“When something fits you, there’s no reason to consult the mirror.  You only need to look in the mirror when something does not fit.” –The Hermit of Hermit Hollow  Greetings Dear Ones! It’s still warm and bright out at the end of a work day in the shop--plenty of time to garden, exclaim over the beauty of the jonquils in bloom, roam the shipwreck of winter sticks strewn about the pastures and survey downed limbs and trees that need to be dragged up to the logging station by the blueberry patch and butchered into tidy packages to stack and serve as meals for the belly of the wood stov ..read more

Greetings Dear Ones! Well, it’s been a busy couple a weeks in Vermont!  Since I last wrote, we’ve had another Nor’ Easter dump a foot of snow, New England had a 4.8 earth quake, and there was this Thing happening with the moon… (Perhaps you have heard about it?) Oh, and Prom Season has started!  With five encrusted gowns on the rack, that slow choking death Death By Glitter—for sewing machines, vacuum cleaners, and seamstresses alike—has begun. Everyone I know has been having Company. For a region with a strong streak of Hermit in it, it’s been an exciting and exhausting challenge.&n ..read more

You can’t have your cake and eat it too!—English Proverb Greetings Dear Ones! I’m getting a late start on the blog because I had to rush to town early to gather enough handwork from the shop to keep me going through this storm.  (Apparently, Yester-Nancy thought it would be Sunshine ever more and didn’t plan ahead.) These “April Showers” are bringing a wintry mix of snow and hail, sleet and sheets of water like the Big Dog in the sky is shaking his fur after a trip through the garden hose.  And later, to cap it all, there might be as much as fourteen inches of let’s-wreck-the-drivewa ..read more

“In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.” Do it Anyway —Mother Theresa Greetings Dear Ones! Normally, if I want to embrace Humility, I just sit down with my fiddle and attempt to play tunes in the key of F major without actually knowing ahead of time that they are in F major.  But this week I have had a variety of other ways to supplement my spiritual growth.  Humility—that which returns us to the hummus—(you know, that yummy stuff made of chick peas, tahini, and guilt) or maybe Latin for “earth.”  It’s a return to the ground ..read more

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else. –Margaret Mead Happy Equinox Dear Ones! Yay! Let there be more light!! Whew!  I’m not quite sure what happened.  One moment I was unwrapping a brand new, perfectly good, fresh-out-of-the-box February.  The next thing I know, it’s in hundred pieces I still need to clean up and March has already left without me.  Usually February is one of the longest little months of the year but this time, even with an extra day, it shot by faster than poop through a goose.  February’s menu mostly consists of the ..read more

In the bleak midwinter/Frosty wind made moan Earth stood hard as iron/Water like a stone Snow had fallen/Snow on snow on snow In the bleak midwinter/Long, long ago Greetings Dear Ones Ordinarily, there is nothing I like quite so much as a Bleak Mid-Winter.  That carol, “in the bleak mid-winter….” often plays in my head as I trudge the grey and bluish circles to the barn and shop.  I confess it soothes my inner hermitess to have snow days and be cut off from civilization and be “forced” to sit by the fire with a good book, a new fiddle tune, or some yarn. The subtle luxuries of ‘snow ..read more

O wad some Power the giftie gie us/ Tae see oursels as ithers see us!/ It would frae mony a blunder free us,/ An’ foolish notion:/ What airs and dress an’ gait wad lea’e us,/ An’ ev’n devotion! —Robert Burns Greetings Dear Ones! Winter has had us in its teeth, here in Vermont, but only the way a toddler who’d rather eat candy than broccoli does.  The frosty bites are half-hearted and given to unwelcome melt-downs.  Last week was the first particularly cold snap that made me put on some proper gloves.  When I smashed the ice out of the water buckets in the barn, I thought we were ..read more

“The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.” Mark Twain Greetings Dear Ones! I woke up with a familiar little toothache in my hand this morning.  I lay and listened to the drumming of rain on the tin roof above me and the whispered complaints of the hand as it stroked the head of the tiny dog snoring next to me. “We did too much knitting last night,” says the hand. “Two complete hats and three rows of the lace edge on a shawl was utterly gluttonous. When will this end? That’s all we seem to do every night now…except for when you are plungi ..read more

“There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.” –Jane Austen Greetings Dear Ones! Congratulations!!! On December 31st at precisely 12 o’clock midnight, we were all safely delivered of a Baby New Year! Is it a Boy? A Girl? Who knows what its “pronouns” are bound to be? (I’m hoping for “We, Ours, Us”!)  According to the Chinese, it’s going to be a Dragon.  This is Good and Magical and Dangerous news.  I’ve known a dragon or two personally and they are very nice until the moment they pass gas and sneeze at the same time and accidentally burn down your entire village.  ..read more

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.” –Milton, Paradise Lost Season’s Greetings Dear Ones! The Solstice is TOMORROW!! Woo hoo!  Those of us in the Northern hemisphere munching vitamin D3 and clinging to OTT lamps will begin our return to sanity tomorrow. “Tomorrow…Tomorrow…I love you, Tomorrow…you’re only a day away…” chortles my inner orphan Annie.  We’ve reached the outer limit of our orbit and begin the swing back tomorrow! In my woodstove, staves of wood are bursting into flames reminiscent of the sunlight that once fed them. The lo ..read more