Moss Cottage through the trees!
Early December through the windows
Public library haul
Highly recommended for anyone who recognizes the value of unscheduled time away from the digital world. Alan Lightman is wise.
Winter version of porch life
The Secret Stairs on a recent walk!
How do I love you Lucy Barton, let me count the ways…
The smoke trees on display! One turns orange, the other one gold.
Good, but not great. Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport is a more substantive read in my opinion.
Treasures foraged on a walk!
I potted my poinsettias and will prune them back in the spring when they go bare.
A few weeks ago when I still had some leaves on the little trees in front of my window
Books glorious books!
Little houses everywhere! Lucia Leyfield’s 2 hr zoom class on timbered houses was a delight! The title is Illustrated Pop-Up Cottage, but I made mine into a model instead of a pop-up. The taller medieval houses on the left are from an Etsy store template.
I found this sturdy table on the curb. It’s my new art table for the patio. I painted it green!
Let me just scooch into this pear basket Uncle Ray sent us. I think I can fit.
Meanwhile in Santa Barbara
Time machine chronicles…
Textile treasures from Mary Stanley’s house.
A wonderful visit in Painted Cave at Mary’s art cabin in the forest! Sharron and I loved it.
Mary’s house is like a museum of cuteness. We share the same storybook sensibilities!
Mary collects Nathalie Lete art and has been to her studio in France.
Carpinteria gas station specializing in gerbera daisies!
Sunset in Painted Cave
Beautiful Mary in her kitchen nook!
This vintage crewel cottage lives in my bedroom now. It’s big! Originally from Lancaster, England.
I was lucky enough to visit Santa Barbara in November and December.
Happy New Year dearest middle-aged mammals. I haven’t posted in awhile so expect this post to be random and unhinged. Like me! As usual, I’ve tried desperately to limit the photos to an amount that is tidy, but I have failed. However if one considers I started with 100 and managed to reduce to a slim 35, that is success. Go me! Good old EXTRA me, at your service, faithful readers.
First things first. It’s 2025. Holy hellfire! I started these dispatches on a winter day when I was not middle-aged. I was a little 44 year old. And just look at me now, turning 62 in one week. I’m a senior. I’m ever grateful that you tune in to read my dispatches, that you email occasionally, leave comments, and let me know you’re out there on parallel journeys of your own. Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream. Side by side, here we go. Let’s do this.
Things I’m still doing since my last postcard:
wearing wigs, making soup (split pea with pearl barley, pork and beans, unstuffed cabbage soup with cinnamon), reading, journaling, porch sitting, patio sitting, guerilla gardening, very occasional housework, filling out mountains of retirement paperwork (5 months and 10 days to go!), napping, cat wrangling, and extended time staring into space. Also the artist in residence of faculty meetings. Have noise cancelling air pods, itunes, sketchbook, and pens keeping me sane until the very end.
Also an enormous table landed in my patio. Sent on high from the Universal Gift Distribution Center.
Lately I’m devouring books from the public library. I’ve stopped reading books on my phone using the Kindle app and have returned to the old-school version of reading. I’m taking my books with me to bed instead of Tik Tok. And if TT gets banned, I shall turn to the NYT Cooking for my soup recipes.
The ideas Alan Lightman writes about in In Praise of Wasting Time feel big and important.
Each of us once swallowed that first bite of the wired world, then the second, then we were addicted. Soon we couldn’t remember what we had lost. The situation is dire. Just as with global warming, we may already be at the point of no return. Invisibly, almost without notice, we are losing ourselves. We are creating a global machine in which we are a mindless reflexive cog, relentlessly driven by the speed, noise, and artificial urgency of the wired world.
I like the idea of creating a wild preserve within our own minds where we stay disconnected for longer and longer periods. Where we return to old forms of communication with people. Where we embrace doing nothing, being bored, still, quiet, alone with our big thoughts.
Anyway about that found table… I painted it green and it’s perfect for my new outdoor headquarters. In retirement I shall gather with friends around the table and make art messes with other middle-aged mammals on a regular basis. The details of this are sketchy and vague and taking shape in my mind.
When I was a child I loved visiting the public library. I worried about what would happen if I read all of the books. What then? When I retire I shall make weekly pilgrimages to the library (leave my phone in the car) and see what my wild mind discovers on the shelves. Last week I stumbled down a chinoiserie rabbit hole. I’m excited by the idea of so much time to explore. Work has kept me tethered on a short leash. I’m completely unable to fathom how I taught online art classes and worked at the same time. NO IDEA! Was that even me? Probably not.
