New Year!
OH, Happy, Happy!!! I finally felt up to looking at email, and there you are!! Your “Secret” gardens are just impossibly lovely. Walking must be a huge pleasure. So glad you had family for your early TG meal. Shelly’s twins are so adorable.
I’m not an expert on cat behavior, but I did learn that even the most reluctant kitties can sometimes make themselves sociable with other felines. And that the untamable ones are lured to be “tame” by taking it very slowly…so they think it’s all their idea!
Wow! What great adventures you have on your Calander. I can’t wait to tag along by way of this Blog.
I was hospitalized for four days, Nov. 8, 11. I’m doing fine now, but it was a bit scary. A small bowel obstruction. Almost waited too late to go to Emergency.
All in all, it was a great experience. Wonderful doctors and nurses. Tampa General is a teaching hospital, so I saw lots of fresh, newly minted interns and residents. Went 4 days hooked up to all sorts of tubes and pumps, no food or water. Had to give my “vowels” a rest. Whatever was in that drip bag seemed to make me a “favorite” patient on the Doctor’s rounds. By pure luck my doctor is Chief of Surgery for the medical students and residents. One told me I was the Talk of the Town. Never dreamed I’d be that!!
The Lovely and I just returned from looking at another Senior Living place over nearer to our daughter, Kristin. Very nice, but we’ll go back when they can show us some apartments. No food included, but Tom convinced me to go for affordable so we can spend at least a couple more years in Maine during the Summer.
Along with everyone else who love you and Joe, I’m so excited about your upcoming trip back to MV. It will be lovely to give your old New England home a Love Pat, and tell her, All will be Well for at least another 100 years.
I also see how the new digs in Cali have been transformed into “Your” home. Just the right Cozy!! And the food!!
To Catherine McNaughton…Thank you for saying, “Don’t be sad leaving a much loved place. Be Glad it Happened. Thank you for that, Catherine.
To Diane in Upstate NY….Yes, and Yes go to Batemans. I’ve been twice, first time in 1977. My first husband, Bob, and I arrived just as they were closing. We asked about a Bn’B, and we were directed to the Dreamiest place nearby. Wonderful lady, Mrs. Harmer was waiting for us. She handed us the keys and said she had Play Practice in Lewes. OMG, the home was just like the movies, wonderful leaded, diamond pane casements, all open to the sweet smells of May and the sounds of the cows right next to it. Wonderful silver framed photos of Mrs. Harmer during “the War” in her uniform with a handsome soldier. The large living room had French doors thrown open to the most Impossible view. We walked into the village and had such a dreamy time playing darts and having a tipple with locals. Next day we did Batemans. I’d loved the Puck of Pook’s Hill books as a child, and now actually own old editions of both books. Went back with My Tom, and nothing was changed. Still lovely and all his things right there. Enjoy the Voyage and the English Countryside. You are doing the Right thing, not letting being a single slow you down one whit!!
Thank you for taking the time to show us more of your Fair Glen of the Garden Rooms.
Mucho Grande Love from sunny, but chilly Tampa!!
Beautiful! Thank you.
Your emails are so cherished — a letter from a girlfriend! And I appreciate what you are going through with your coast to coast move. In 2022 I moved from my beloved Colorado after 38 years there and returned to central Illinois where I grew up. Painful yet exciting!
Question for you: did I miss your annual Full Moon 2025 bookmark?? Help! I haven’t found it anywhere!! You have no idea how many friends I have who are counting on me to include it in their Christmas cards!! Thank you!
I enjoyed seeing the photo of Sharon Lovejoy. I have a few of her books that she signed before sending to me. Your Willard reinforces my belief that God’s beauty and wonder and friends and love can be found any place in this wide world.
Safe travels and merry Christmas!
Dear Susan & Joe,
Your new/old home in California is really beginning to have that wonderful, cozy look and feel to it! And your property is just lovely!!! The clouds ☁️over the hills, against an azure sky is beautiful, and gives such a wonderful sense of spaciousness!
And then your charming potted 🪴garden brings the eye back to the beauty of the small details.
Over here on the other side of the Sierra Nevada’s, it has turned quite chilly…nighttime temps are in the 20’s!!! We’ve had a skiff of snow, but mostly it’s been dry weather so far. Hoping for a White Christmas, tho! ❄Tomorrow we are going out to buy a silvertip fir 🌲 from the Boyscouts tree lot. It will need to be shorter than our usual 7 ft tree as we will be putting it on top of a card table this year because….are you ready for this?!!!
