Wind in the cave:
Movement in stillness.
Power in silence.
Deng Ming Dao

Joy ~ a deep, internal, and lasting sense of well-being, contentment, and purpose that transcends temporary happiness.

I haven’t chosen a word in a number of years mostly because I don’t want to define myself with a just word over the year. This one word however just kept jumping out at me over and over these last few weeks. While I am still not going to define myself with a word, I thought that I would tuck this one word under my wing (if I had a wing that is..ha!)

Thinking about this word made me remember this book that I was gifted at my first Book Club Christmas zoom gathering. I have been a part of this book club since Covid and it gives me great Joy to meet with like minded friends once a month and discover new books that I might never have chosen for myself to read.
I will be diving into this book after I finish this month’s book club read.

And finally this past weekend, we headed up to Vermont to visit my daughter’s family and to deliver a mattress for my little June’s new big bed. Normally we stay with Ashley, but her husband has had to take over the guest bedroom for his new job, so this we stayed in at a nice hotel in Burlington.
This is what greeted me when we checked in.

~ 2026 Embracing Joy ~

Who doesn’t love bread?
During Covid, like everyone else I decided to learn how to build a sourdough starter and make beautiful loaves of bread. Well, that was the thought anyways. I bought 50 pounds of bread flour, all purpose flour and whole wheat flour. I bought big bins to keep in my kitchen while I jumped in with both feet (and hands). There were SO many fails! Whaat? I used to make such beautiful yeasted breads, however this was not the case with sourdough at all.

Ey yi yi, no one ever told me about the HUGE learning curve there was to creating beautiful sourdough bread. Sourdough is a finicky girl until you get to know her…and it takes a LONG time to get to know her. The starter, the bulk fermentation, the proofing, the scoring, etc.,etc. I am 5 years in now and am finally getting to the point where I am getting good consistent results that I can count on.

Thankfully the internet with all of its flaws gives us so many opportunities to learn and I have learned from some wonderful bakers on Instagram and the links that they have shared. When my brain isn’t so tired, the next time I bake bread, I will share some of the links that really helped me along the way.

Why is my brain tired you may ask? I feel like I am on that same HUGE learning curve again learning how to use WordPress for blogging. I am so thankful that I was able to find a method to preserve the 20 plus years of blog posts from when I first started. Finding a program that I know is going to be so much easier in the long run with WordPress has helped me to become excited about sharing my small corner of the world again with you. I’m not going to lie though, the brain drain learning the ins and outs has been huge..LOL.

Thank you for hanging in there with me all these years and hopefully many more years to come!

Last August I did the one yearly yarn show that I still do these days. It’s called “Fiber Revival” and it’s held in Newbury, Massachusetts. In addition to the yarn sales, there is an old time baseball game, a beer truck and the beautiful fields of the Spence-Peirce-Little Farm. The weather is usually amazing and it’s a fun time to meet with old friends!

When I was dyeing up all of the yarn to bring with me, I tried a few new colors together…”playing in the depot”. It’s always a surprise because the colors do not always come out as I envisioned they would but a lot of times I end up loving them. This was the case with the color of the yarn on my needles. It made me think of the little cinnamon hearts that we used to eat when I was much younger, so I tucked a few skeins away for myself.

Recently the sweet Robin Red sock pattern came across my Instagram feed and I immediately thought of those Cinnamon Heart skeins of yarn I had set aside, cast the yarn on my needles and I am loving how it’s working up. The pattern is easy to follow along with and I can see a pair on my feet soon!

Right after we came home from Hannah’s wedding, (I’ll share pictures when they come in), we headed out to Western Massachusetts to visit a friend’s farm. Originally I met Barb as a fellow fiber vender at the various yarn shows that I did and we have kept in touch somewhat through FB. Barb is incredibly talented and her yarns and fiber were always top notch, coming from the beautiful Corriedale sheep that she raised.

Like the rest of us as we have gotten older, Barb started looking at different ways to keep her farm producing as working with animals and wool is hard on your body (this I know for sure!) She decided to grow flowers and in particular Dahlia’s, along with other various types of flowers. She is also teaching different classes in the studio she has across from the fields. Her fields of flowers are breath-taking.

How beautiful they are!!

We also were able to meet her three little rescue donkeys, such as treat! Mom is 27 along with her 2 daughters who are 25 and 21 and have lived on the farm now for a number of years. What sweet girls they all are! We had a great time listening to swing music, sipping wine, enjoying the beautiful scenery and spending time with friends. Thanks Barb!

Tomorrow we are off to visit nearby Historic Deerfield.
(please bear with me as I learn this new blogging software..ey yi yi!)

Life has a way of changing on a dime at times doesn’t it? On August 26th we had to say goodbye to our last living dog. Gypsy had a wonderful long life, passing at the age of 17 1/2, but it was hard to let go all the same.
I have had Cavaliers for 30 years and many of those years I not only bred Cavaliers, I showed them as well. I also worked for the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club,USA as the National Registration Supervisor for 12 years. My signature was on the pedigrees of all the dogs registered in those years.

I’m not ready for another dog just yet. It will probably be a few years but I can’t imagine life with a dog by my side.

I also received notice that Typepad, the blogging platform that I had used for 24 years was shutting down that same week. Snap!! They gave us a month to figure out how to export all of the data and hopefully all of the pictures. The data part was easy….the pictures, not so much until a friend of mine mentioned a website called “Save my blog”. It was a little pricey not knowing if it was going to work, but “voila” it worked!!

I moved everything here to WordPress. Learning a new platform is going to take time, but I have the bones of a new blog to start with and I am very much looking to moving away from Social Media platforms and spending more time both writing and also reconnecting with the few friends who still blog and hopefully meet some new friends.

Thank you to all of my friends who have stuck by my blog for the better part of 24 years and here’s to 24 more!