Hi there friends. How are you? What a strange time we all find ourselves in! Across the globe we are all settling in at home, trying to stop a virus and protect our community and those we love. It is a strange thing to be doing, to be hibernating just as spring breaks forth in many parts of the world. My garden is starting to wake up, and I just planted cabbage in the cottage garden yesterday afternoon. I look out my windows, and I see solitary figures out for a walk, and I try to head out my self with the dog, so we can get a bit of exercise.

I’ve been busy with the never ending laundry and trying to keep the house in some semblance of order. But I’ve also taken some time to paint, and that’s been wonderful. I’ve also got enough books in this house (and the studio) to keep everyone reading for, well, years…..it’s just the question of when we’ll all ever see toilet paper again, lol, but luckily we are well stocked with food and things like that. And yarn….I’ve got plenty of yarn 😉

Earlier this week on instagram I shared a link to my blog series “Summer in New England” where I share photos and visits to several amazing historic sites in New England. Consider it a virtual summer tour of old timey-ness. I thought you might like to read it to, so you can find the tour HERE.

This whole strange ordeal also has me thinking back to last spring, when my town was hit by a tornado. We were awakened at about midnight that late May evening, and trundled sleepily down to the basement to wait for the sirens to end. When we came back up, I can remember looking out the window at a dark, rain-lashed night waiting for lightening flashes so I could see the damage….and outside the very window I was looking out we discovered two huge, 100+ year old trees had fallen over from the roots, and lay sideways in the street (thankfully, NOT on our house, which had had an exterior paint renovation just the month before!)

What followed next were strange days of no power, including no air conditioning in the sweltering heat that followed, and just standing out in our yard looking at complete devastation that we were incapable of tackling ourselves. In those early days, we were completely reliant on the kindness of strangers, and to family and a couple of friends who managed to get into our war zone town to help us cut and haul debris. Outside our town, life went on, and people not directly effected by the storm seemed to care little about our plight. It was at that time that I realized how meaningless a facebook ‘sad face emoji’ is, and how important real contact is, even if it was just a text to say ‘how are you? I’m thinking of you’ really is.

After living through that situation, I find myself so very grateful this time around– we are all literally all in this together, across the globe, and we all have electricity, heat and air, internet connection, and there is NO big mess to clean up! I am so thankful there aren’t dozens upon dozens of trailers of debris to cut, stack and haul because of this. All we have to do is keep calm, carry on, stay inside, and wait this out.

And so where ever you are, I am thinking of you. I am wishing you well and as we take this one day at a time, we are also getting one day closer to being together again. I have no doubt that we will overcome this virus and that we will put our communities back together again. And, hopefully, when we all come together again, we will do it with a newfound appreciation for each other and knowledge of what is really important.

So far, we are all well here in my home. We are taking things one day at a time, and that’s all we can all really do. In the meantime, we are now in the season of spring and we get closer to sunny days, flowers blooming, birds singing, and the celebration of Easter.

Well, I will sign off for now. I hope you are well. My etsy shop is still open if you need anything folksy! There are still a few calendars left as well, and they are marked down at a discount.

Take care of yourself, and in these strange moments let’s all try to–

Take Joy!~

H