We have a new doggidy!!! 🐶🐾He is a Cavapoochon, now 6 months old, we brought him home from Windy Hill Farm in mid-October. He was a gift to us from a very long time friend of ours!!! His name is Jackpot and he is the color of a pumpkin muffin!!! He was the runt of the litter, and our friend, Jerry, wasn’t even sure if he would thrive & live, but with Jerry’s TLC he did!!!
Jackpot, also known as Jacky, and Jackhopper!…because when we take him out for a walk, he literally hops down the street!!! He is just too funny and we are delightfully distracted by his antics from the woes of the world. We feel very blessed to have this new addition to our cozy home in Reno!
So, back the the Christmas🎄 tree dilemma, because Jackpot thinks that everything is a toy for him to chew on, I decided that it would be best to put the tree up on a table where, hopefully, it and the dangling decorations will be out of his reach.
As I mentioned, Jackpot’s been a welcome distraction! I have been doing my best to “stay in denial” mode this past month….barely able to scan the headlines every other day. I’ve never been a TV news watcher, preferring to read a newspaper instead. (Had to unsubscribe to what had been one of the most respected newspapers in the country because of the non-action of the obtuse owner.) Anyway, these next four years are going to be particularly challenging for many of us. We are going to need to do our best to stay positive and to continue to lift each other up, and to spread good will, diplomacy, respect, sincerity, compassion, kind-heartedness, generosity of spirit, optimism, friendship and most of all Love!!! All of which you are very good at doing, Susan, through your art and your blogs. You inspire me!!!
I would like to ask if you could please make available more of your beautiful ceramic hearts with the message: “Go. Be. Love. The world needs you!” I have at least 2 dozen friends and family members that I would like to give one to. This message is more important now, than ever!!! ❤
In the meantime, I hope that you & Joe have safe, smooth journeys to/from MV, and have a wonderful Christmas celebration with your dear friends, and enjoy being back in your beautiful historic house for the holidays!!! Many blessings to you & Joe & Jack!!! 🎄❤🎄
Love & hugs, your friend in kindred spirit,
Barbara
Have a blessed Christmas on the East Coast in your ‘forever’ home on MV. I look forward to following you both on BlueSky. ‘See’ you on the flip side of New Year 2025.
Love,
Mame
I love when I receive an email that there is a Willard waiting!!! It is always so lovely! The Alice Network is so good! My friends and I just loved it! Safe travels and enjoy your holidays on MV!
I think you should keep your Island house.
Bless you and Joe over the holidays!
Safe Christmas travels to you and Joe. Enjoy a beautiful New England Christmas.
I have my 2025 desk blotter calendar already for new adventures next year. Was hoping to find our 2025 Full Moon bookmark in this Willard. It hangs on the bulletin board above my desk and I use it all the time. My goal every year is to see every full moon.
Your Thanksgiving looks beautiful and special.
Will sign up for Blue Sky to follow along. We did our first overnight train trip this year and loved it, so more to come in our future.
Have a beautiful Christmas and a special New Year!
Terri Brewster
Your life is a dream.So many wonderful adventures.Safe travels to Martha’s vineyard.Merry Christmas and Happy new year!Go be a shinning light that makes the world cozy and happy.
Dear Susan,
Your trip East for the holidays sounds very ‘romantic’. Seeing winter and all the towns you pass through decorated for Christmas will be wonderful, especially all the lights in the evening.
As I looked at your oranges, I thought of my Mom’s garden in Saratoga, Ca., up near San Jose. She had a small back yard…but had an orange tree, a limequat, and a Meyer lemon tree. The lemons were fabulous. If you have the opportunity to purchase one for your yard, you should. [You may already have one.] Have a safe trip, and a Joyous Christmas.
Gail
Happy Belated Thanksgiving!! No such holiday down here in Australia nor cranberries, Fench’s fried onions, Stove Top stuffing, cornbread mix, canned pumpkin for pumpkin pie…the list goes on so it was lovely hearing all about your Thanksgiving feast with dear friends around and in your sweet SLO home that is just the essence of cute and cosy!. Oh so soon you’ll be on that lovely train journey heading back to your dear old MV house and before you know it it’ll be May and you’ll be on your lovely journey to England!! So much to look forward to. May you have wonderful and blessed trip to both places and thank you as always for a truly heartwarming blog.