I shall make gingerbread cookies at Christmas and decorate them and give them to other nearby homo sapiens.
As Cal Newport encourages in Digital Minimalism, I shall pursue high quality leisure activities in retirement. I’ll be working in my garden, sketchbook, and kitchen. Making, building, creating, connecting. I remember the freedom of following art ideas down meandering paths. These last few weeks of not working have reminded me of how much can blossom when one has the freedom and space of time. The peace of not working in a noisy chaotic environment. Of not answering questions.
Thanks for craning your necks up to follow my crazy smoke signals. For following the barely there plot of this latest missive.
May your new year feel fresh and shiny and very very large. Full of the possible. I’ll try not to splash you with my oars as I slap the water – picking up speed now as I barrel towards retirement. See you, love you, bye.
Happy New Year My Dear!!
It has been a while since I hav
e read your fabulous wording.
I have made some resolutions that I may or may not keep depending on how they feel once I try them on for size.
Past a birthday, a biggie (75)!!! Doesn’t really click because I don’t feel 75.
Much Love to you and your brood.
Happy New Year!! As someone who lives in Lancaster, UK I was delighted to see your vintage crewel needlework and am now wandering the streets wondering which home it might have hailed from! Thank for your lovely up-beat posts. They always bring a smile to my face 🙂
I love your random meanderings. Here’s hoping these last few months before retirement go swiftly. Being the Master of your own time is wonderful.
Thank you! Thank you For this wonderful missive! 🌻
I’m 88 and have been retired quite a while now – it’s wonderful! Can definitely recommend it. 😁 I’ve even given up cooking, as some kind company delivers me my meals every week which then get stored in the freezer until required. This gives me more time to knit and crochet blankets for poor people, or little amigurumi animals which l give away to little (or not so little) people while travelling on the bus. 🚌 Sometimes I doodle too, but not as well as your lovely creations.
Bye for now from hot and humid Sydney, Australia.
Tia ❤️🌻
As always, inspiring and makes me smile!
Love your hairstyle !
Happy New Year MAM!
I’m so very excited for your upcoming retirement!
And it was YOU teaching the online classes! 🙂 I know, I was there! And every single on-line class I’ve taken since is measured against all my amazing experiences in the courses you curated (and they have all come up wanting!).
Thank you, as always, for showing up as your authentic self. Always inspiring xo
Happy New Year, MAM! I would gladly scroll through 100 of your beautiful photos! Also, I love that your kitties play the “Can I fit in here?” game. Have you looked at Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman? He talks about how to do less without ending up doing nothing at all. May your next five months and 10 days fly by! Sending you love and gratitude for the beauty you bring into my life.
i am always stunned by the beauty of your photographs! thanks again for sharing your days with us!!!
Hello.
I have been creating a wild preserve of disconnect for a few weeks now. Oh, the power of the delete button on my email (not yours of course). Taking more trips to the library (my happy place since grade school) more sketching, Bible reading, relaxing, cooking healthy meals, etc.
Thank you for the lovely photos and inspiring words.
Happy birthday a week early!
P.S. What’s with cats and their fixation with squeezing into every conceivable size and shape of container?!
I love to read about your adventures! Thank you for sharing.
Some random thoughts on your post…the second photo of yellow and red leaves contrasted against green leaves and a foggy overcast sky inspire me to go straight to my watercolor box to try and recreate the moody atmosphere. I love vintage needlework. Yours makes my fingers itchy. One of my 2025 goals is to pick up my needle more often. I love buying old unused crewel kits and working them myself. Sometimes I change the color scheme to make it look less dated. Sometimes I add stitches. Whatever I fancy. Kitty looking straight at the lens has such a sweet look on his/her face. Happy New Year’s dreams of retirement. I admit that it is thoroughly glorious.
I love reading your missives and following along with your musings. Your adventures are right up my alley. Several years ago, your ROD classes got me through a very difficult time and into journaling. Thank you. Lately, I’ve been doing more studying than journaling which I also very much enjoy. I’m not able to be as active as I once was, but I’ve learned to be more patient and forgiving of myself and hopefully of others. That parts harder. Do take care of yourself. I enjoy hearing from you.
Oh boy, do I love your ‘crazy smoke trails’! I’m so thrilled for you that retirement is within view–you will relish it all! I just turned 70 two days ago and now that my almost full-time ‘job’ of helping to raise my grands is coming to a close (one off to college, one finishing HS next year), I am giddy with the sense of freedom ahead. As I was reading your post, I was nodding YES, YES, YES to so much of it. Yes to reading more books where we actually turn the pages; yes to less social media and more human in-person interactions; and YES to more art, more creativity in all areas, and just hanging out, dreaming and thinking.
