First, for a change, let’s talk about music! And then some new good stuff for our calendars!💃🏼 First: Everyone knows that Baby Boomers had the best Music ever! One of our claims to fame! For just a small taste, watch the Netflix two-part series on the Eagles. Such wonderful music. But there was another shorter musical moment squeezed-in between Elvis Presley and the Beatles ~ during the Ed Sullivan, babysitting years. It started in the mid 50s (Mid-century musica) just after my cotillion dance lessons ended (where we prepared ourselves for the life again by learning how to waltz, do the fox-trot and cha-cha!), and rocked us until the early 60s. It was slow-dance, bop music, fall-asleep-with-transistor-radio-in-your ear-music, dreamy, happy, dance-with-the-refrigerator-door-handle, fall in love music. For the next few months, instead of giving you, as I usually do, my very favorite music, which is actually my parents and grandparents favorites, I’ll introduce and/or bring you back to a moment in time that went by waaaay too fast, the be-bop days of yore, some of the best music EVER … I’m going to love this! Hope you do too! MUSICA!

And speaking of Baby Boomers, I saw the most interesting thing on TV last week that I think all of you would love. It’s a four-part series called My Generation that explores the cultural and political events that shaped four generations of Americans: Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and GenZ. Each 2-hour episode focuses on one generation and features archival footage and original interviews. So interesting! I can’t tell you how MUCH I didn’t know about each generation even my own, never even heard of lots of things others were MOST enthusiastic about! I fell madly in LOVE with everyone, especially GenZ! Born beginning in 1996 to 2012, they’ve gone through so much history, experiencing change on a daily basis! Proof that we’re all doing the best we can! It’s a good thing to know who you’re sharing the planet with, and the events that shaped them, who their parents were, and what made them who they are!

Time to catch up! It’s November, and Joe and I are finally back to normal. Ish. I do thank God for giving me the happy gene, it comes in so HANDY in times of stress. It’s helped me through this year of transition, all the way across the country and back to my art table, and making plans again.

I just wish my mom had talked to me more about Change. But she didn’t know either. She was busy taking me for waltz lessons! I remember around the time of the introduction of the answering machine I was saying to myself, Could we please just stop with the changes? But no. They come faster all the time. Each generation has had to handle change its own way. But when I put on my mom’s music, sing Que Sera Sera while making dinner for my beloveds, take naps on my sofa with my kitty in front of a window that looks at my picket fence garden, I don’t feel the changes so much. I remember the power to have a happy life comes from within. I think about Beatrix Potter, of course ’cause I always do, who died in 1942. I have always felt bad that she didn’t get to see the end of the war and know the world was made safe again. She was a practical woman of her times, but her own world was in nature with bunnies in blue coats, and she didn’t have a TV, so I’m sure her heart had luv-lee respite.  

I’m excited because the Monday before Thanksgiving, we’re having a pre-Thanksgiving dinner! Yay! With lots of family … Baby Boomers, GenX, Millennials, and GenZ! Early so they won’t have to deal with traffic, and this way everyone can have TWO Thanksgivings!👏 We watched Hamilton together after dinner last year on the island. It was so much fun, our kids knew all the words and sang along ~ going to do it again this year . . . maybe it will be a new tradition! I’m making my Mom and Grandma’s Thanksgiving dinner, like I’ve done all my life! Plus, Lowely’s mom’s Cranberry Sauce. Lowely’s mom went to heaven last month at almost 98, but she won’t ever be forgotten in this house. So our kids will be tasting the 1800s in their Great-Great Grandma’s Turkey Stuffing, and asking for Lowely’s mom’s cranberry sauce recipe! I can’t wait, because to me, a roasting turkey filled with buttery stuffing is the perfume of Thanksgiving and a tie that binds. Mmmmm!

But before that, I have lots to do! I’ve been making new art for the 2026 Calendars ~ moving right along, but still have lots of work to do! Here’s a preview.

I love sitting in my tall chair, perched above my art table, putting on layers of watercolor, my brush ringing against my water jar, daydreaming a bit while looking out the window at the trees, hearing the soft ringing of chimes. I always think of fairies flitting through the garden when I hear chimes. We have them outside our open bedroom window too, along with a little water fountain … we sleep the sleep of babies!

I only show you little bits of these calendar pages because I want you to be surprised in 2026! It’s a long time from now, I trust you will have forgotten all about these pics by then!👏 As usual, my calendars are all about growing up, home sweet home, counting our blessings, and the little things in life. Because that’s what makes me happy!🌺  

I should have everything done for the calendars before Thanksgiving! I’m trying because we have lots of plans for December! (I’ll tell you in a minute!)