Oh thank you, and as Scrooge himself would say, “A thousand times, thank you”! I needed this-especially the quotes from Charles Dickens and Gladys Taber (one of my very favorite authors)!
Hope you have a wonderful trip! Would you please have the web fairies link your BlueSky account at the top of your site?
Happy holidays to all.
So excited for your trip home! The oranges look yummy! I have the Meyer lemons 🍋 but would love oranges too! I loved England last year I went with my son for his Cambridge graduation for his Masters. Not sure I could swing another trip to join you this year but I sure will be following. I had tea at Tiffany’s Blue Box Cafe inside Harrod’s. I love the trains through the countryside. I would have loved to see the Lake District. It felt like home there must be my ancestry from that part of the world. I loved the Crown Jewels. The London Eye and double decker tour bus, Buckingham palace and Cambridge too! I of course read your book A Fine Romance before I left. I was sick recently and better now so I am catching up with your blog posts!! 🍊 So glad I met you at Apple Farm in 2018. Happy Holidays!!
Oh Susan…one of my favorite arrangements of the hymn, your grandmother’s prayer, is by John Rutter. Google “For the Beauty of the Earth” by John Rutter. Or do as I do if you have Alexa and ask her to play it. You will love it. He’s an English composer, arranger, conductor, editor, and record producer, mainly of choral music. I listen to this song many nights before falling asleep. Totally delightful!
Loved you newsy Willard. So excited to see you and your Beloved so happy and settled. Have a wonderful time stepping back into your old life for a moment in that beautiful place. Can’t wait to hear all about it! XO, Willa
Just delightful, Susan, as always! This puts me in the mood! I have my house in red and white with touches of green now and touches of blue in the summer, so not a lot to do except add candles and the tree of course, and Christmas bobbles here and there. But I’m really working on the next chapter of my life! Because I need money to pay the bills I’m thinking and talking with the right people about a reverse mortgage. It would set my fate to stay here, but that might be good. Gene’s studio, where my creative juices flow, too, is still an inspiration, and it’s quiet and lovely with sidewalks and lakes, and far more, but not too much, than I could ever hope to find in California. And if I do this (stay tuned!) (I could change my mind, again!), I’ll have peace of mind to get back to creating and writing the stories we left in mid-air when Gene went to heaven. I don’t have a lot of distractions here, either. So we’ll see. By the time I write again, I’ll probably have made my decision. I love your charming little fairytale house on the central coast. It is just delilghtful. I loved growing things in pots, too, out there, where you could leave them year round to just grow and grow! The house is just darling inside, and you had it looking so wonderful for Thanksgiving. My sister was coming to see me, but then a death and funeral in her close circle of friends changed her plans. I spent the day watching wonderful movies, though, and the best was the epic The Agony and the Ecstasy, with Charlton Heston and Rex Harrison, about Michelangelo painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It was a favorite of Gene’s and reminded me again, of the importance of art and beauty in our lives. Well, I’ll be looking for you on the train as you head out to MV. That will be so much fun for you to be back among old memories and friends for Christmas. A very Merry Christmas to you and Joe, and safe travels! Love, Jane xoxoxo
Oh I’m so happy for you!!! Your peaceful flat California acreage, your lovely New England beyond-wildest-dreams house, and in between the two… your beloved train. But O poor old Jack, Christmas without you, boo hoo.
I’ve booked my “sheltered balcony” stateroom (!) on the QM2, and I could not be more excited, having had to cancel last time just one day ahead, I thought my heart would break. Now it’s sprouting wings! Having been given so much, I will ask for one thing more… a tour of the Cotswolds to join? I was booked for that last time too and am soooo hoping it could be so again. Pretty please with sugar on top? Just want to plant my little hope in your heart to ponder at odd moments as you enjoy your wonderful holidays. Like your Thanksgiving table without a cloth, your house didn’t sell yet because it knows what it wants, it wants another Christmas with you.
Thank you for this wonderful, wonderful Willard of Ahs, I don’t know when I’ve ever enjoyed one more. (Plus kitties movie!) Best wishes for an old-fashioned Christmas with your friends, in your house, on your lovely Isle of Dreams-do-come-True.
xoxox love Coco
We will be waving as your train goes through NW Pennsylvania 👋🏼❄️😘
Enjoy the snuggiest trip back east.
