Susan Branch's Blog, page 39

THE BOMB SHELTER

Celebrating Father’s Day with a story for my dad about our 1950′s bomb shelter.   MUSICA?  But of course.

This is my dad. Lots of you know him because he reads this blog all the time and leaves wonderfully helpful and instructional comments we all enjoy reading.  My dad, as I’ve often told him, is the smartest person I’ve ever known (but don’t tell Joe).  He has the perfect common-sense advice for every problem.  He was my daily “fix” the whole time I was writing our book this last winter; he kept me going with the most positive encouraging words. ♥  His interests range far and wide, from the garden to the kitchen.  He has the happy gene and life holds unending interest for him.  In this photo above he’s in the kitchen of my first little house on the island, demonstrating how to keep from crying while cutting up onions.

I thought I would tell a family story to celebrate Father’s Day.  It’s kind of long, and no one was taking pictures during it, but I dipped into my mom’s photo albums to give you a general idea of the times.  Other members of my family might remember this story differently ~ it comes from my ten-year-old point of view, but I did my best to tell it like it was. ♥

So here we go . . . step into the way-way back machine with me while I set the scene: the year is 1957, I’m ten, the oldest of six children (two more are still to come).  My mom is twenty-seven and my dad is thirty-two.  At this time in our history, in case you are too blissfully young to remember, there was an arms race going on between the United States and Russia. There was much anxiety around the country concerning the threat of nuclear war. Little baby boomers were getting under their desks at school to practice for the emergency.  In 1957, President Eisenhower’s administration had begun promoting the building of home bomb shelters. My dad along with millions of others, took up the challenge.

My dad was always making something for our geranium-colored house in the San Fernando Valley in Southern California. As more children arrived, he would add on bedrooms, enlarge the kitchen, plant fruit trees, put in brick flowerbeds, pour cement for walkways and patios.  He built a brick barbecue with a fireplace in it where we could toast marshmallows and grill hamburgers.  He made me a dressing table for my room.  Extremely self-sufficient, he could make or fix anything and because of him, my four brothers can too.

Like everything he did, the bomb shelter he designed was truly a masterpiece of planning and organization.  We gathered around the table one night in our jammies while he spread out his drawings to show us how our cots would fold out from the walls, who would sleep where, including Nipper our dog; how we would cook, where we would keep the peanut butter, the drawer for our games, Candy Land, and Parcheesi; a place for the yo-yos, jacks, slinkies, and coloring books.  We could keep our jammies under our pillows.  It was very exciting, the Coleman lantern we used for camping would be there, we thought it looked fun, that it would be like camping.

Every day my dad came home from his job at the telephone company and while his children watched the Mickey Mouse Club and our Mom made red Jell-O and tuna casserole with crushed potato-chip topping while feeding strained peaches to the baby, my dad went out back, behind the barbecue, and in the fading evening light, under the plum tree he began to dig the hole for the bomb shelter.

The dirt pile on our driveway grew and grew and was getting to be a problem.  Dad spread as much dirt around to the flowerbeds as he could, but the pile had grown so high on the driveway, he had to get a run at it with the wheelbarrow in order to dump the dirt over the top.  As you can see, my dad would go to any lengths to protect his family, but as he stood in the hole shoveling deeper and deeper he had begun to question this solution to the nuclear threat. All this digging was giving him plenty of time for contemplation.  Sometimes we would hear him singing out there, On the Wings of a Snow White Dove or The Tennessee Waltz.

I think this is my dad’s 30th birthday.

There was no way to hide this project from the neighbors, not that we tried, because of the pile of dirt.  Most of the houses on our street had as many children in them as ours did.  It was a neighborhood full of big families which made our summer night games of hide-and-go-seek pure bliss.  Our childhood circuses and plays had many actors with many talents; our sleep-overs took place in the backyard in flannel-lined sleeping bags, seven or eight kids on the back lawn looking up at the stars.  We had someone in our house the age of every kid on the street. Their parents had all been by to look at the hole, staring down into it thoughtfully.  The popular, oft-repeated joke was that Dad would be reaching China soon.

“Dad?” I said, one night at the dinner table, “If the bomb drops (so nonchalant and matter of fact), I told Karen she can come into the shelter with us, OK?”  I was sure that of course my best friend, who lived only two doors over and spent half her life at our house, would be welcomed with open arms.  I was just running it by him.

“Yeah,” chimed my nine-year-old brother Jim, “I told Kevin he could come too.”

“I don’t think so,” my dad said, buttering a piece of cornbread, “there’s not going to be room.”

We looked up at him in surprise.

“Have you two seen the hole?  We all have to fit in there.  There won’t be room for anyone besides our family.”

This was the first time it occurred to me how small that hole actually was.  Six feet by ten, and twelve feet deep.  At that time we were a family with six children, one dog and two adults.

“But, Jack,” my mother said thoughtfully from the other end of the table, “what if Karen or Kevin are here when it happens, won’t we just take them with us?”

I’m nodding, that makes sense.  I turn my eyes back to the other end of the table.

“I’ve been thinking about that,” my dad said, “what about Karen’s sisters?”  Karen had four sisters.  ”What if they want to come in? What about the Burrough’s and the Pfennings?  Are we supposed to let them in too?  Shall we build a guest-room hole to go with it?  What do we do if the whole neighborhood comes down here and tries to get in with us?  It could be a riot,” he went on, “we might have to shoot them.”

WHAT?  The people at the table old enough to get the meaning of this gasped in alarm and beginning recognition of some sort of weird truth.  Jim stopped feeding Nipper under the table, Stephen quit gnawing on his spare rib; almost on cue, Paula started crying in her high chair, took her fat arm and shoved her bowl off onto the linoleum; we all looked at Dad.

Our dad went deer hunting every year; we saw him clean the gun; we knew he had a gun.  Was he kidding?  He was always kidding.

SHOOT  Karen and the Burroughs?  My head whipped to the other end of the table to my mother who was scooping scalloped potatoes onto Brad’s yellow Melmac plate.  She glanced up and her gaze landed on my dad with an audible thunk.  Shaking her head, she said what she always said, “Jaaa-aaack!”  When she was making a point, my mom would draw out his name meaningfully like smoke from a skywriting airplane.

In Arf and Arfy, the language she’d learned from the Little Orphan Annie comics when she was a kid and taught my dad so they could talk in front of us, she said, “Darfont tarfalk arfabarfout tharfis arfin fraffont arfov tharfa karfids.” (Trans: “Don’t talk about this in front of the kids.”)

I spoke arf and arfy, and this didn’t help.

My dad shook his head in an It’s not my fault way and used the salad servers to get some roughage for his plate.  ”Pat,” he said, “it’s reality.  Do you think we are putting the entire neighborhood in there?  Has anyone here looked at that hole?”

Chastising him with a glance that bounced off the corner of his head like a frisbee, my mom looked around the table at the questioning children who were experiencing a slow intense dawning as we realized, that even though our mom was now fake-laughing at what she was assuring us was our dad’s “joke,” there was a possibility that we would be shooting the neighbors to protect the hole in which we would be living because the air outside was supposedly poison and the house was going to be gone.  This wasn’t at all like camping.

My face must have been reflecting the worry I was feeling.  Up until that time, my biggest fear was that I might accidentally take the powdery stuff off butterfly wings, or step on a bee, or that a dragon fly would zip my mouth closed as I believed they could do.

“Are there going to be dead people all over the ground when we come out?” I asked, having experienced the ultimate appetite suppressant.

“No, of course not.  Don’t think about it,” my mother said firmly, “This isn’t dinnertime conversation.” Her eyes bopped my dad again.  “No one is shooting anyone around here.  Your father is just joking.” She turned to me, “Eat your dinner honey, use your napkin, you haven’t had your starch.”

Like a balloon whizzing around the room, loosing air with that motor-boat noise it makes until it falls flat on the floor with a thwap, that’s the way our family enthusiasm went out of the bomb shelter project.  No words were needed, no family meeting was required, we were suddenly all on the same page.   It was fun while it lasted, but the project was over.  We were throwing our fate to the wind.

My dad would no longer dig the hole for the bomb shelter.  He  seemed good with it.  Now he was free to go dig the hole for the swimming pool, another story and a much more positive project for the whole neighborhood as it turned out.   He went into the living room to eat his ice cream on the floor in front of the TV, watching the Red Skelton Show; rolling with laughter at Clem Kadiddlehopper until tears streamed from his eyes.  This made us all feel much better.  When our dad laughed like that, which he did all the time; everything was right with the world.

Me and my daddio.

Happy Father’s Day Dearest Dad (Arfy Larfov Yarfou ♥) . . . and to all you Daddies out there and to all you children who have loved them. ♥ xoxo

Waiting for a Rainstorm . . .

Hi girls, here’s a bit o’ Musica for you.  We are here waiting for our next rainstorm, the sky has been getting darker all day.  It’s been raining something like every four days and it’s so green here that when the sun comes through the trees it reflects light from the moving leaves and dapples the living room walls with bright greenish splotches that ripple and sparkle like a swimming pool.  June in all its glory.  I’ve been in my studio, happy as a clam, painting and making new art . . . putting pen and brush to paper.

Painting a few new little things.  It’s been so long since I sent out a WILLARD I wanted to paint bits of new art to decorate my next one.  That’s my project very soon, to write us a new newsletter!  (If by any chance you are not signed up to get my newsletter, which is free from me to you, or would like to know why we call it WILLARD, or would like to sign up a friend ~ you can click on that link and all questions will be answered on our sign-up page.)