I love your photos of Santa Barbara as that’s where my son and his family are. I was just there before Xmas (perhaps you two?) and am hoping that someday I might be closer. And it was great to see the photos of Sharon and Mary. I wonder if they could see me waving at them! If you ever find yourself with an empty seat at the table for another (older, but really fun) middle-age mammal, send up a smoke signal and I’ll whisk right over! Cheers and Happy New Year!
Cheers to libraries!! They have sustained me through the years. Even when we lived in rural Colorado there was the joy of the bookmobile. That was such a treasure. As were the books my Mom would “pay” me with for babysitting while she went to town for errands. Thanks for the illustrated smoke signal! Great pics! Enjoy your year as you slid into retirement.
I really love the way your mind works! This was so inspiring…been in a funk lately and am having a hard time dragging myself out to do anything. Thank you for shining a light! As always your photos are delightful and your heart shines through. Thank you for being you and Happy New Year!
AT 83 I AM done rambling and just on the banana peel. Will see where it goes. Always enjoy your missives! Mary
Wishing you the best in 2025. Your letters always make me smile and ponder how I look at things. I love your books recs, humor, art. Thanks for you!
Rowing right with you. I am the one in the strip pajamas on your right. Years older than you and several months behind you in retirement. Yes, I look forward to no lesson plans, committee work and for sure no faculty meetings. I have had it with faculty meetings. I too will garden, decorate my cottage and spend a couple of months in Paris every year. Maybe you can come for a visit?
So many happy thoughts to you in this new year and as always thank-you for your posts. Helen in Durham, NC.
I love the way you turn a phrase! Perhaps writing is something you should consider doing In retirement.
“I’ll try not to splash you with my oars as I slap the water – picking up speed now as I barrel towards retirement.” lol! I love it. Having been retired for 20+ years from being a hospital nurse, I wonder how I ever created and made anything while I worked full-time and raised a family. I’m sure others have said this to you, but the problem with retirement is you tend to put things off because you feel like you have unlimited time every day. Therefore, sometimes you don’t get anything done. Which also can be OK. Either way I am excited for you! Hugs from Kentucky, Laura.
Wonderful and refreshing, MAM! Sending love from Denver.
Sheila
M.A.M.
Thanks for this post! I think I’ve been with you from nearly the beginning. I pulled the plug on working for others in my early 50s…and HO, HO, HO! The universe pulled trick after trick to suck me into various other things needing my time and creativity. Now finally I am doing only what I want to do and it includes many, many other people and activities…however, I am writing. I am drawing. I am making art journals. I LOVE MY LIFE! Thanks for being a part of my life that motivates and inspires me to pursue happiness. Thanks, thanks, thanks!
Thanks so much for touching base. Lovely to hear how you’re doing! And thanks for the book recs. Looking forward to reading about unplugging and slow productivity. If you haven’t read Ina Garten’s memoir I recommend it. Amazing how many times she reinvented herself!
So good Mary Anne
Happy New Year, MAM! Very glad to see your post today. Back at work after being off since the 24th. It’s very quiet here. I think I’ll eat a clementine.
Thank you for this post and all the photos. I loved everything!
Happy New Year. I love reading your posts. I have been a reader since 2009 and loved taking your classes. Remains of the day is still a favorite class. I have made many journals based on it. I will be trying my best this year to be a digital minimalist. I want to pair down where all I post and so my blog and Youtube will be where I am most of the time. Social media has kind of sucked the life out of my art practice and feeling like everything I create has to be post worthy instead of just doing it for the fun of it. Thanks for sharing your ramblings with us.
Mary Ann I always enjoy your blog posts. You’re going to love being retired with more time to pursue all of your passions. Last year I went through the Master Gardeners program in Orange County, LA has a program as well. It’s the best thing I’ve done for myself in a very long time. Gardening, volunteering, spending time with like minded people and moving away from the digital world… all good stuff to my way of thinking. Happy New Year, let’s make it a good one!
Happy new year from my own little rowboat, and thank you for another beautiful, inspiring dispatch. I just retired last week(!), but I think it will take months of decompression before the reality of my new situation truly sinks in. My only immediate goal is to undo many years of intense work-related stress (which I should have been doing all along, but OH WELL) and then I plan to become a professional-grade putterer. I want to putter in my kitchen, in my art room, in my garden, in my neighborhood, and in my brain. This latest dispatch of yours could not have been more timely, and I’m deeply grateful to you for continuing to share the goodness with those of us who are rowing our own little boats in the same big pond.