Great Willard ! Don’t forget your mittens , it’s cold here. Your window movie on the train should be beautiful with all the snow across the country. safe journey
Happy Holidays to come and safe travels back to enjoy another beautiful Christmas at MV and your lovely home. We all look forward to your posts about the visit and the train!
Every time you have shared your train travels, I tell myself , I need to put that on my bucket list! And a trip across the ocean on the Queen Mary 2, was on my bucket list also, but thanks to your wonderful blog, made the adventure the last time with you. You’ve definitely influenced my travel Sue and Joe… lol.
Have an awesome time. I wish we were joining you again in May.
Cheers
Jan from Northern CA
Lovely post as always!!! Love what you said about your old house too. I still have dreams where I am at my old home….my soul home. Also, I have always used your mini calendars at my job. It is the best part of my office ‘stuff’—LOVE!!
I love hearing about your new adventures and activities in California! It sounds like such a warm, cozy, lovely place!
Thank you for the lovely newsletter of happenings and photos of your beautiful outdoors and the divine Master Jack and his “competition in the fiefdom” Sammy and Simon up close and personal. LOL
I agree a house will give you hints as to what it likes and makes you feel comfortable.
Your grandmother’s prayer is a Methodist hymn that was published in its hymnal many, many years ago. It is a beautiful hymn I can still sing.
I wish you all a blessed Christmas journey and holiday season!
Hi Susan,
I HOPE this reaches you:) You might remember me, haha….I often post a comment and then that vanishes into thin air…NO idea how that happens…but I worry you might think I’m not interested or reading your posts, that is definitely not the case..
Anyway, I have completely forgotten what I wrote last time, foggy brain acting up again….I was very excited to read you’re crossing the pond again, and am keeping fingers crossed you might organise a picnic again…This time in Cornwall maybe..??
Anyway, won’t keep you, you will have plenty to do before the train trip so from us both to you, have a lovely trip, looking forward to reading about your adventures! Lots of love from Gabriel and Nicoline XXOOXX
How awesome you get one more Christmas in the home at the vineyard! Wishing you safe travels…Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!!!
Save and nostaligic travels!!! Merry Christmas!
I have a board on Pinterest named, “Beauty Earth, Glory Skies,” based on this hymn/prayer. A faithful reminder of where to focus our attention. Loved seeing the grownup twin nephews and girlfriends, all the other friends and family. I’m just about to finish Fairy Tale Girl for the second time … loving all of your instincts and inclinations and inspirations and how they have carried through your life. LOVE seeing all the kitties! It seems perfect that there’s one more Christmas for you and Joe in the old house. Love, thanks, and blessings.
I am so looking forward to your pictures of your old house. They will give me a chance to say goodbye to that house. I have been enjoying the pictures of your “new” house and watching the changes you have been making. It looks more and more like a home than just a house with every new Willard. Thank you for bringing us along on your journey!
Happy Holidays to you! We got a dusting of snow here in Plymouth for the first time! Bring your woolies! I hope you have a wonderful time here on the East coast! Looking forward to hearing all about it! Merry Christmas 🤶 🎄 ❤️
Hello Susan, Love reading about your new life in Calif. We did the same thing 2 years ago – downsized and moved to a retirement village just across town – not across the country. ha! I love it for all the reasons you talk about. It was the best thing we ever did.
Our paths may just about cross in Boston next week. We’re leaving from our home in Gettysburg PA on a bus trip to Boston this Saturday. (We also don’t like to fly.) Lots of fun lined up for us: Boston Pops concert, lunch at Cheers, historic tours and shopping in the Christmas markets, plus dinner in a real castle in Gloucester! A nice little holiday treat.
Wishing you a safe trip crossing the country. Best of all, have a wonderful Christmas on Martha’s Vineyard in your “still belongs to you house.”
Love, Carol
Hi Susan, I am so happy you are settled in the area I’ve always wanted to live! My parents used to live in SLO and I don’t know if you remember, but I was at your talk while back at the Apple Farm. I only get there about once or twice a year now. On the way to visit my mom in Santa Barbara as she is there now, but used to live in SLO. Your house looks lovely and your property is beautiful! I hope you have a wonderful trip back east and a blessed Christmas 🎄🥰 Hugs, Sherri Fabbri
Merry Christmas and continuing Happy Holidays to you all!!!!! Have a lovely visit to the island!!!