I’m keeping busy, waiting for the first copies of A Fine Romance to arrive from the printer so we can make our final arrangements for book signings. Back in February we had a drawing for one of the pre-publication copies — remember?  Gail Matheson out in California was our winner?  Well, her book should be here any day now!  She could not possibly be more excited about it than me!  In only a few more months they’ll all come in.  In the meantime, I wait patiently, I work and garden, hang clothes out to dry on the sunny days, try to eat healthy, read, cuddle under a blanket in the rain, paint, and take long walks with Joe.

It’s summer and for the most part the sun is shining, the bees are buzzing, flutter-bys are skimming the tops of everything . . .

. . .  hydrangeas are beginning to bloom under the bird feeders outside our kitchen window.

In fact there are lots of things in bloom — all my little vases are filled . . .

. . . and spotted here and there around the house.  That’s my first “Just Joey” rose this year mixed with purple catmint (nepeta).  I had to give Jack and Girl a tray full of nepeta so they would leave this alone.  It’s working.  They’re getting enough of it and aren’t going after my vases.  (Yet.)  We’re doing all the summer things as if they were firsts . . . it seems so long and it really is — at this time last year we weren’t even here — we were in England.  We missed our Martha’s Vineyard May and June completely.  I put a big glass pitcher of water in the sun yesterday — for sun tea, which I’m drinking now, mixed with a little lemonade for sweetness . . .

Because cold weather takes up a good portion of our year ~ from late September to late May, hot chocolate and cups of tea rule the day.  The very idea of doing this again is exciting — a gift!  Our refrigerator is kind of a dream-come-true right now.  Not only does it have sun tea in it, but . . .

It’s got ice cold Gazpacho!  In fact I made an extra batch for a girlfriend who broke the wrist of her dominant hand and now has one of the biggest old-fashioned, heavy, plaster casts in the history of broken wrists on her arm (above her elbow, covering most of her fingers).  She can’t cut food, can’t open wine (just when she needs it most), or twist off jar lids, can’t do dishes, can’t drive, can’t write, can only peck on the key board.  Poor Baby.  So we took her a pitcher full of Gazpacho and had a nice visit sitting on the big ole square screened-in porch of her farmhouse, with the sky-blue painted ceiling, on the wrought iron furniture with the curlicues and the comfy cushions that had belonged to her parents, drinking wine, listening to insects skimming the grass and glinting in the sun, watching red-winged blackbirds and cardinals at her feeders while smelling the salt air and the corn growing in the sun-dappled field at the back of her property.  We did this until the stars came out.  She thinks we did her a favor, we think she did us one.

In case I didn’t convince everyone the other day of how amazingly delicious this soup is, I thought I’d show you how easy it is to make.  You start by putting a cup and a quarter of chilled tomato juice into a blender.

To that you add one tomato and half of a peeled cucumber, both roughly chopped . . .

Then add vinegar, oil, a little sugar (unless you have tomatoes from your garden, then you really don’t need sugar) and cayenne . . . (I’ll put the recipe at the end).  This soup makes you feel like you’ve been zinged with good healthy things . . .

Blend well until smooth . . .  pour blended ingredients into a large container or pitcher…

. . .  then add another 2 1/2 c. tomato juice to the mixture . . .

Chop fresh vegetables into bite-sized pieces, cucumber, celery, red onion, zucchini, tomato and green pepper . . . pieces small enough so that when you’re eating it, several can fit on a spoon  at the same time.

And add them to the tomato mixture . . .

Put in some green onion tops (scallions) — or chives from your garden if you have them.  Stir it all up good . . .  then, a bit more of your own special brand of spice . . .

Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste, and chill it all well . . .

I added chunks of cooked shrimp … and garnished it with a little sour cream and a fresh chive flower . . . but it’s good just plain.  More than good.

The 1/4 tsp. of cayenne I mentioned earlier is my new addition to this recipe.  It’s optional, but it gives the nicest little kick, just a little, not too much.  Stir it in at any time, or when you’re about to start the blender.  I also mix the red wine vinegar, half and half, with good balsamic vinegar.  But it’s good no matter what.

It’s that wonderful time of year when it’s easy to fill our fridges with the best produce — crisp and crunchy vegetables fresh from the farmer’s market and brimming with vitamins. And it’s almost time for my favorite of all . . .

Watermelon!  Can’t wait!  I love it cut up on top of plain yogurt with a little bit of our homemade granola.  Right now, besides the tea and the Gazpacho, our fridge is heaven —  chock full of pop-in-your-mouth seasonal goodness — we have organic red grapes, a big bowlful of ice-cold pink grapefruit and orange segments drowning in their own citrusy juice, and a bowl of crunchy homemade coleslaw.  YUM!  And these . . .

Is this not a pure miracle?  That compost and water and sun produces these in our very own garden?  And they are nothing like the ones we get in our local markets, which are expensive, sadly juiceless, and yet, every year, we are lured by the rosy redness of them believing them to be the food of the gods.  No more, we cannot be lured, it is no longer necessary.  We have our own strawberry patch.

Which is a miracle because we didn’t plant one . . .

See the rim of the terra cotta pot there?  That’s a strawberry pot. Two years ago I planted a few plants in it.  And remember how I suggested that you grow things that like living in your area?  Well, apparently strawberries love this island!  Who knew? They jumped the rim of the pot last year, and this year they’ve spread over half my picket fence garden!  Don’t you just love nature? Isn’t she amazing?  It’s so nice to be able to give away organic juicy fresh-picked strawberries to our friends!  Strawberry Fields Forever!

 

A couple more things before I go . . . first off, on the SUMMER Banners:  We did sell out of them, but for you that have been asking, I made a special request and a few more will be coming to our web store in the next couple of weeks.

If you wanted one and weren’t able to get it in time, this will be your chance.

 Also, remember the Cupcake Banner Janie sent me for my birthday?  In that ↑ photo?  The perfect little birthday present is what I thought when I opened it — just adorable.  I asked her to make some more for us.  They come with their own little envelope just like the Summer Banners did — and with a card that you can sign to your sister, mom, daughter, best friend or grammie.  You will see the Cupcake Birthday Banners in our web store today.  I also asked Kellee if she could make us some Do-it-Yourself Patriotic Banners . . . and she said, “SURE, I can!”  (She is a big believer in that fantastic word “Yes” — another reason I love her so much!)

She sent me one of the kits so I could put the banners together myself . . . it was easy and fast ~ my two favorite things in kit production.  Each kit comes with enough red and white string to make two sizes of banner (both included) . . . the smaller one, the one on the calendar with the Cupcakes above (which you could also string between two-chopsticks as a cake-topper if you wanted) . . . and this larger one on my stove . . . ↓

It’s the little things in life!  Thank you Kellee and Janie!  Bye girls, I have to bring the clothes in before the rain starts ~ have a wonderful day!  XOXO

APPENDIX, Alphabetical

ALPHABETICAL APPENDIX for my book, A FINE ROMANCE ~ Falling in Love with the English Countryside
Page numbers refer to the pages of the book.  MUSICA (you will love) for your enjoyment, just click and come back for perusing.


Alfriston photos, East Sussex
Ambleside p. 145
     Ambleside photos
Anglophile, p. 242
Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty p. 120
Armitt Museum, in Ambleside, p. 165
Arts and Crafts Movement p. 106, 108, 111, 202, 242
Ascot, see: Royal Ascot
Astor, William Waldorf p. 117 see also: Hever Castle
Austen, Jane, p. 232-245
     & Beatrix Potter, p. 73
     Books
     Biography
       Garden, p. 236
     Gift Shop at her house
     House and Museum, in Chawton p.232
                                              Virtual Tour of Jane Austen’s House
     & Laura Ashley, p 233
     Life in Bath
     Jane Austen Society of North America
     See also: Chawton
Aylesbury p. 136
Barnsley House Gardens, p. 206, see also: Rosemary Verey
Bateman’s House and Garden, p.102,  Rudyard Kipling‘s House
Bath
     Bath Photos
BEATRIX POTTER, p. 38, 71-73, 145, 152, 165, 189, 211, 220
     and Jane Austen, p. 73
     and me, p. 71-73, 220
            Our visit, Part One
           Our visit, Part Two
     Castle Cottage, p. 158
     Ethswaite Water, p. 171,  where Beatrix Potter’s ashes were scattered
     Figurines, Vintage
     Gift shop at Hill Top Farm
     Hill Top Farm in Near Sawrey p. 145, 150, 166

     Miss Potter, the movie trailer
     Norman Warne, p. 156-157
     Peter Rabbit, youtube, for your little ones ♥
          …in hotel, p. 178
          my Peter Rabbit guest room
     Sawrey House Hotel, p. 158 (next door to Hill Top)
     Tower Bank Arms, p. 158
     William Heelis, p. 157
          see also, Heelis.
     Walking with Beatrix Potter, p. 150
          Moss Eccles Tarn, p. 163
     Windermere, p. 146. See also, Windermere
     Wray Castle, p. 177
Bell, Vanessa p. 105
     see also, Charleston.
Beret, Joe’s p. 23-24

