Of course our blog is wearing green today, it would not like to be pinched! But I am now on my fourth try to write a new post! The first three failed because important memories or perfect descriptions have been crashing into my best intentions demanding to be added to the new book before I forgot them. I will try my best to stay focused here! This will help . . . MUSICA made in heaven. First a little something to make your mouth water . . .
Happy Saint Patricks Day Everyone! How’s it going for you so far? I don’t know if you have a special something you like to make in honor of the day, but this ↑ is our favorite recipe for stew. It’s very different, it has raisins! 
And orange juice! And cayenne! And nutmeg of all things! That’s because I got my hands on it, and thought, those creative Irish, they would forgive me for messing around with their stew. Yummy, egg noodles, with butter. Yes.
I know, it says Irish and the only potato is a sweet potato and there’s no Guinness but I would wager you (and that is Irish) that the flavor of this stew will make you jump up to do your own version of Riverdance, from happiness.
For more wonderful Irish things that don’t make total sense to us go HERE and laugh. And HERE, for a wee taste o’ some things that make Ireland so wonderful. And here’s to a day of love and blessed luck for you all! ♣
Had to show you Jack this morning! He is in a very feisty mood. Jack is never in any danger of getting pinched on St. Patricks Day because . . .
. . . he brings his green with him wherever he goes, he is always Wearin’ the Green.
He knows what the camera is now, because he makes me chase him around and he rarely holds still anymore . . .
I get the camera and he begins to jump about or roll around so it’s difficult to focus on him. I have to take LOTS of pictures before I can get one that isn’t totally blurred into oblivion . . . It’s those green eyes I love so much.
He gets bored with me very quickly though . . . Get that thing out of my face, he yawns . . . (and please, WOMAN, stop kissing me, I am BEGGING you. You’re messing with my DIGNITY.)
Or else I will just leave. Very spoiled, very sure of himself.
So I say, OK, be that way, and go into the kitchen to get my newest Gladys Taber Newsletter to show you. I wanted you to remember that third thing down, in case you’re interested, and remind you to make your plans because I would love to see you there. ♥
I was trying to show you the article in the Newsletter about the Reunion where I will be speaking and signing copies of A Fine Romance, but of course the minute I don’t pay 100% attention to him, he is back. Now he wants to play! I take it any way I can get it. Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets . . .
And Lola wants to drape himself on just the parts I would like you to see . . .
I hope lots of you are already a member of the Friends of Gladys Taber? She has been one of my favorite authors for a long time. The quarterly newsletters are always delightful, interesting, informative, fun and evocative, I save them … ↑ here are a few of them from years past. If you’d like to read more about Gladys Taber, find out how to become a member of her fan club, or get better information about the Reunion in June (and tour her house Stillmeadow), I did a post about her HERE and put the dates and times at the bottom.
I finally got the Newsletter out from under Lola and on top of him. He took it rather well before he tore out of the room and up the back stairs. Like a nut.
Let’s see … oh yes, well! I asked my little-old tea-leaves blender for something Cinnamony and Green for spring, and preferably Caffein Free and they sent me a few packets, some more cinnamony than the others, some more flowery, but I think they got it just right with this one . . . it has body and balanced flavor and smells wonderful . . .
Only three more days until the first official day of spring.♥ Last night after dinner, I sat in front of the fire (because spring-schming around here is the real truth) with a cup of my new Spring Tea and read my Newsletter and I almost didn’t care that it was 28 degrees. (Ridiculous.)
I also made us some “Celebrating Spring” cards (2nd row from top) that can be used as Greetings cards for spring or Earth Day, as postcards or Easter Dinner invitations, or even recipe cards — they’re lined on both sides, are 4″ x 6″ on nice, heavy, uncoated card stock and come in sets of 25. Happy Spring!
Even if there is no spring (yet) at your house, I can’t tell you how lovely it is to read about a New England Springtime through the eyes and heart of Gladys Taber. I think this is my favorite of her books, probably because it was my first, but also because it takes you through every month and each season of the year. Especially good if you can’t make it to the Friends Reunion for Gladys Taber, this is a little
because I am going to sign this lovely book to the lucky one of you whose name is drawn as the winner of this vintage copy (in almost brand new condition) of this out-of-print title published in 1976. Oh yes! I found it on a back shelf in a dark corner of a group antique mall on our trip across country and have saved it for today. Just leave me a comment and you will be automatically entered.