Just wondering–did you receive the white picket fenced flower garden note?? It made me think of both your Vineyard garden and your California garden, too!! I just loved the image from Paula Skene cards and notes!!
Go. Be. Love.
Denise
We use to sing your gramma’s prayer as a hymn in jr hi/hi school in morning chapel. It meant very little to me then. Now, it’s everything. Thanks for sharing. Happy travels. ❤️🤍❤️
I love your little tree! So telling that you love Christmas so much that you made a little cozy Christmas before leaving on your train adventure. May you enjoy the magic of the season among old friends in Martha’s Vineyard – and the joy of a brand New Year in your new home!
I look forward to your blog posts every month, and am cozying up w proper tea and a blanket now, before starting to prepare for tomorrow’s lunch w daughter & son and their partners, 2 happy and lovably wild grandsons of the human kind ( 5y 8m and 2y9 m) plus 2 ditto grandsons of the canine kind: big boisterous golden retrievers who fill the house with love and an incredible amount of shed hair🤗
Wishing you a wonderful train ride through your vast and varied country.
Love from Norway
Having lived in Indiana all my 60 years, I could never uproot myself, but California is very tempting! Thanks for sharing its beauty with us. I’m sorry your favorite restaurant closed, but with your happy gene, I know you’ll find another favorite. Merry Christmas!
Just want to say that I love your new home. So spacious. Look forward to seeing more. Love the old one too on the island.
Merry Christmas to you and Joe from New Hampshire!
Dear Susan,
Merry Christmas! Oh how I look forward to your newsletters. This one was of great help. You see I too moved this year with my husband to northern Florida form the south. We discovered we too have property that has cats all around including a neighbors cat Manzini that came into our back yard and our male cat Nectar was not happy …growling …hissing sounds! I will be wait and see what develops! It is a hard season for me this year with several family issues of sadness, but with your help I am keeping the Spirit of Christmas in my Heart!
Your SLO property is just gorgeous, what wonderful plans you have for it. When I read that you are going back to your old home for Christmas (how fun!) I thought maybe you had changed your mind on selling it and would go back and forth for the seasons (how fabulous would that be?). Either way, I look forward to hearing about your visit. It’s been a dream reading about your life over the past few decades (was an original snail mail newsletter fan) and I look forward to all that is ahead. Thank you once again (and again and again) for all you do for us.
Susan,
So lovely to see this posting and realize, for sure, how you and Joe, and Jack are definitely where you are meant to be Enjoyed seeing your family and all the kitties, of course. Jack may come around to accept those two outdoor beauties. That would be the icing on the cake, wouldn’t it? Your surroundings are so beautiful and peaceful it seems. And a month back at the Vineyard. Perfect! Wishing all of you the happiest time on the twain, and back with all your peeps. Oh, and BTW I love that couch the twins are sitting on in the window. I’ve been searching for a new couch for months, as I just moved also after 49 yrs and that looks perfect for me.
Happy trails, Sue and Joe. ♥️
I just went back and re-read this wonderful “family” blog. Well, I’ve never read one that was Awful!!
The Lovely spent most of his 30-year Coast Guard career on the West Coast, mostly in California. Actually, he shared a house in Seal Beach with 2 other young CG officers. He told me that all of them being single, they would go up to Manhattan Beach to a place on the Strand looking for “Stews”. Hmmm. That place was 2 blocks from the apartment of the friends my roomie and I stayed with in 1066, Opps 1966. I’d have remembered Tom if I’d seen him. He was soo dreamy with his Paul Newman looks! He also served in San Francisco and Eureka. I got the Grand Tour on the first 4-month trip we took after he retired, we were in our little camper. I thought the entire West Coast was so beautiful and the weather so wonderful that I must be imagining it. We also spent lots of time in British Colombia and on Vancouver Island. Yes, sometimes I get that feeling of “what on Earth did I do to deserve this Grand Life?” My guardian angel knew exactly the path in life that would lead me to Tom, and that included the 14 years of a first marriage. Exactly as your angel led you to Martha’s Vineyard.
The only thing I can do to help with the abundance guilt is to give generously to Food Pantries and Kitchens, and we do, both here and in Maine. Used to donate veggies when we had a large garden there. You can can 😉 only so many tomatoes and pickle so many cucumbers.
I’m showing Tom the previous pictures of your Fairy Tale place there on the Central Coast. He says, Wow.
More Mucho Love,
Debbie in Tampa
Your blog posts put a “smile” on my face.