Bibury Court Hotel p. 193, 199
Bibury in the Cotswolds, p.193
     Bibury Photos
Birthday, Things to Ask for on Your . . . p. 251
Bloomsbury Group p. 106
     Bloomsbury Group, life and times, photos
Boleyn, Anne, p. 116 See also: Hever Castle, Henry VIII
Books, suggested, before you go to England, p. 181
     other suggested books that will get you in the mood
Bourton-on-the-Water, in the Cotswolds
     Bourton-on-the-Water, photos
     Miniature (Model) Village
Bowlby, Alexis, future author, granddaughter of Diana p. 75-76, 246
“Box of Chocolates” cottages, p. 114
Bridge House, Ambleside p. 146
Bridgewater, see Emma.
British Country Living Magazine… so good!
Broadway, the “Jewel of the Cotswolds” p. 221
     Broadway, Wikipedia
Bunting, p. 136, 144, 172


Cassandra’s Cup Tea Room (in Chawton) p. 236
Castle Cottage, p158 See also: Beatrix Potter
Celsius (temperature conversion) p. 87
Charleston Farmhouse and Garden, p. 105 see also: Vanessa Bell
Chartwell, home and garden belonging to Winston Churchill 
     Chartwell photos
Chatsworth House and Gardens, p. 142
     & Jane Austen, 236
     Duchess of Devonshire
     my post about Chatsworth
Chawton, p. 232 Jane Austen’s House and Museum
     Chawton photos
Blog Post I did of our visit to Chawton
Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds
Cooking Conversions, British Equivalents

Cottage
     Gardens, p. 160
     Storybook, p. 209, 211, 224
Cottages for rent, see RENTALS
Cotswolds, Map p. 192
     Walking through the Cotswolds
Country Hotels of England
Country Living Magazine, British Edition
Cranford, filmed in Lacock

Cumbria

Cunard, Queen Mary 2, p. 43-78, 238
      see also, Queen Mary 2
     Video at sea, mine



Darrowby, fictional places we love
     See also, Thirsk.
David Austin Roses, p. 168
Diamond Jubilee p. 89, 142, 143, 144, 146
     Procession on the Thames, p. 147
Dove Cottage, William Wordsworth home, p. 165  Photos
Downton Abbey



DRIVING IN ENGLAND
     Car talk, p. 79-82, 132-134
     Highway Code
     Rent a Car (Joe got best discount from Hertz)
     Roadsigns, quick reference
     Video (mine), driving in the Peak District

A traffic sign in an alleyway. Translation: Go VERY slow, honk.

Electricity
Elderflower Cordial, p. 212
Elizabeth von Arnim P.64
Elizabeth and Her German Garden p. 64, 74-75
Ellen Terry (at Smallhythe Place) p.124
Emma Bridgewater, p. 110, 245
      Factory, in Stoke-on-Trent, p. 143-144
      Our visit

Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
English Place names, key

Farmer’s Poem p. 189
Flats for rent, see RENTALS
Flowers
     Chelsea Flower Show
          photos of
     for Cottage Garden, p.161
     fairy foxgloves, p. 185

     nemesia, p. 118

Footpaths, Public, p. 120, 162
     Circular walks
     maps, for finding, p. 121
Forster, E. M., p. 107
     his books, Howard’s End and A Room with a View 



Gardens
     Beatrix Potter’s, p. 167
     Cottage p. 160
     Jane Austen’s, p. 236
     Rosemary Verey’s p. 206
          Bottle (my video), p. 207
     Vita Sackville-West’s, p. 91, 230

Gifford’s Circus, p. 222- 223, 245
     photos
Gingerbread, see Grasmere
Grant, Duncan, p. 107, see also: Charleston Farmhouse
Grasmere, p. 163
     Gingerbread Shop, p. 162
Great Dixter House and Gardens

Harrods, for Afternoon Tea in London, p. 196
Hats, Olney, p. 173
Hawkshead, in the Lake District
     photos
Hedgerows, p. 198
Heelis, William, p. 157
     Heelis, headquarters for National Trust
     Solicitor’s Office in Hawkshead, p. 171
Henry the VIII: bad husband, p. 117
     Anne Boleyn, p. 116
See, Hever Castle↓

Herriot, James, p.181
     All Creatures Great and Small
     Museum, in Thirsk, Yorkshire p. 188
Hever Castle, p. 116
     Childhood Home of Anne Boleyn
     See also: Astor, William Waldorf
Hidcote Manor Garden in the Cotswolds
     photos
Hill Top Farm, p. 145-166, see also: Beatrix Potter
    in Near Sawrey, p. 158
Homemade Happy Life, p. 249
Houses for rent, see RENTALS

Industrial Revolution, p. 202
     See also, Arts and Crafts Movement

Jane Austen, see Austen, Jane.
Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, p. 144, 147

Kelmscott Manor, p. 202 See also, Morris, William
Kent/Sussex Map p. 84
     “The Garden of England” Photos
Kipling, Rudyard, p. 102, see also: Bateman’s
Knole, childhood home of Vita Sackville West, p. 129

Lacock, p. 226
L A M B S!



lambs playing with a ball -video
lambs hopping - video
lamb vases

Landmark Trust
Lavender
     Earl Grey Tea
     Fields in the Cotswolds
     dried, for cooking
     ~Orange Polenta Cake, p. 214
Lenox Hotel
London, p. 136
     Eye


     Harrods, for tea, p 196
     Parks and Gardens
     Ten Day Trips in Vicinity of (I would add Hever Castle to this list)
     Victoria and Albert Museum, p. 156, 233


Mal de Mer, seasickness, p. 59
Maps: of England, p. 6
     Cotswolds, p. 192
     Footpaths, p. 121
     Kent/Sussex, p. 84
     Lake District, p. 180
     National Trust, for Houses and Gardens
     OS Explorer Map for walks, p. 121

Martha’s Vineyard, p. 241, 253
     On a Moonlit Night
     In a Snowstorm
     Fireworks
     Woods Walk
Matlock Bath, Peaks District, p. 145
Mayflower, by Nathaniel Philbrick
     Pilgrims, p. 58

Middleham Castle, ↑ Yorkshire Dales, p. 184
     childhood home of Richard III, p. 185
Miss Potter , the movie trailer
Money

Morris, William, p. 193, 202, 242
     His home: Kelmscott Manor
      See also, Arts and Crafts Movement
Moss Eccles Tarn, 163
Movie List, p. 201
     More wonderful old movies
Much Ado Books in Alfriston p. 112
Music, to bring with you, p. 180
     MUSICA, to listen to now


National Trust, p. 100, 106, 125, 155, 163, 175, 246
     National Trust Map
     and Prince Charles, p. 246
Near Sawrey, Lake District p. 158

Old Norse Place names, p. 181
     
     Viking Information (a mere drop in the bucket for fascinating subject!)
Olney Hats, p. 173
OS Explorer Map, p. 121, for footpaths, bikes, etc.
Olympics, 2012, Danny Boyle Vision for opening games, p. 242

Peak District, 135-138
     photos in Peak District
Pear Cider, p. 60 (we loved Magners, but there are other brands)
Peter Rabbit
     My Peter Rabbit room
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet p. 131
Pimm’s Cup (see p. 218 for recipe)
Planetarium, on board the Queen Mary 2, p. 67-70
Portrait of a Marriage by Nigel Nicolson
Post Office Meadow, p. 158
Potter, Beatrix.  See Beatrix Potter

Priest’s House at Sissinghurst
Prince Charles p. 246
     Charities
     Duchy Home Farm
     Garden at Highgrove
     Views on organic sustainable farming
          “Sustainable farming can feed the world” speech
     with the National Trust
     watercolors
          His watercolor book



Pub in the Peak District ~ me with knitting, writing paper, camera and shawl.

Pubs, see p.217-219
     Sunday Roast, p. 89

Queen Elizabeth, see Jubilee.
Queen Mary 2
     Afternoon Tea Dance, p. 64
     Chart Room, p. 43
     Cunard Luxury Liner
     Life aboard ship (was enjoyable after I turned the music down)
     Planetarium, p. 67-69
     Seasickness, p. 59
     Stateroom Layout, p. 54
     Policy to carry pets on board the Queen Mary 2
     Tour of an inside cabin, the least expensive way to go, very nice!
            Tour of more expensive cabin


So civilized on the ship, you can bring your dog.  Although you can’t sleep with him; you get to visit him, but pets must sleep in the kennel.  I think that’s what you see reflected in these little faces.  They aren’t that happy about it.  I’m pretty sure it would turn me into a smuggler.