Fall has been a delight here, sunny, chilly, and clear.

We made the house a little orange, with pumpkins, dish towels, and candlelight . . .

I light them every night. We don’t have a fireplace, but we still feel that coziness! This whole house is cozy! 

There’s  wreath on our door … and you can see the stools Joe and I recovered ourselves in that new green flowered needlepoint I found on Etsy ~ four of them. He wielded the staple gun ~ we are so proud of ourselves feeling all self-sufficient around here. Wait till you see our artichokes in the spring!!!

Friends from Martha’s Vineyard were driving through California; they came to dinner at our house on Halloween night ~ it’s not easy to find our house even with GPS, it’s invisible from the road, so Joe marked our driveway like this! That sheet looked soooo strange, flapping in the wind! But it worked! Our friends found the house!👻 Next year we’re going to do it better, and use those red reflectors for eyes that can be seen by cars for a long way on our dark road before they get close to it. Eeeek. Right? Can’t wait.🎃  

Every day I put on my walking shoes, grab my AirPods, and head outside to walk . . . I set my watch for 45 minutes . . . Round and round our property I go . . . my very own dirt country road.

Makes me so happy! I don’t have to get dressed up, I don’t have to drive anywhere. It’s all right there. I’m listening to the book The Secret Life of Sunflowers ~ have you read it? I’m not done yet, but so far, I like it. Probably because some of it is true and there is a diary in it, and Van Gogh too! You get two, even three, stories for the price of one! Back on the road with a good book is making my day! Like another world. So safe in there.🌺

Watching the bluebirds flitting around, smelling apple trees (me doing the smelling, not the bluebirds!), saying Thank-you God the whole way. Mas MUSICA de la bee-boppa? Oui!

Definitely stopping to put my nose in the roses!

I bring in the most fragrant … This gloriosity is on my art table.🌸

Having something fun on the calendar is so inspiring, even if it’s just a little thing like a rose garden visit with a girlfriend, which I’m doing this Saturday!! But there’s something much more exciting on our calendar right now ~ a train trip in December! That’s me up there, doing the happy dance! We’ll be crossing the country in our room with a view when everything will be lit in Christmas lights, because we’re going Back to the Island💖💖💖 . . . and we’ll stay in our old house! How fun is that!?🥮 Cake and eat it too!

Because, despite the “storybook setting in the quaint seaside village” our wonderful Vineyard house hasn’t sold yet! Good thing we left so much there, like almost all my cooking things are there, and our bed! And the dining table, and our car, and the bird bath!

We can gather greens on our woods-walk to the sea, light a fire and have TGIF, and be with all our sweet old friends we love so much💞, and maybe, 

. . . maybe it will even SNOW. I’ll take you home with us on the train via Instagram and the Blog!  We hope to do this every year. Probably won’t get to stay in our house again, survival requires we sell it soon!  But definitely worth it to see our friends, and  see that change of seasons!🥰

We’ll train back to California in January, plant our garden and the new Orchard in the spring, and then, while it’s madly growing in our fertile valley, we’ll do the other thing we just put on our calendar . . . guess what it is?

Yes, my darling girls. So HAPPY! Joe and I just made reservations on the Queen Mary 2, Transatlantic Crossing, New York to Southhampton, leaving May 5, 2025.💃🏼🕺 Just writing that gives me goosebumps!

Why? Because we miss Rachel and Paul and they just got a new house! We want to see it. And we miss England . . . so excited!

And this magical crossing o’r the sea never ever gets old . . .

Slowing life way down for 7 wonderful days, feeling our earth in a profound way … making memories . . .

And when we do this we are never happier! It reminds us of our very first meeting.🥰 So with all of this, I have to ask . . .

WANNA COME?

We reserved our stateroom yesterday and put down a deposit, which is fully refundable if we cancel and let them know no later than Jan. 2, 2025, which who knows, we might have to do. Lots of you came with us last time so you know how it works and how heaven it is ~ I hope you can join us again.🥳 And all you newbies too  . . . if you would like to join “The Susan Branch Girlfriend Group” (which includes boyfriends and husbands too), then just like last time, call Susan Gannon at 800-468-7752, extension 41663. Tell her you wish to join Group TN0 on Voyage M510A ~ she can make your reservations and answer all your questions.👏 This ship is already too full so if you think you might like to go, please book asap to secure your stateroom; then you’ll have time to think a bit and decide for sure after Christmas ~ and cancel if you can’t make it. PLUS, it will give you a couple of months of happy dreaming before you have to decide! Because of Rachel and Paul and that new house, they aren’t sure if they can come along with us or not, but they WANT to!💖 So I’ll have to let you know about that later. I’ll also tell you all the little things, like where we should meet and things like that. So far, we’re just winging it! But it was so easy and worked out so well last time, we thought we’d try it again!