It’s great knowing you’re settling into life on the Central Coast again. I also live in Arroyo Grande, not on a large plot of land, but a cozy condo. Your observations of our “blessings” here remind me to never take living in AG for granted. It’s heavenly! Plus we can always travel to enjoy other weather, cultures & visit with our friends & family there.
Don’t forget, you can park your car by the Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove, walk through the campground & boom! You & Joe can walk on the beach! During COVID, it was our favorite place to get out of the house!
Dear Sue and Joe,
So nice to read that you are going back to Martha ‘s Vineyard for Christmas with your old friends. I assume that Jack will be staying home in California. Cats can probably not ride on trains yet. Plus it would be much too confusing for him. Hope you have a lovely Christmas.
Love,
Crystal, your friend from Minnesota
Love the little tree! It reminds me of something from “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” and that’s enough to keep me happy during the cold months.
Happy Holidays!
Have a wonderful time visiting your friends and seeing your old house at MA!! May you and Joe have all the blessings in this wonderful Christmas season!
Merry Christmas and have a blessed New Years!
Carol M
Hi Susan, It’s a Wonderful Life for sure! Thanks for all the cheery news and lovely wishes. I was wondering if Joe still walks with you on your new property like he did on the Island? My husband walks with me most days. He likes the exercise too when his knee is not bothering him.
Merry Christmas and safe travels to you! Enjoy your trip.
Love, Kathy from Michigan
Hello, Sure enjoyed that post..thank you. I like your positive attitude about our future. What else can we do? I am a busy person and I think that makes me happy…even though I have mountains to climb…big ones…I won’t be sad or downbeat…it’s Christmas time and I do have my tree up…Silver Tip from our tiny
town above me called Stirling City…. CA…aSnd the money goes to the volunteer fire department…and the craft faire in this tiny place had the absolute best crafters and I should know…I used to go to many. It was a joy and now my tree gives me peace and a sense of pure happiness. Love Ya, Sheryl
I found you again, a Christmas miracle! I savored this post. Bon Voyage on your :”twain twip” East to MV and getting to stay in your MV home! Wonderful! Beep as you go by the north shore of Long Island. I am opposite Bridgeport, CT. I’ll be waving and jumping up and down. (Fibbing about jumping up and down…I would if I could). Wishing you happiness and joy this season of Christmas and always. xo PS: Jack looks so “grown up” and not so happy about those two interlopers. Omg! Time will tell.
Loved this: looking forward to more interesting and enjoyable Blogs.
Just love reading your Willards! So happy for you and Joe to be settling so comfortably in your California home! Have a wonderful time on MV- look forward to holiday posts. Sounds so dreamy- I mean so fun!😉🎄❤️
Safe travels. Jack’s gaze is so intense. 💚
i enjoyed your blog. my friend patty wyrick from mcdonald introduced me to your blog. i am right now at john hopkins in maryland . my son, jeff is here for radion treatments. he has a chordoma in spine and will have surgery in January. we are here for seven days. we are from the Pittsburgh area. we are praying for a complete healingl.
I’m so very sorry Donna!!! My friend just finished her treatments for that exact thing. A very rare disease. It was awful and scary, she only had the surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in March, but she’s up and doing everything again, and cancer free. Blessings on your family. ♥️♥️♥️
Love your Thanksgiving traditions! And your grandma’s prayer, a beautiful old hymn!! In Hallmark’s “The Magic of Ordinary Days”, they sing that hymn at their church service, and it’s just so appropriate for a Thanksgiving prayer too! Love it! Every time we’re in Arroyo Grande heading to the Casitas Inn, we’d pass your lovely little home and think of you. So glad you’re back in Cali. Wishing you and Joe safe travel to MV for Christmas. Thank you for all the beauty you put out into this great big world. I hope you know how much we all appreciate you. Merry (White) Christmas!!
A very Merry Christmas to you and Joe, so excited for you to spend another Christmas in the Martha’s Vineyard house! I really enjoyed this long newsy blog. Your California house looks so cozy, and I love that you can walk around the grounds, that is super special. Question for Susan – Are you going to finish working on Enchanted???
I get to decide what’s next when we get home.💝
I see The Boys in the Boat on your bookshelf! What a great book!
What a wonderful happy-sad blog, mixing the past the present and the future. Such hope! Have a great trip and Christmas and New Year!