Quill Pen, p. 235
     Gift Shop at Jane Austen’s House (in case you want a quill pen)

Rachel’s Blogs, Baking Brownies for Mozart, Sugarmoon 
Reading List, p. 181-182
     See also, Books.
Recipes
     Coronation Chicken, p. 163
     Grilled Brie Sandwich, p. 110
     Hot Milk Cake, p. 90
     Lemon Butter Cookies, p. 139
     Orange-Lavender Polenta Cake, p. 214
     Pimm’s Cup, p. 218
     Roasted Shallots, p. 76
     Steak au Poivre ↓

     Sticky Toffee Pudding, 148, 149
Rental, Car.  See: Driving in England
RENTALS for Cottages and Flats, p. 114
     Our flat in Ambleside, p. 145 (“Idle Mill 2″)
      Bibury Court Hotel, p. 193, 199, where we stayed in the Cotswolds
     Castles, Cottages and Flats
     Country Hotels
     Lakelovers Holiday Cottages
     National Trust Holiday Cottages
           in Stourhead (89 Church Lawn), p. 228
           in Sissinghurst
     Landmark Trust Holiday Cottages
     Rural Retreats
     Visit Britain
     Weathericks Cottage in the Peak District, p. 138
Royal Ascot p.212
     Dress code p.212
     Hats at
Royal Oak Society, join – includes free entrance to all National Trust properties.
Rules for travel, p. 70
Rydal Mount, p. 163
    See also, William Wordsworth

Sackville-West, Vita, p. 91, 230
     Lord Sackville, 129
     See also:
          Knole, p. 129
          Sissinghurst p. 91
Sawrey House Hotel, p. 158 (next door to Hill Top Farm)
Scotney Castle
     Scotney Castle photos
Seasickness, p. 58-59
Shambles, in York, p. 191
Sheffield Park and Garden
     Sheffield Park Photos
Shipton Mill, p. 208-210
     history
     Storybook Cottage, p. 209, 211, 224

Sissinghurst, p. 91
     Priest’s House
     Sissinghurst Castle Farmhouse B & B
     See: Sackville-West, Vita
     See: Portrait of a Marriage by Nigel Nicholson
     White Garden
Smallhythe Place (Ellen Terry)
“Shall we go on” my video of walking to Smallhythe

Ellen Terry’s Garden, “the air is a caress”

Snowshill Manor and Garden
     Dovecote p. 252
Stoke-on-Trent, p. 143
Stonehenge, p. 229
Storybook Cottage, p. 209, 211, 224
Stourhead House and Gardens, Wiltshire p. 228
     Stourhead cottage/National Trust
     photos of garden

This is Stourhead, you can stay here and walk for hours everyday across fields of bluebells in the spring, with lambs.

Stow-on-the-Wold in the Cotswolds
Suffragettes in England, the quest for freedom and the vote
Sunday Roast, p. 89 see also, Pubs.
Sussex, Map p.84



Tea, p. 194-197
     Afternoon, at Harrods, London, p. 196
     How to Make the Perfect Cup of, p.195
     mugs, see Emma Bridgewater.
     Organic Lavender Earl Grey (my blend) COMING SOON to the web store!
     Parties, p 196
     Party in a River, p. 215
     Recipes, see Recipes.
     ~room, Cassandra’s Cup, p. 236
Temperature Conversion, Fahrenheit to Celsius p. 87
Tenterden, Kent, p. 85, 113
Terry, Ellen, p. 124
     her daughter, Edith Craig
     see also, Smallhythe Place
Below, Edith Craig’s wonderful sketch for Costume/shoe designs for her mother that was in the house at Smallhythe Place

Tetbury, p. 208
Thirsk, Yorkshire p.188
     See also, Herriot, James
Twain, Mark, p. 102-103
     Interview with Rudyard Kipling

Verey, Rosemary, p. 206, See also: Barnsley House Gardens
     My blog post about Rosemary Verey’s Garden
Victoria and Albert Museum p. 156, 233
von Arnim, Elizabeth, p. 64, 74, 107



Walks, see: Footpaths
Warne, Norman. See Beatrix Potter
Weathericks Cottage, Peak District, p. 138 (say hello to Jean for us!)
     Just leaving the cottage, video
Weight, stones and pounds, p. 87
White Garden, see Sissinghurst
Windermere, p. 146
     Lake Cruises p. 174
     Waterhead Hotel, p. 178
          photos
Wirksworth in the Peak District, p. 138
     See also, Weathericks Cottage
Woolf, Virginia, p.  106,  see also: Charleston Farmhouse
     Monks House
     Virginia Woolf Society
Wordsworth, William, in the Lake District
     at Dove Cottage, p. 165
     at Rydal Mount and Gardens, p. 163
Wray Castle, p. 177
     photos


York, p. 190
     Dean Court Hotel 
     Minster, p. 190-191
     photos
     Shambles, p. 190
     Thirsk, p. 188
Yorkshire Dales. p. 181-187
     driving through, my video
     history
     photos
     touring the
     See also, Middleham Castle
The End . . . Leave me a comment if you think I missed something!

WHO’S GOT MAIL ?

Good morning Girlfriends — how’s everyone today?  Musica?  (So gorgeous here, I thought you should hear the “voice of the island” then you’ll know just how pretty it is.)  I’ve been getting nice things in the mail lately.  I love mail when it’s like this:

It’s a box from my dad.  First off, it was instantly special because he was recycling the box we sent him Gingerbread from Sarah Nelson’s famous Bakery in Grasmere, England last Father’s Day (the magic of youtube will take you to see the bakery).  Just the box alone was good for a happy memory . . . but I loved how he addressed it, to Jack Branch! (That’s my kitty to anyone who might be new here.)

Joe saw it and said, “Branch?  Not Hall?  Haruumph.”

I said, “Wait a minute, you don’t want me to call you ‘Jack’s dad,’ right?  I told my dad, so of course he took that to heart, honoring you by not giving Jack your name.”

I say to Jack, “Take the rubber band back to your dad.” And Joe says, “I’m not his dad.”

This explanation comes with love from proud Cat Mommy.

Btw, this is the news from Lake Suebegon, where are all the men are brilliant, all the children are adorable, and all the women are crazy.

So I opened the box, and here was this BEE (my craziness is inherited).  You can pull the pink plastic flower and a buzzing of massive proportions begins.  So I gave it to Jack.

 Jack looks at his father (oops) wondering why his mommy is putting a bee on the chair with him.  It doesn’t look like a rubber band.

Hmmm.  I’m beginning to think there’s a resemblance between Jack and his new friend, something about the eyes.  I don’t think the bee is catching Jack’s fancy.  He’s extremely particular.

He is rubberband-ponytail band man all the way and will go to any lengths to get them.  I moved the scale the other day and there were four rubber bands under it.  This seems to be where he “keeps” them.  There is one in this drawer and he knows it and he badgers me until I open it.

He is one smart kitty boy.  He has me shooting them for him all day.  He catches it in two paws, puts it directly into his mouth, and brings it back to me.  I will come up the stairs and there, right in front of the door, a rubber band, waiting for me, him on the chair, eyes insane, ears in perfect pert pyramids, at attention, waiting.  I wonder if he will ever grow out of this.

The other thing he likes is feathers.   These feathers are at the end of what looks like a fishing pole.  He climbs onto the arm of a wooden chair, and stretches his full length on his tiptoes to try and get it down from the door we keep it draped over.

P L A Y   W I T H   M E!!!  (His mantra)

See that eye?  Pure concentrated attack mode.

Coo-Coo-Ca-Choo . . .

He can climb anything now.  He is my best decoration.

I’ve always loved a little bit of black . . .

It just seems to pop all the other color and give depth to any setting.

Even in the bathroom . . .

So it just made sense to get a color-coordinated kitty.  A little black and white is my best decorating secret.

Even quilts look more wonderful with this fuzzy decorating tip lying on top of them.

Better than throw pillows . . .

Better than vases of flowers — I think Girl’s pink nose also adds to the decoration.  Little pink eraser nose.  Double bubblegum pink. ♥

And I got something else in the mail . . .  this box.  It’s not been in a house of mine for thirty-four years when I packed it up and sent it away, but that’s where it started out.

A lot of you will recognize this box when I tell you what it is.  Those of you who’ve been around since my first book came out will know what this box is even though no one has ever seen it.

Have you guessed yet?  Yes, it’s a recipe box, but not just any recipe box.  It’s my most important recipe box ever.

In around 1978, when I’d been painting for almost a year and still learning everyday (just like now!), my girlfriend Jane was getting married.  So I put together a recipe box for her wedding present and filled it with my recipes I handwrote and watercolored onto cards.  Note: black ink, my way of getting a little black into everything (just to follow up on that theme. )

This is Jane’s box with some of the cards I made for her.  She just sent it back to me.  She thought I might like to keep it in my memoirs, because she knows what this box means to me. Such a wonderful surprise. Making her wedding present was the very first time I combined my hobby of cooking, with my handwriting, and my new love of making watercolors and drawing home things like bowls and bananas, putting borders on everything.

This is Jane and me.  We are standing on the “Love Boat” in Long Beach Harbor getting ready to sail away to Acapulco.  Jane is a little bit older than me (not by much ~ but at the time it was enough; I’ve almost caught up to her now) and I looked up to her.  I thought she was brilliant.  She had a powerhouse job, she had a darling house, she was beautiful, smart and fun.  I wanted to be like her when I grew up.  One night, when we were in my kitchen doing dishes after a dinner party, she suggested I write a cookbook and fill it with my recipes, and decorate it with watercolors, just like the recipe box I’d given her.  I almost fainted from the compliment of it.  Of course I thought that she might have gone a bit off the rails in this one exception to her normal genius.  I didn’t believe I could write a book since at the time, no one I knew wrote books except people like Julia Child or Margaret Mitchell.  It took five years and lots more inspiration (such as divorce and huge fear of bagladyhood) before I had the nerve to try, and three years more before my first book came out . . . and I never forgot that it was Jane’s idea.  ♥

Here’s Jane with Elvis.  She’s 13.  He wrote her a letter.   Need More Musica?  (OK, but please, no screaming.  OK, just a little, we are not made of stone here. xoxo)

  See?  How could you not do anything this person told you to do?  She obviously had the magic touch.  You can visit her website, Jane Bay  and read about her on Star Wars Wookiepedia ~ she was George Lucas’s ~ of Star Wars fame ~ assistant and right-hand-person for the last almost-forty years, and just recently retired.