The best part of retired puttering (for me) is being able to putter in 4-5 different locations all within the span of one day. Pull a few weeds, slop a little paint, pull out stuff for a meal later, go back to see if the paint is dry, remember you forgot to put the frozen chicken in a bowl of water to thaw, get distracted by the cookie jar, peer out the window and notice the bird feeder is empty, get inspired to glue the acorn tops on the acorns you gathered while feeding the birds and on and on and on. It’s just the best.
Dearest MAM – oh How I admire your new ambitions!
I’ll be 59 this year. Retirement is increasingly creeping into my daily thoughts and thus, research is is well underway. I’m amazed at how many people retirees say retirement is boring.
😳 who are these people? I can’t imagine anything more delightful than having nothing to do.
So, so, so very happy for you! As always Thank you for letting us be voyagers on your life ship.
I always love reading your delightful dispatches . You are adorably cool and a breath of fresh air. Happy 2025
i love your emails. so interesting and formative. they’re a breath of fresh air and always food for thought and challenges me to change things in my life. thank you!
Happy 2025 from your friend in Atlanta! I too am on winter break and am basking in the open air of free time👏 thank you for feeding my soul with your post… the one thing I will say about technology is that it brings you to me in a meaningful way …. Kind of like a well loved book with sequels 😉
Love reading your dispatch. I love books too…art books and sketchbooks! Happy New Year! Hope your last 5 months of teaching are enjoyable. I miss my early years of teaching in Australia, but not the last few years where we were expected to conduct more testing and teach less. So much admin and paperwork. I retired some years ago to take care of my parents and disabled adult child. Look forward to seeing how your year pans out!
Cheers!
Kaz
I love the way you express yourself! Lovely photos. I’ve just returned from a week in the UK… haven’t been since I was in my late 20’s. Lovely as ever. Dog heaven. I digress. Keep posting, creating, sharing. You could write a great book about your travels! Happy New Year! Eileen in CT
I have been here since the very beginning. I was but a wee one myself at 36 reading your posts in a storage room office in Florida as I embarked on my 2nd career in public education as a technology assistant. Fast forward and I now captain a ship of 24 sixth graders in the mountains of NC teaching them how to read and write. Please continue sending your inspiring dispatches into the world. You will no doubt show me the path forward into what retirement can look like.
I love reading your bits and pieces of day to day life and looking at all the photos. I would much rather read a real book and love our public library. You will have a wonderful retirement and I am looking forward to readingg all about it!!
Very excited for you! I’m a decade ahead and still figuring it all out and I need to read that book about disconnecting from the devices ( as I sit here and read you on my computer LOL) I have gotten an old…from the mid-90’s hand quilted project out of the UFO pile and mean to get it finished this year- all hand pieced and will be hand quilted. My word of the year is Finish…as it has been for 3 years now…
It’s an interesting feeling having most of your life behind you and less in front, that is if I live into my 90’s
Happy New Year Mary Ann!!!!!
Love all the photos and love the reminder to keep disconnecting in order to reconnect to our true selves in a way that is soul-feeding and not soul-sucking!!!!
Would love to see that table with it’s new coat of green 🙂
Sending love from the valley on the other coast!!!
Debbie
Hi lady, so glad to read you again.
I too am addicted to the inter webs but my art keeps me away at times. Since my retirement I watch Arty folk on You Tube to learn new arty things. I now write in a book all about the activity I am learning so I don’t forget. Today the subject was creating Master Boards from the too many scraps of paper I have. So later I can add them to my junk journals that I am working on. It is a fun activity for sure!
I hope this 5 months and 10 days do not drag for you. I wish you speedy dreams of leaving the working life and entering into the “I don’t have to, so there life!”
Lots of holidays during the spring semester, at least one a month AND she gets spring break!
SO glad you still make time for a dispatch occasionally. I am one of the screen addicted but it’s dawning on me that it’s a greedy companion who will consume my every waking moment and leave me with nothing in return. I, too am returning to physical books and written notes and letters.
Yes, you really did teach online classes and ROD was truly life changing for me. Thank you! Retirement is still 4.5 yrs away for me and I don’t know if I can stick it out so I just keep plodding forward and try to stay optimistic. Cheering you on as you approach The Big Finish!
Hello MaryAnn of Moss cottage,
Thank you for your meanderings. I look forward to them.
Happy New Year to you, may the 5 months be a blur. Cheers, K