Merry Christmas, to you, dear Susan, and to your wonderful Joe. Have a lovely holiday on MV. I loved your house there and all of your blogs about daily life and the holidays in New England. And I was sad to see you move. But, your California house has the same vibe, displays the creativity and same love of beauty and I love seeing it and hearing about it now. May you keep on with your art and your positive messages. They are beacons of light in what has become a crazy world. Merry Christmas to all the girlfriends around the world as well.
Best wishes for a wonderful trip across our beautiful country. Your Willard was just what I needed to lift my spirits today. I especially love your final quote from Gladys Taber: “believing there is hope for the world is a way to move toward it.” Thank you!
Merry Christmas dear Susan and Joe! I am glad that California is making you feel at home. I think of you and Jack often, knowing how hard transitions can be. I wanted to share that we found a cat toy that our Daniel Tiger adores and I could never have predicted it. I thought perhaps it would make Jack happy as well. It’s these funny little plastic things that when thrown cutter across the floor in just the right way. Daniel loves to chase them and then bring them back for more. I know Jack likes his hair ties but maybe something new could bring him joy in his new home.Ours came from Chewy but they have them on Amazon as well. They are called cat crazies by fat cat. Really inexpensive and have turned out to be a totally unexpected joy for our cat. Hope you can find them and gift them to Jack.
Finally! I can send you a message. My old computer got too old to receive your blog!!! My dear husband got the new one set up so I would like it..How smart and kind is he; The first time I logged on, he had your blog post up:) Needless to say, I LOVE IT:) Merry Christmas. We are over the moon because it is our 4 week old first grandchild’s first one!!! Josephine Elena Hill was born Nov 8 and made me Marmee!!
Maybe it’s my friend, Big Al, but I can’t seem to locate where in a recent blog you told us which social media platform you would post your Twain Twip.
Something good to look forward to, your reunion with the MV house and friends.
I’m putting one big foot in front of the other, proceeding toward selling our Tampa town house. We’ve found a nice 50 and above place out in Brandon, much closer to daughter Kristin. Filling out paperwork, getting on wait list.
Yesterday, we took a car trunk stuffed with my 50 years of Christmas decorations, out to Metropolitan Ministries. They are a fabulous organization that cares for homeless families, especially women and children. My dearest friend who died a little while ago was a social worker and sat on the board of directors a Metro. I’ve volunteered myself. All those things we took went directly to the smaller building where they are putting out decorations for the residents of the shelter to have first choice. You can imagine how good it feels to give those much loved, many handmade things to folks who can use them. Yea!!
Boxes everywhere in here, but I still got my lovely wreath from Maine, put out the elves on the mantle, and will put out the Toy Soldiers we’ve collected from family and in Germany. Our last Christmas here, maybe next one in Maine.
Hope for a peaceful Holiday for all of you, and You, Dear Sue and Joe!! Keep those noises warm.
Mucho warm love from very warm Tampa!!
Debbie still here 🙂
Hi Susan! The most wonderful thing happened today. I bought your Queen Elizabeth mug for my son’s third grade teacher, and filled it with her favorite candy. She is English, although she’s been here in the U.S. for 20+ years, but I hoped the mug would remind her of home and she would like that it was made in England. She called me today, as soon as she opened it, to say she not only does she love the mug and love Susan Branch, but also SHE HAS MET YOU five or six times!!! What are the chances?? She’s met you at book signings and once in your garden of your Martha’s Vineyard house and you invited her and her friend in for tea!
She said she has all your books and that Isle of Dreams brought her comfort and strength when she went through her own divorce. And that she loves the mugs but would never buy one for herself. My son adores her and I’m so happy we made her happy.
I felt that we had done what you always do – spread joy with the little things. So thank you, thank you Susan, from the bottom of my heart, and Merry Christmas!!! Love, Elizabeth in Connecticut
What a wonderful Christmas present your blog was. So sweet and full of fun, information and all. I react every time I need to remember what’s important in this crazy world. Thank you and Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!
So happy to hear that Kathie!xoxoxoxo
Reread lol!
Looking forward to your next month’s blog, with lots of pictures of your trip and Christmas in New England. I did find that you were posting on Instagram on the Twain, but I don’t “do” Instagram or X….for political reasons, which I will happily refrain from detailing.
So much to look forward to in this coming year!!!
Jingle, Jingle!
Debbie in Tampa, just for a little while longer, then Maine for Good!!!!