Last time I worked with a tour guide not affiliated with Cunard who offered choices of small tours (not too many people) for everyone so when we got to England and got off the boat, there was a bus waiting for everyone who’d signed up. Shall I do that again? All I did was help them make special tours, and after they did that, I gave out their contact info so you could go see what they have and sign up if you want to. I haven’t contacted them yet, and Joe and I aren’t really guides on these tours … we drive off for adventures of our own when we get there  . . . but I think everyone enjoyed the tours the last time. It was especially good because we had so many first timers and they didn’t have to drive on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road, which Joe and my girlfriend Elizabeth do very well, but I am intimidated by. But then again, there are lots of trains and rental cars, and plenty to see no matter which direction you go because it’s all gorgeous, and in London there lots of taxis, the Underground, and trains to everywhere (including Paris, gateway to the rest of Europe, and Edinburgh!). And luv-lee British tour guides to show you the things you’d like to see. For example Ann Boleyn’s childhood home, Hever Castle ⬆️, and Churchill’s home, Chartwell (under the pub pic, below), are both open, inside and out, for wonderful tours without reservations and are within an hour’s drive or bus ride from London! Remember, all of England is about the size of Louisiana! And jam-packed with history, gardens, museums, tea rooms, wide open meadows and farmlands, tiny ancient villages, frolicking lambs, pubs, antique faires, so many sights you couldn’t even see everything in a lifetime.

Those of you who went with us last time and have the lay of the land may want to make your own way. Let me know what you think!

I have to tell you Jack is finally assimilating. He naps with me now! He sits with us at night and watches TV. He’s building himself a routine. His moving trauma is healing . . . he even sleeps with us! His coat is glossy and he’s not afraid of the house anymore! Makes me so happy. And the vet here says he does NOT have diabetes so the shot of insulin Joe has been giving him twice a day for the last 7 years (😳) is no longer necessary! Red letter days galore!

This big guy, Simon, is one of the two barn cats. They’ve had the run of this place since they were babies. This one is the softest, gentlest, most patient, sweet cats in the world. Never see a tooth or a claw, ever! In this picture he’s looking at Jack standing at the back screen meowing plaintively and he’s thinking, “Come on out, don’t be afraid, I’ll be nice, let’s smell each other!” But Jack is thinking it could be a trick! Every time I pet the barn kitties I come in and rub my hands on Jack. I want them to fall in love with each other!

Outside is the other barn cat, a Tuxedo named Sammy. And here is the relationship Jack has going with him! Sammy is actually the king of the mountain around here even though he is a shrimp. He has mind control over all of them. Jack just doesn’t know it yet!

This is where we keep the dwarves and hobbits on our property!

Kellee has put up lots of new goodies in our webstore! Go see my new bird! It’s on our porch and I love it. The new 2025 calendars are there, also my star wand (just like the one over my desk), plus candles, stickers, and all sorts of goodies! If you’re going on our trip with us, and you haven’t read A Fine Romance, Falling in Love with the English Countryside, I think you would love it. It talks all about what it’s like to drive on British roads, some of our favorite places to visit, and all things English!

 

Other new things, have you ever watched Bad Sisters? It’s such a well-done series on Apple+ … Season two premiers on November 13. Which means we started rewatching Season 1 last night so we can be ready.So good! You’ll love it!Another good new thing is that when we moved to California we started streaming our local NPR station every morning. I listen while I work. It’s great, so relaxing. No fear mongering, hearing both sides of everything, detailed stories from all over the world, AND the local news and weather, and science too. So good!

One last thing you need to know about. Trader Joes has a great big 72% dark cacao chocolate bar “Pound Plus” it’s huge. Smooth, delicious, like a little valium in a chocolate bar! This, you must have.💖I can hear the chimes outside! Santa Ana winds are blowing softly outside my window! I left lots for you to ponder today! Let me know what you think. I might suggest older grandchildren are delightful people to travel with. Strong too! Mix up those generations and everyone gets lucky! Love you all! XOXOXO

Oh England, till we come again!