And I feel that this is very much a result of Jane’s believing in me . . .

My first book, which changed my life forever.  We never know where or when the inspiration for our lives will come from or through whom.  I’m only 2 degrees of separation from Elvis Presley!!!  On the same photo of us above, Jane wrote, “Girlfriends Forever” — you can see that photo on the endpapers in the book — her photo gave me the title for my Girlfriends book.  Funny how you come to have guardian angels in your life, who drop their magic and there you go. Like pulling the bunny out of a top hat. Voila!  ♥  ♥  ♥

Jane’s recipe box is filled with recipe cards such as this one — That’s my recipe for Gazpacho as I painted it for her box, and here it is, a few years later, as I painted it a for my book:

Eight years later, when my book was finally published, the recipe had the addition of shrimp and croutons.  If you have Heart of the Home,  you can find this recipe on page 39.  And that brings me to the end of this blog post, because, on this gorgeous Martha’s Vineyard day, I’m on my way to the market to get the things to make Gazpacho — going to treat Joe NICE.  It’s still the best I’ve ever tasted.  Tried and true ~ I promise you ~ for years . . .  and it comes . . .

 H A P P Y   D A Y   G I R L F R I E N D S   F O R E V E R !

MY GARDEN DIARY

I thought I might show you my Garden Diary today with a background of Garden Diary Musica!  Chair dance!

I’m a big diary keeper, which I know you know.  I have them for all reasons and in all seasons.  They help me keep track of the days, but there was definitely a purpose for the garden diary I kept when we went to England in 2004.  It’s turned out to be quite handy — I refer to it all the time, so I thought I’d show it to you, in case this is something you might like to do.

Here it is.  This narrow little spiral book fit perfectly into my purse and went everywhere I went for the two months we were garden hopping along the country roads of England.  The burn mark?  That is actually from a candle when we returned home — it happened during a dinner party when we were looking at this diary at the table.  So although it’s not pretty, I kind of don’t mind it.  Candlelight burns from a wonderful dinner party are relatively acceptable.

I did not make this diary as pretty as the one I made for you.  This one was just for me, the handwriting is fast, the diary was almost all written while standing up.  I jotted down everything I saw that I loved.  Day after day, as we visited garden after garden (we went to twenty-six of them), I remarked on river walks, wild gardens, woodland gardens and knot gardens, (even Prince Charles’s garden at Highgrove) and wrote down the latin names for flowers and plants.  I wanted to go home having learned something.

If I saw something I fell in love with, I wrote about it, as much information as I could garner.  I would hunt down the grounds-people if I really needed to know the name of something.  I would photograph it too, so I could see it all later.  In our Martha’s Vineyard garden now, we have alpine strawberries, rhododendron, sweet woodruff, white bleeding hearts, golden yew, and lots of other things just because of this little diary and what we learned in the beautiful amazing gardens in England where every single day Joe and I GASPED at the beauty of what we were seeing.

If I saw a big flowering tree, a long walkway, or a homemade fence that I liked, I would write it down, or maybe sketch it in case we wanted to try to do it at home.  When I saw little photos or garden ideas in magazines (I would read them in pubs), I cut them out and put them in my book.

English people are crazy for gardening.  Even where there is no soil in front of a stone house, the house will be covered in flowered baskets.  They have the perfect sky, water, sun, soil for every growing thing.

We learned how important plant shapes are in a beautiful garden ~ something I’d never thought much about.

Right there ↑ … that’s the best advice I ever learned and could pass on when it comes to gardening:  Grow things that are naturally happy in your area.  (Above that National Trust sticker you see in this photo I wrote this notation: “Here I am, lying on the lawn with Joe in the rose garden at Lanhydrock, thinking (because I just came out of their tea shop) how much I love being called ‘sweetheart’ and ‘darling’ — by the sweethearts and darlings who work in the tea shops — makes me think of my grandma.” ♥  

So there is more in this garden diary than gardens — little moments are recorded too, as they happened.

I have practically a library of garden books I’ve collected over the years — old ones with wonderful pictures I found in used bookstores, and new ones too.  But my own little diary has given me the very best information and inspiration of them all, because I already know I love everything in it.

I didn’t just put garden advice in it either, although that’s what 90% of it is — but if I heard a quote or saw something in a house that I liked, I wrote it down or sketched that too.  (I even sketched a farmers market/coffee shop layout we saw just in case someday we wanted to have a farmer’s market/coffee shop — I figured I would be ready  – it was the perfect shop ~ I had to do it!)

You know my girlfriend Rachel who lives in England, is famous for her brownies, who started out as my pen pal and then we became really dear friends?  Above is a quick sketch I did while standing in her Mom’s bathroom in her house in England.  I loved that bathroom — the house was very old and the bathroom was filled with hints of the years of family farm life … I stood there for a few moments sketching it into my book.  It was so old-fashioned and real.  So now, in our bathroom here on the island, instead of hunting guns, there are fishing poles in the corner next to the sink, and our Wellies, Joe’s big black ones, my smaller colorful ones, are lined up, complete with dried mud on the soles, on the black and white checked linoleum floor under the sink.  This little diary, which I brought home with me, has turned out to be a minefield of inspiration.

Nepeta, a wonderful gorgeous purple plant with sage colored leaves that grows like crazy in our garden … we have it!  I discovered what the birds loved, what would make the bees and butterflies happiest.  Here was a little painting idea I loved — an oil on small unframed canvases, to set on a shelf.   So what did we walk away with — did we use any of this at home?   Oh yes.

We put everything we learned to work.  I learned that flowers aren’t all there are to a garden.  That was a shock.  They are the delicious sweet frosting with sprinkles on top, but the cake matters too!  Before this trip, my gardening life was almost all about flowers ~ like a kid eating the frosting off a cake as the sole provider of his nourishment. But bushes and shrubs are just as important, and when I began to understand how it all came together, they became just as beautiful to me.   They bring the foundation to a garden in a way that a bunch of pansies, even a whole stand of pansies, could never do.  And I found out that the shapes of plants matter, whether they sit like a giant ball or block, climb up a wall, weep, grow skinny and tall like a post, or crawl along the ground.  It’s the contrast that makes things interesting.  (I know what I know now, which is a drop in the bucket, but in a few years, I will know more.  This is a work in progress.) ♥

I particularly fell in love with the idea of limey yellow-gold and purple colors together.  And texture, that was new to me too; I started noticing how interesting tiny leaves looked next to really big ones, how spiky leaves looked next to soft leaves, how a long green narrow leaf looks next to a short round yellowish one.  I’d never read that in my garden books (or maybe I just didn’t know what they were trying to say).

Here’s another color mix … lime, and purple with spots of orange.   And see the contrast between leaf colors and shapes? I used to wonder why my potted porch plants didn’t look interesting together — but now I know it was because the plants I chose all had the same basic shape, color and size of leaf and flowers.

I learned to see things differently … learned about shape and texture and planned new gardens that reflected it.  I also began to appreciate hedges in a new way.  There are hedgerows all over England (I wrote more about them in our new book); some are wildly untended, draped in wild May flower or spirea, and some are clipped to the nth degree in amazing shapes, into mazes, ball-shapes, pyramids, animals and squares.  Some of them are cut into tall teetering fanciful indescribable shapes with no name at all.  Every house, castle and tearoom has a hedge. But for us and our more modest garden, we found that even the simplest round bush in a loose and flowing flower garden is the perfect thing and makes a wonderful contrast.

Our little clumps of boxwood — they are just green and pretty but they get no discernible flowers at all.

Inspired by England, we planted this long hedge/bird motel down the driveway of our property in California.  There’s a bird motel next to our Post Office on the island too, and for all the years I’ve lived here, through generations of birds really, the music you hear going into the post office (or down our driveway) is bird song —  every spring they’re in there, twittering, skiffering, canucking, kaboodling and chippering, all the things that birds do that make us love them so much.  (. . . all words made up, do not look for meaning).  If you would like to make a bird motel at your house, the earth will thank you. ♥

I still love my pink sugar frosting.

But now I get some of it from shrubs, that’s beauty bush above (kolkwitzia amabilis).  I hope this post inspires you to get a little book of your own (especially if you are planning a trip where you will be visiting lots of gardens).  Put your book in your purse so that when you see a plant, flower, bush, hedge, rose you like, you can jot it down.  Let it be a book of inspiration; add other things that catch your fancy, scribble a picture, add a photo, sketch a pathway.  Keep the book for one season, and forever you will know what plants to choose for your garden.  (And btw, I turned my garden diary over, started from the other end, and that’s where I wrote about the restaurants we visited and food we loved.)

As I mentioned, the most important thing I learned: unless a plant grows well in our area, in our soil, in our zone, with our weather, I force myself to forget about it.  I try not to torture myself with an unhappy plant that doesn’t want to live here.  No gardenias on Martha’s Vineyard even tho’ they sell them in the nurseries.  I just take a huge breath of that delicious flower fragrance and move on.  I can no longer be tricked.  But it’s still not easy!  I just remind myself that there are many wonderful things that love it here, thrive, and come back every year.

This is the time of year when so many beautiful things are blooming, you’ll fill your book  in no time with notes and inspiration for your next year’s garden, even when driving around your own neighborhood.  Or, maybe you’ll plan the garden of your dreams, the one you hope to have someday.  Nothing happens unless first we dream . . . so dream on girlfriends. ♥ Until we meet again . . . XOXO

HERE COMES SUMMER . . .