One Last Thing, almost a PS: There are always lots of fun ways to celebrate St. Patrick’s day, delicious recipes, lots of parades, prayers at church, and bagpipe music; they even dye the Chicago River green. But for those of you that would like a more sober look at a piece of Irish history, this lovely MUSICA is practically an Irish National Anthem. There was a story this Sunday in the New York Times … my girlfriend Lowely (Finnerty) from two doors over, brought some of her famous (still warm!) Irish Soda Bread to help Joe and I celebrate this morning. We smeared it with butter and ate it while we 
read the article and listened to the words of this song together. Then we cried. I felt like I wanted to add something meaningful to the celebration, so here you go ~ it’s history we never want to forget. (Spoiler alert: I must say I don’t agree with those that would politicize this subject as was done with this article, just so you know. There is nothing political about hunger and the story is important; as my mom used to say, there is a difference between right and wrong. I try and think about it the way St. Patrick would wish for me to do and toss in a bit of common sense for luck ♣. We can’t change the past but as Oprah put it so perfectly, “We did then what we knew how to do; now that we know better, we do better.”) Blessings to us all dearest Girlfriends. XOXO (Don’t forget to leave your comment for Best of Stillmeadow!♥)
BACK TO BOOK WRITING . . .
BLOG TOUR
Today I’m going to take you on a first-ever tour of the Blog. There are surprises when you scroll down, but first we need MUSICA. Because no matter WHAT it looks like out your window, the season are changing, it’s Spring! I bounce off the walls for this music. “. . . It’s a beehive of budding son and daughter life . . .”
I thought, before we pull the name of the lucky winner of our wonderful vintage book BEST OF STILLMEADOW, I might give you a little tour of how this blog works. I’ve never done that and although lots of you have your own blogs or have learned your way around, some of you are new. So I thought, well, here we go. Can’t hurt, might help. ♥
First off, I get questions about this all the time: so, when words are underlined and in color, that means it’s a link (just like the word MUSICA above). You click on it and a new window will open right on top of this one where you can find recipes, stories, information, photos, a bookmark to print out, and other things I hope will add interest to the subject of the post. Click on them and see what waits for you!
Next, in that row across the top of the blog there are those little bits of art with words around them, such as I LOVE ENGLAND, HOME COOKING (there are lots of new Spring recipes up, btw), and VISITING MARTHA’S VINEYARD. If you put your cursor on any of them, there will be a drop-down; you can click on any of the subjects there for more posts about everything from Old China Dishes, Cleaning Silver or Wishing on the Moon, to Jane Austen or My Favorite Movies. So if you are bored with a post, or I’ve left it up too long, I hope you’ll find something interesting up there.
What else? Oh … OK, Shopping. That’s one of the icons at the top. When you click on it now, you will find that Kellee has posted a brand new “Table of Contents” ~ in the column on the left. She did an amazing job . . . everything is so much easier to find. Our web store is filled with things I make myself (like calendars and books or my new blends of tea), or things I ask people to make for me (like Janie’s Banners or my glass charms for A Fine Romance or
Girlfriends . . . p.s. btw, while I’m thinking about it, a new shipment of GIRLFRIENDS charms along with our brand new KITTY LOVE charm should be in any moment, maybe even today!). We also like to share things I love, like the very best candles in the world, or things I have for my own house that I think you might like too, such as my favorite books, Beatrix Potter figurines, cute dishtowels, or teapots with hearts of them. We try to keep it interesting, so we might try something for a while, then change it out for something new like our new striped dishtowels in this photo (I got yellow, but they come in four colors). We are 
small, just the three of us (Kellee, Sheri and me) plus our right hand guy, Alfredo, so we never get very many of anything, which sometimes makes it hard, but at least it’s not boring.