It’s there darling! xoxoxo
“Soon will set in the fitful weather, with fierce gales and sullen skies and frosty air, and it will be time to tuck up safely my Roses and Lilies and the rest for their long winter sleep beneath the snow, where I never forget them, but ever dream of their wakening in happy summers yet to be.” By Celia Thaxter
Just a little winter solstice thought for you. Wishing you a peaceful-filled Holiday!
Lovely Kathleen, thank you!
Glad to see your blog . I dont see how you can leave your beautiful home, I would have sold the one in california and kept that one ! I love vintage things, we have snow birds that come down here in the winters from up north for a few months, maybe the house hasnt sold yet because maybe you need to pair down some things in your home, no photo’s and real personal items , people want to amagine how their things will look in the home , and that hard to do when its filled up so much with some one else’s things, Just a suggestion, wish you luck on getting it sold. Maybe rent it as an air B&B , that way you could still use when you want!
I wrote a note on Dec 5th that is still there awaiting moderation? Wondering what happened. Glad you are enjoying a great trip. A train ride defiantly on our bucket list.
Cheers
Jan from Northern CA
Oh Jan, so sorry, right after I wrote that last post we got on a train to the east coast and been running ever since. It’s still here and will go up but today I have a TGIF at 4, gotta get to work. We leave on the 5th! Busy time, But I’m trying! xoxoxo
Me again…
I go to the Amtrak website and look at trains and trips and different ways to go,
for example – Sacramento to Boston? I am just so interested after seeing your blog about train travel all these years…..lol. Kinda like that Queen Mary crossing blog, book enticement….and I finally did that. Wahoo! I just have so many questions on how you book it and what routes to take and what kind of booking you do and all that. Just sounds like so much fun. Anyway…..got to check off that bucket list….:)
Cheers
Susan, Belated Christmas wishes and Happy New Year. What a lovely Christmas; you and Joe shared with “old” friends, near and far. I have made that ferry ride many times and never fail to enjoy every minute, especially with my lovely grandsons. Martha’s Vineyard is a magical place and altho my children have moved from there I will always love it and treasure the time I spent there. I know how much you will miss it. However, your California home is also one of my favorite places, having been born and raised in California. So one leg on each coast! Enjoy the ride home, I love you sharing your visit and travels.
again Happy New Year, from Jill, now in South Carolina
Happ yand healthy New Year to both of you! How do you and Joe find the bunk beds in the train…are they comfortable, especially for Joe? We have been going to Florida for the winter for the past several years but now I’m ready for a train excursion.
Happy New Year, It was so lovely to receive your post today. It sounds like you are having a wonderful holiday season, back in the cold! I think you actually miss New England winters! And certainly New England friends. Enjoy your time here, and your journey to California. I am looking forward to your next visit to England and all of the news that you send back to us. Be Well, Ann
Thank you for the full moon bookmark; I’ve been looking for it. Also thank you for the full”Bad Sisters” suggestion; that show was great.Happy new year!
Hi Susan! The most wonderful thing happened just before Christmas. I bought your Queen Elizabeth mug for my son’s third grade teacher, and filled it with her favorite candy. She is English, although she’s been here in the U.S. for 20+ years, but I hoped the mug would remind her of home and she would like that it was made in England. She called me as soon as she opened it, to say she not only does she love the mug and love Susan Branch, but also SHE HAS MET YOU five or six times!!! What are the chances?? She’s met you at book signings and once in your garden of your Martha’s Vineyard house and you invited her and her friend in for tea!
She said she has all your books and that Isle of Dreams brought her comfort and strength when she went through her own divorce. And that she loves the mugs but would never buy one for herself. My son adores her and I’m so happy we made her happy.
I felt that we had done what you always do – spread joy with the little things. So thank you, thank you Susan, from the bottom of my heart, and Merry Christmas!!! Love, Elizabeth in Connecticut
I couldn’t love this more! So sweet of you, Elizabeth, and lovely to find such a kindred spirit! You’re a doll to tell me about this! xoxo Have a wonderful 2025!
40 years ago I lived in Ventura.. For my 40th birthday I had commissioned a painting by a wonderful artist in Cambria. I wanted to be sitting in a garden, on a bench, with my 5 year old son. Sharon was kind enough to allow us to sit and pose in her beautiful garden for the painting. I now live in Connecticut – but California holds so many wonderful & precious memories for me.