Summer Already?  How can that BE?  Celebrating Old Cape Cod with MUSICA.

Mmmm, “. . . the simple stuff of summertime.”♥  And you might say, “Hey don’t rush it, it’s still spring.”  You would say that because you are not on “island time.”  But we definitely are (this is not always a good thing, such as when you are waiting for the plumber to show up) and Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial beginning of summer for us island folk.  Craziness begins to occur, the wide mouth of the ferry yawns open . . . and out they pour, from everywhere . . .

. . . people who love this place just as much as we do . . .

And feel like they are coming home. ♥  They come for the history, for the sea, for the old-fashioned slow way of flip-flop-wearing, rose-smelling, bike riding, picket-fence and shady-tree lifestyle.  Goodbye real life, hello Island. Welcome to 1910.  Bring your picnic basket. ♥

Our Martha’s Vineyard population goes from approximately 15,000 in the winter, to some crazy thing like 100,000 in the summer. And we’re doing our part — we have two sets of company coming this weekend!  So I’m filling my vases with lilacs, oiling my wooden kitchen table (which right now is shining like a lake), washing towels and drying them on the line so my friends will get a little seaside air in their bath towels. And look what came in the mail . . . this darling summer banner made by my Twitter friend Janie.  It got here in the nick of time, for summer!  But since you aren’t on island time . . . and still have all the time in the world to get ready…

I asked Janie if she would make more of them for you.  It’s totally charming, but what I really love is the little envelope she hand-makes to go with these.  Such a perfect little gift.  I squealed when I opened her package and saw what she sent . . . how could I not!  If you are going anywhere this summer, here is a not-too-expensive housewarming gift anyone would love. ♥

This is what our house looks like now. Joe and I hung the flag after our walk this morning.  On the far left, there on the second floor, I open the screen and lean out that window; Joe goes to the window in the middle. ”Here, catch!” he says and throws me a corner of the flag while holding onto the rest of it.  And I catch it, just like every year, and hang the ring on the hook he put there for it.  The parade from the grammar school up the street will happen tomorrow afternoon, just as it has every Memorial Day since around 1870.  Descendants of those same kids, carrying descendants of the lilacs from that same time.  Because it’s lilac time on Martha’s Vineyard, and we will run out to watch them and clap along as they pass buy.  The kids will walk down Main Street, stopping traffic (one of those sweet small town things people get used to around here), past the bandstand to the sandy shore where the school band (which follows them down the street) plays taps with the sound of seagulls and ocean waves in the background.  The children pay respects to the generations that have fought and died in wars and throw their flowers into the sea.  A lovely old tradition.

But that will be tomorrow . . .  Today, we are getting ready to be spontaneous . . . because with company coming, we need to get ready. I’m making a few food items to have in the fridge…

A big bowl of crisp, soft, spicy, crunchy, Cauliflower and Bean Salad . . .

So pretty I had to do two photos of it!

And this Cold Lemon Rice Salad, which is so easy to make.  There are lots of spring flowers perfect for this.  If you grow pansies, they’re edible (as long as they haven’t been sprayed with anything chemical) — you could make a chiffonade from the different colored petals — like confetti. Chive flowers are in bloom too, plus the chives themselves, minced for some green color.  You can also use clover flowers, young dandelion flower petals, apple blossoms, and sweet woodruff. And, for some nice sticky protein, what is more “holiday weekend” than these . . .

I thought you might enjoy a recipe for two of my favorite chewy substantial weekend appetizers.   We’re going to be ready . . .

Our first group gets here tomorrow, so a little while ago, I went outside to gather lilacs . . .

and look who came with me — Mrs. Shy.  Girl Kitty likes to go outside and roll in the dusty driveway, but being out also makes her very nervous, so she hides in the bushes.

Meow.  He would like to go too, but if he goes then I get nervous.

And here they are the lilacs planted by the woman who owned this house from 1940 to 1980 — though she has gone to heaven, she is still making our world smell wonderful.  Thank you Mrs. Bowditch.

. . . and there’s my darling man, making the our world look wonderful . . . Thank you Mr. Hall.

And then, you know what?  The UPS man came.  He brought me this.  It came from my publisher who got it from the printer.   It’s called a “dummy.”  It’s the exact size of our book, the exact size of A FINE ROMANCE.  It has all 260 pages, but they are blank, and it has the ribbon (I got us a ribbon)!  So you can hold the book, and feel it, and ruffle the pages, and you can, if you are me . . . .

play house with it . . . by removing the blank dust jacket and putting on the one Kellee printed for me, and then laying the end papers and the first page on top of the blank pages so you can squint your eyes and pretend it’s real — it looks real, don’t you think? (I put a fireplace in the first picture on the first page, because it will be the middle of September when you get your books, and I was thinking, crisp days, leaves falling, cup of tea, new book to read . . . ♥  We’re going to be so ready!)

Also, I want to make sure you all got your lamb Bookmark – you can click on that and print it out.  So, today is a red letter day.  Everything seems right with the world, all very home sweet home. Wishing you a happy holiday weekend. XOXO

GARDEN TIP OF A GENIUS

Best Gardening Tip EVER, from the Heart of the Home! MUSICA. (a little garden music, think: swaying happy dandelions: ♥)

I’ve always liked dandelions.  I like the wishes you can make on them before blowing all the seeds into the wind.  The yellow flowers are pretty and perky — they make our lawn look like a wildflower meadow.  Wild dandelion greens and flowers, unsprayed of course, are a delicious nutritious addition to salads too.

But everything in moderation, and “wild” is the operative word.  Seems like we get more and more of them every year.  Sooner or later, those charming yellow flowers form a puff ball made up of  a zillion seeds that are dispersed, with no help from me, in the slightest breeze.  What you see in this photo is just one small part of what we are facing now!  The feathery part of the puff acts like a parachute which gently guides the seeds to the ground (heaven forbid one should crash-land) and the next year, you get MORE.  I like SOME yellow flowers in my garden, but I’m not crazy about having a lawn made up of dandelion greens with their eighty foot roots as-thick-as-carrots you can never get out.  I actually have all the dandelions I ever want.  I’ve gone out to try to collect the little furry heads before they can disperse, a terribly nasty job that I would not wish on anyone, plus it doesn’t work.  Yesterday, talking to Joe, in a moment of Morning Science, brilliance occurred!  I had to show you!  But suddenly I’m thinking that maybe everyone isn’t familiar with Morning Science, so before I tell you his brilliant idea, for those who don’t know, here’s how I described Morning Science in my AUTUMN book:

So now you know.  We are obviously not scientists, but we do like to ask questions, we’re always trying (weakly) to figure things out.  So the question of what to do with the field of dandelions came up.  And this time Joe outdid himself.  He said, “Get the dust buster.”

At first I laughed, the dust buster?  He was suggesting we vacuum the seeds right off the stems!  You can’t do that.  But then I  thought about it and went and got the dust buster.  See the stem of the dandelion leaning into it?  It wants to go in there!  I just put the tip of the vacuum next to it, and it jumped in!  Once I actually did three flowers at once!  Rather interesting don’t you think?

Voila!  I mean Voi-friggin’-LA!  Can you believe that?   De-nuded, in one fell swoop. So I went and did the entire area.

We went from this . . .

to this!  I missed a bit here and there, a few weren’t quite ready to let go, but see all the little stems?  That, plus more, took me about 10 minutes of extremely satisfying vacuuming.  Then we mowed, everything smelled like heaven, and the stems all disappeared.  Yes, we will still have plenty of dandelion leaves for our salads, but next year’s crop just got wiped out by the two geniuses and Morning Science!  Well, one genius and the other person that hangs around with him.♥  

So, there you go, garden hint of the day — I bet you never heard that one before!

Every day now something else blooms here in my Martha’s Vineyard garden.  The tulips are still going strong, and now the clematis is blooming on the picket-fence garden.  I love this plant, it’s taken a long time to get established here, but I think we finally made it.

Isn’t it romantic?  Clematis is a vine that comes in all shapes, sizes and colors.  This one is Clematis Montana, var. rubens ‘Pink Perfection.”  They like their feet (roots and bottom of plant) in the shade, and their heads in the sun.

I have to go soon.  I have a meeting at Bunch of Grapes Bookstore here on Main Street — a famous little independent bookstore here on the island —  the same store where I had my very first book signing all those years ago.  I’m going to meet with the owner and show her our book! (Excited! What shall I wear?) Kellee has printed it all out for me now, and although the pages are only printed on one side and not bound, everything is there, it looks beautiful and it gives me something good for show and tell.  But I have a quick question for you before I go:

See this?  My girlfriend sells these bracelets and the little hand-blown Venetian glass beads that go on them.  I had never seen one before but she tells me they are very popular and that many people collect the beads, which come in a huge number of colors and designs.  They collect them the same way they collect charms, when they travel, or have a life event, like a new grandchild or a graduation.  She says it’s the “new charm bracelet.”  (This is the only charm bracelet I’ve ever had … so far!)

The beads come in a sweet little box, all with different quotes — I think they would make a lovely gift.  Here’s the bead she will be selling this summer for Vineyard Haven, our town on the island. Her website is not up yet, but when it is, if you like this bead, I’ll let you know where you can get it.

They can be manufactured with any words on the side.  She thinks I should have a bead made that says Love and Kisses on one side, and Susan Branch on the other.  Or something like that.  Or all hearts.