One last thing: some of you come to this blog directly through www.162.240.10.175/~susanbs3/susanbranch/, and some of you have signed up so it’s mailed directly to
your email box. The problem with the emailed version is that you may not be getting most of the stuff I just wrote about above. Plus, when I put up a video (like the one below), for some reason you just get a black box, it doesn’t show up. I don’t know why. The worst part is they don’t give you a place to leave a comment. In order to see the videos or leave a comment you must come to www.162.240.10.175/~susanbs3/susanbranch/. Then, to leave a comment, scroll to the bottom of any post you wish to comment on ~ there you will see the tiny word “comments” in light grey letters, click on that, and that’s where you leave your comment. That’s what you need to do in order to enter the drawings, because that’s where the “random number generator” (better and more fondly known as “Vanna”) chooses the winners.
← OK, I guess that pretty much sums it up. I hope this helps! It’s a lot to read, so sorry, but I thought I would get it over with in one giant fell swoop, with loverly MUSICA playing to keep you happy during study session!
Now, speaking of archives: In December 1986, a few months before my first date with Joe (which I wrote about in A Fine Romance) and only about one month after
the publication of my first book HEART OF THE HOME (the surprise and shock of which I had not yet gotten over, putting a perpetual giggle behind every word of this interview), I was invited to a local Cape Cod television program called Books and the World to talk with Marion Vuilleumier. I recently dug out this tape, and had it put onto a disk so it could be uploaded to YOUTUBE. It’s a questionable choice for me to show you this, as I (perhaps slightly overly critical and then again, perhaps not) find it quite embarrassing. It’s my first time on television and I’m very nervous. It’s a thirty-minute interview, so get tea and watch when you feel like it. I’m sorry I sound like an idiot, but apparently that’s what I was. I like to think I’m better now, but probably not, TV has always been scary. Anyway, I’ve included liner notes under the video, to read as you go along: they are the who, what, where, why, and when of what is going on.
xoxo
REASONS TO BE EMBARRASSED, in order of appearance:
1. weird stare
2. I know nothing about anything . . .
3. Vellum? It’s not vellum, it’s . . . uh, wait a minute I have to go look. Bristol Board! Why can’t I ever remember that? I love giving out false information on television so people watching can say to themselves, Vellum?
4. Which is so much better too . . . really?
5. “They help each other out there, they take an interest in other people.” Can someone please pass the sugar.
6. Oooooo. Big Buildings in New York. Kill me, kill me now.
7. The secret French liqueur turned out to be Grand Marnier. The rest of the story: I never expected to get that job, which is why I tried for it, just for the experience, plus the interview was in that scary big-building place, New York, which I liked (I’d only been there maybe twice before, in my pitiful defense) and they paid for me to go. But I did get it! Then I had a problem, because flying to twenty cities a year instead of walking island dirt roads out to the sea every morning was not really my cup of tea. So I said thank you but no.
8. “Imagination goes with childhood.” Love that!
9. Dreamer . . . Cozy inn? Need clone.
And now, me with the Baby lions:
I wrote a little about going to Mexico City with my wild-animal-trainer boyfriend in the GIRLFRIENDS book, but I had to show you the babies we had in the house with us for one night. How adorable are they! At this time in my life I had never painted a picture, I could only cook grilled cheese sandwiches and spaghetti, I had never planted a garden, I made a lot of my clothes and dishtowels for my mom, but I had never heard of Martha’s Vineyard, and almost every book I’d read was a fairy tale in one form or another. I was nineteen. Since I’m writing my new book, I spend lots of time in this sort of territory.
AND NOW, with no further adeiu, because this time Vanna is actually up and chomping at the bit to draw the name because she is OUT of here this morning, has a date or something. So, there she goes, arm swirling, names flipping and flying, more swirling, she does an amazing job of mixing things up! Here we go, she has one! And the lucky winner is:
ELAINE CORBLY-MCGUIRE
Elaine, there’s an email waiting in your box. Write me back and tell me where to send your book! Congratulations! And thank ALL of you all for the WONDERFUL amazing fun lovely lucky comments! Have a wonderful day! Happy weekend! XOXO