Happy New Year!

“‘Dear old world,’ she murmured, ‘you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you.’” —L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables. Wishing 2019 brings you everything bright & fresh, new & shiny, delightful & joyful, dreamy & fantastic, adventurous & playful, simple & sweet, lovely & loving, colorful & tasty & sumptuous,…

Letting the outside in. Or taking the inside out.

I caught this photo while sitting in the loft of Brian’s art studio. My daughter doesn’t like it because she feels like I look like a ghost. I suppose there is a spirit-y quality to it, maybe a bit haunting, but I like it because I’m a part of the apple orchard and the hillside…

Dehydrating plums.

And so it begins: Fruit harvest, starting with our giant bowl of Italian plums. I had helpers today in my sunny perch above the garden—plus a visit with a neighbor, Spanish guitar music soaking the kitchen in its light, happy melody, and the certain feeling that all is well in the world.

Cleaning house. {A tale told with many pauses and deep breaths.}

Telling this simple story of “cleaning house” really requires much more than just a few photos. And you’ll still never understand the depth of this effort. Really, you won’t. After 22 years together, Brian and I have lived in a lot of houses. So when I tell friends that I spent the majority of my…

Photo Diary: Buckets and Buckets and Buckets of Life.

Everything around us is bursting with burgeoning, blossoming, gorgeous, incredible, inspiring, life-giving, life-supporting, life-affirming, nature-built pieces of art. From the blackberry blossoms to the clusters of Italian plums to the Braeburn and heirloom and Fuji and Transparent apples and Bosc pears to the greens and peppers and tomato blossoms, to the first fire-orange nasturtiums, and…

Riding the tractor with dad.

  Brian mowed the lawn this weekend, and I spent the morning mowing the far reaches of our property earlier this week. It’s been forever since we mowed the whole place, and I had an epiphany about the crazy joy of wandering through dappled grass and carving out play space and trails and platforms for…

So, you want to move to an island?

Do you sometimes dream of moving to rolling green hills in the country? Or to a small, perfect cabin by the sea? Maybe, like we did, you want to make the leap to a different life in a place you only dare to dream about because dreams are just for dreaming, right? Where do you…

Buckets of wild beauty.

I have been silent over here. I know. I’ve just been posting little piddly Facebook things here and there and I have been missing my time writing in my little writing studio and connecting with all of you. I am finally back at it, but that doesn’t mean we were silent over here. We’ve had…

Old farmy things.

Things are happening in our house. Good things. We’re finishing our kitchen. We have fancy new accouterments like kitchen trim and wainscoting and columns and–voila!–a kitchen island that is anchored in one place instead of scooting around the room if you bump into it. Soon we’ll have shelves to put our drinking glasses and dinnerware….