But since I never saw them before, it’s hard for me to understand if anyone would want them?  Do you have a bracelet like this?  The beads sell for around $30, so I figured out, for a bracelet like this

It would cost around $350 for all the beads including the bracelet itself.  Of course you would gather the beads one at a time, so it wouldn’t be all at once (unless someone wanted to do it that way), you’d just get them at special times.  I really think they’re gorgeous.  And the beads aren’t all in blue — there are other colors — my girlfriend has all blue because hers are all Martha’s Vineyard beads, and with the ocean all around, the roses and green fields and trees, you can see it all reflected here.  So, my question is, have you seen them before?  Are they your cup of tea or not?  Am I the last person on the block to know about them?

So, off I go, but I will leave you with one last lovely picture … this wild-looking parrot tulip.  I was talking to my dad on the phone yesterday.  We were talking about you, and the beautiful comments you left on the Mother’s Day post (like all the others, by the way).  He was saying how NICE it is to go into the comments and read them, that when he is done, he feels like all’s right with the world.  I feel exactly the same way.  Each of the comments is meaningful, but when you put them all together, they’re even more powerful, it’s the accumulation of the love, and the connection to things that really matter. ♥ I just wanted to say thank you for making my blog such a loving, funny, thoughtful, heartfelt place to be. You are the perfect example of what’s right with the world.♥

Hopelessly devoted to you, bye for now, xoxo, me

MOTHER’S DAY 2013

Happy Mother’s Day!

One of the songs my mom used to sing around the house, perfect MUSICA for Mother’s Day. ♥

There she is now, darling little girl, in Iowa where she was born, with her Christmas doll, her two brothers, my Uncles Bob and Dick.  Honestly that sweet face you see is the one I grew up with.

She adored dolls, the second she had the chance, she got herself a real baby all her own.

Me.  Her own real live doll.  Now she could dress the baby and feed the baby (and comb the baby’s hair) and it moved and drooled and cooed.  She had her own Betsy Wetsy.  She was 17 years old.  And I was the lucky girl who got her for a mom.

That’s my Frank Sinatra-ish dad (the one you know so well, on his best behavior in this photo) holding my brother Jim — Jim came 13 months after me and became one of my very best friends, it’s his birthday tomorrow.   My mom is 18, Uncle Dick is 17, and that’s my Grandma on the right.

By now I was my mom’s partner in crime, the “other mother.”  These were “our” children.  That’s Jim and our second boy Stephen with my Uncle Dick.  The outfits, which I am sure Dick just loved, because what 21-year-old boy doesn’t want to dress like a four-year-old, were from my great-aunt Josephine.  I thought Dick looked like Elvis Presley.

This is me and brother number three, Chuckie.  I could knock on the wall of my bedroom and he would climb out of his crib and come and sleep with me.  Terrible picture of him because he was truly the cutest of them all, as you will see in the next photo.  He was over ten pounds when he was born and I think he got a little smashed.

Well, maybe not this picture, Stephen is the cutest of them all in this one, but for sure, the next one.

There he is, bottom left.  Isn’t he darling, we called him Butterball.  In addition, we now had Brad, the sweet baby at the bottom.  The little girl on the right was my Uncle Bob’s little girl, Coral.  Bob was in the Navy and was raising Coral alone, so she came to live with us while Bob was at sea.  Hey, what’s one more.  We needed a blonde.

The only time my mother could get us together (apparently) is when we were in our jammies.

Because that’s what we’re wearing in so many pictures.  By the way, now my first sister is born, Paula.  Finally a girl!  And she’s a mom now, Happy Mother’s Day Paula!

That’s Chuck, Brad and Paula in our kitchen which, if a grilled cheese sandwich could turn into a kitchen, this is the kitchen it would be.  My mom and I bathed the babies in a pink rubber basinet in this kitchen. I kissed her goodbye on my way to my Girl Scout meetings while she stood at that stove, sterilizing baby bottles. I learned my right hand from my left standing in front of the silverware drawer on the right of the sink in the back of this photo.  And for the rest of my life, when I need to figure out which is which, I have to orient myself  ”in front of the silverware drawer,” and then I know.  When I was 16 and taking my driving test, the examiner asked me to turn on the right blinker and then the left.  My mom was in the car, he was behind the car, and I panicked because I didn’t know which was which, couldn’t picture the silverware drawer and was too nervous and frantic to figure it out fast enough.  I said, “Mom, which is my right?”  She said, waaay too slowly, “Well, Sue, you know…”  That’s as far as she got, I cut her off … “MOM!” I hissed. My eyes were on fire, “TELL ME.”  She understood and told me and I passed my driver’s test.  A person needs her silverware drawer.  Is that really asking too much?

My parents would put us all in here with sleeping bags, pillows, corn flake boxes, the dog’s food, diapers, and playpen  –  and drive eight hours up to the High Sierras where we would camp in a musty smelling tent for a week in the forest, under the trees, cook our food over an open fire, hike and fish and try to lure squirrels all day.  I still remember the smell of the sleeping bags, of hot dirt and pine needles, of bacon and coffee in the morning.

Now we have another baby, my second sister, Mary.  I was lucky, for almost the whole time I lived at home, we had a new baby every two years.  It was such baby world in our house, every day, every holiday.  My sister Mary is a mom too, Happy Mother’s Day Mary!

And here is the baby-for-life, the last of the eight, my 3rd sister Shelly.  I liked to arrange special hairstyles for the girls when I gave them a bath.  She’s been my best friend from the beginning. She’s a mom too, she has twin 10-year-old boys.  Happy Mother’s Day, Shell!

You notice there aren’t a lot of pictures of my mother so far.  That’s because she was always on the other side of the camera, and we were too young to take it away from her. Here we are, looking at one of her dozens of photo albums.  What I need to do one day is to scan all her photos so I have them on the computer. So many good pictures in her books!

The tables have turned and now we take pictures of her.  This is us in Las Vegas three years ago for a family reunion and her eightieth birthday (I should really call that birthday what she called it — her seventy-tenth).  Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!

She taught us all how to dance . . . this is her with the baby-for-life.

And here we are out on a boat in Vineyard Haven Harbor — that’s Shelly, me, Mom, and Chuckie.  Joe took the picture.

There was life after children.  My mom actually wanted a baseball team when she began having children, not realizing that managing a baseball team isn’t quite the same as playing baseball.  Anyway, she was an outdoor girl, and took up tennis, and those medals around her neck were just a few of the silvers and golds she won playing in the Senior Olympics. ♥

She ran out of places to put all her trophies!  She gave me two of them, I have them here in my studio.  I’m very proud of my little mommy.

For more reasons than one.  When I grew up and could really see what all she did for us, the sacrifices she made, how non-judgemental and encouraging she was, I realized the role moms play in the world.  How important they are.  The most important job in the world.  How they do it with the tiniest things that mean everything to children, a hug, a look, a pat on the head, a kiss goodnight.  I thought it would be nice if Moms had more support.  They did what they did with no gold stars, no raises, no one to say, “GOOD JOB.”  Her gold stars were ← her children’s artwork.

I think I saw the loneliness in my mom’s face on some of the tough days when the house would fall into normal chaos, and it stayed with me.  I tried to say thank you while writing my first book, not only to her, but to all moms, to help them know that what they do, and did, really does matter.   My mom (and dad) gave me a stable childhood, something every child deserves — I think if they had it, the world would be a better place.  That’s why moms are so important.  And the more support moms everywhere get raising children, it just follows, the better our world would be.  Because no matter what the circumstances, they are capable of being shelter in a storm, just by being there.  I celebrate Mother’s Day deep in my heart, it’s another chance to tell my mom what a FABULOUS, WONDERFUL, HEAVENLY MOTHER she’s been to me. ♥

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you nurturing loving women!  What a difference you have made.  Have a wonderful weekend.   XOXO

HEALTH KICK

Here I am girls, let’s talk about how our health-kick is progressing!  Here’s some  MUSICA  to help knock off a couple of calories while chair dancing!  I happen to know for a fact it works!

I can barely type with this music playing, my hands fly off the keys … ← I just made those dots in time with the music!  These are pages from my book Girlfriends Forever – ideas I’ve accumulated over the years for living a healthy life.  I lift small weights every other day and wanted to show you some of the simple exercises I do with them to keep my upper body strong, with those little back-bone-protecting muscles so I can continue to carry shopping bags, and climb hills in the Yorkshire Dales!

P O W E R   F O O D S

Everyday we find out about food-as-almost-medicine, food that delivers a nutritional punch — crunchy vegetables, satisfying proteins, juicy fruits that are vibrant and alive and make us feel that way too.♥  Shop as close to home as possible for freshest and best of everything.

Here are a couple of my favorite “mini meals” I like to eat when I’m trying to cut back and trim down.  This first one serves two:  Prick a large organic sweet potato, the oranger the better, with a knife, rub the skin with soft butter, salt it, put it on a cookie sheet or aluminum foil (because it will drip on to your oven floor and we can’t have that), roast at 425° until done, about an hour and 15 min.  Cut it in half, mash up the potato, pepper it and enjoy.  Eat the skin too which will have caramelized in spots, making it even more delicious, filling, and it’s stuffed with healthy beta carotene antioxidants.

Another sort of one-item dinner that’s really filling and low calorie is an artichoke which you eat with your hands, giving extra satisfaction.  I get two, one for Joe, one for me.  They are good hot or cold, so cook extra if you like them.  To make them: put a large pot of water on to boil.  Wash the artichokes and trim off the tops (pointy part) of the leaves with scissors (you don’t have to do this, I just like to).  Drizzle a bit of olive oil into the tops, drop them into the water, and pour another couple of tablespoons of oil into the water.  Grind lots of fresh pepper into the water and add about a tsp. of salt.  Cover and simmer gently (about a half hour or so) until a fork pierces the stem very easily.  You can test for doneness: pull off a leaf, the little lump of meat (at the bottom of each leaf in case you’ve never made an artichoke) should come off easily when you pull on it with your teeth. When they’re done, drain them well.  Put them on a plate.  If you are a purist, squeeze over lemon juice pull off one leaf at a time, and enjoy.  If you are like me and inherently impure (I inherited it from my dad), give yourself a TBSP of mayonnaise in a little side-cup to dip the leaves in.  If this is your whole dinner, you can afford some mayo calories since there are only about 60 in the artichoke.  Some people like to dip the leaves in melted butter; I like mayo better, but try it and see what you think.  After you have eaten all the leaves and are down to the skinny feathery ones, don’t eat those.  Scrape them out of the base of the artichoke with a dinner knife.  What’s left is the heart, the most delicious of all, the reward at the end, and wonderful with a little mayo. It takes a little while to eat an artichoke giving your tummy plenty of time to realize it’s been fed, thereby ending the begging for more thing.  Always remember how important consciousness is while trying to eat healthy.  If your mind is crying out for a hot fudge sundae, just remember to say to yourself, “In ten minutes, this voice will be gone.  This too shall pass.”  And it will, just give it a minute.

That year is going to pass anyway.

I bet lots of you have one-food meal tips, foods that “get you through.”  Share please! Have you ever made my easy recipe for wholesome, soul-satisfying Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti?  It’s really good.  If you haven’t and you’d like the recipe, let me know — I’ll put it in the next post.  For you who have the Girlfriend’s Book, it’s on the page titled “Healthy Quick Cook”, page 110.  Which brings me to this . . .

Oh yes.  Good segue eh?  It’s time to give away these two books!  And I have to say, any cooking you do at home, anything you make from scratch is bound to be healthier than anything store bought.  I am sure none of you would think about putting preservatives or MSG into your food — so although the Summer Book is not a “diet” book in any way, the recipes reflect my favorite things in cooking, “easy, quick, elegant, delicious, and nutritious.”  Vanna knows this because she is the perfect example of health. Here she comes now, toddling in with her scrambled egg-white breakfast, her face smeared with a masque that looks like chocolate, and kind of smells like it too.  (Hmm, is she not telling me something?)

“Vanna, will you please draw us a winning name?  In fact, draw two, so you can get back to pampersville.”  (I hear the bubble bath water running upstairs, we wouldn’t want to hold her up.  VANNA MUSICA PLEASE.)

Into the basket filled to the brim with your names she goes, long arm reaching deep, round and round she swirls her arm, she’s stirring them up really well.  ”OK, Vanna, go for it!”  Up she comes, just halfway, she stops, she’s fishing around.  The gleam in her eye tells me she has one … she starts up again, and out of the flying slips of paper, she brings ONE NAME, the winner of the two books has landed!   “Go back down Vanna, we have another book to give away.”  Down she goes, to the very bottom, and slowly, because of her drama queen propensities, she withdraws the second name.  She hands it to me with a flourish.  OK, I have them both.  ”Bye, Vanna, thank you darling girl!  Good job!”  OK, Girlfriends, are you ready?  I said, ARE YOU READY? (Do you hate me now?)  OK, here we go.  With no further adieu, here are our winners:

For the two books, The Summer Book and Girlfriends Forever:

The Lucky Winner is:  PATTY P.

(the Patty P. who had “tichi” as part of her email address)

Everyone say: YAY FOR PATTY P!!

For my newest book, COUNTING YOUR BLESSINGS, Book of DAYS

Our fortunate girlfriend is:

Sally L’H . . . hooray for Sally!!!

CONGRATULATIONS to both of you!  You’re going to find an email in your boxes announcing you as our WINNERS.  Write me back, tell me the names you want in the books so I can sign them for you, include your addresses and they’ll go into the mail very soon.  We are so happy for you!

And for all of you who didn’t win this time, we hope for better news next go ’round!  And for you who tried to order the BLESSINGS DAY PLANNER BOOK from our web store, and couldn’t, that’s because we ran out!  So sorry, it’s always hard to gauge how many we should order, but Kellee tells me that more are on their way.  She’s going to fix it so you can order them today, but they won’t go out until we get them into the studio, which she says could be up to three weeks or so.  Oh! And I forgot to tell you — last week Kellee put up the new CALENDARS for Pre-Order … you can reserve your copies now if you like.

And now, I hope a walk in the garden on a spring day on Martha’s Vineyard will feel like a nice consolation prize.  I’m so sorry if you didn’t win.  You have no idea how hard it is to pick just one or two winners.  In our last two posts we had almost 3,000 comments!  That’s quite amazing, and does cut the chances down a bit!  Still better than the lottery.  Oh well, let’s go to the garden and drown our sorrows in flower petals.♥

You can almost hear the water rolling onto shore . . . and smell the petals blowing out of the trees.  I’m not sure you can really see the petal situation . . . so here . . .

this is how the lawn looks — just one of the many reasons to plant a flowering tree . . . so you have something to roll around in on warm spring days!

Flowering trees also make very nice wedding and baby presents . . . here’s the one we gave to our friends Laura and Charles Harris on their wedding day about ten years ago . . . her mom just emailed to me. ♥ So fun to see it!

Speaking of beauty, our pink angelique tulips are coming into bloom

Angeliques are very famous tulips and you can see why . . . just click on that link and see if you get inspired to plant some of your own next fall. They will grow in warmer climates too, but you have to keep the bulbs in the fridge for awhile so they can “winter over.”

I looked over and saw these two little people waiting for me at the door . . .

Yes, we do have deer on the island … they supposedly swam over here from the mainland. They rarely come into town, lucky for us.  This one went strolling through our yard last year.  Quite a surprise, thank goodness she didn’t stop for lunch!  Obviously a “city deer” — she looks both ways before she crosses.

Home I go through the petals.  Have a wonderful day wherever you are — be sure to try one of those easy recipes girlfriends.  And remember, our “health kick” isn’t all about being thin.  The real prizes, as I wrote above, are energy, vitality, self-confidence, strength of spirit, character, and grace.  Most of which you already have . . . and for those things and for us, I leave you with this toast . . .

Love you. xoxo, Susan

BLUEBERRY ANGEL CAKE

RABBIT RABBIT!  MUSICA.

 It’s May, it’s May, that Lusty Month of May!  Hi Girls.  I promised, if you asked, I would give you the recipe for Blueberry Angel Cake sooner rather than later, and you asked!  So, here it is!  Happy May Day!  You deserve it, you’ve been sooooo good. ♥ I have much love for you! Your comments are amazing! xoxo

Easy, wonderful cake . . . ENJOY!

In honor of May Day, I’m going to let our Giveaway (scroll down to the post just following this one if you missed it) continue a few more days, to make sure everyone has a chance to sign up.  If you already did, you don’t have to leave another comment because you are already entered, but you can if you want because Vanna is not only beautiful but smart . . . she knows to choose from only one of each comment, which means you can talk all you want.  And I thought I’d sweeten the pot just a wee bit to celebrate May!  Someone is going to win BOTH my SUMMER and GIRLFRIEND’S Books, and in addition, we’ll draw one more name, for this:

It’s my brand new (I forgot to tell you!) COUNTING OUR BLESSINGS, BOOK OF DAYS.  Kellee called me yesterday to remind me that “the Blessings Book” came in during my months in the FINE ROMANCE tunnel and I just forgot to mention it.  (Now that’s a tunnel!)

I designed this book and sent it in last year, just before we sailed away to England — another lifetime ago!

I based it on my old DAYS BOOK (which is out of print now) — so it can be used as a Journal, a Birthday Book, or a Dream Book, but since we are such Blessing Counters around here ♥, I thought it would be a wonderful place to jot down the best things of each day, what we learned, and words of wisdom, so those memories last forever, and can even be passed down to people we love.  If you’re not already entered for the other two books, just leave a comment at the bottom of this post, and we’ll draw for both prizes at the same time.

It’s the little things that make up a lifetime — we’ll take care of the minutes and the years will take care of themselves. ♥

Here’s a minute: Our tulips are in bloom!  Blessing. ✔ Check!

Not all of us are experiencing bowers of flowers right now — and washing in snow, fair maid or not, is not quite the same as “washing in dew!”  There are still snowstorms out there!  So, this is for you, all of you really, if you run to your door, you might (If I had my way) find one of these hanging on your door knob, from me to you with love, a bouquet in a wallpaper cone (from our dining room wallpaper). Such a sweet tradition, leaving garden flowers on friend’s doors. ♥ The red flower is from our quince bush, which is obviously celebrating FLORA, the Goddess of Flowers, which has nothing whatever to do with Frosty, the god of snow! Go away Frosty!

 This is what we want now!

May, Flowers, CAKE, and books, who could ask for anything more?  The tiny frosting on the cake would be if you haven’t seen the movie featuring this Musica (playing right now if you clicked on it at the top of this post), you might want to put it on your list.  FRIENDLY PERSUASION  is a wonderful sweet old movie; it will make you cry, and you know how we love that.♥  XOXOX