by Susan | Feb 4, 2013 | Family, On My Mind
Tonight was bittersweet. Junior High basketball season (dubbed the craziest season of all) is all but over. The girls played (and won) their last regular season game at home tonight. The eighth-grade players (all three of them) presented their mothers with flowers. A...
by Susan | Feb 2, 2013 | On My Mind
The last time I went ice skating I was a freshman in high school in Fairfax, Virginia. On Friday nights our parents would carpool the group of us girls to the rink where we’d make the circuit, gossiping and scoping out the boys. I did pretty good on the skates...
by Susan | Feb 2, 2013 | On My Mind
It’s a little known fact that I was born in Punxsutawny, Pennsylvania, home to my paternal grandparents and where my father was raised. Growing up the daughter of an Army officer, we moved every 1-3 years for much of my childhood. Most vacations were spent...
by Susan | Jan 12, 2013 | On My Mind
This is the view out my office door at the house. With warmer temps more than two feet of snow and ice came crashing down off of our steel roof the other night. The noise was so loud it woke us out of a sound sleep, our hearts racing as we realized what had happened....
by Susan | Jan 7, 2013 | On My Mind
My addiction to felt birds started this time last year. At loose ends after the holidays, I sat down with my computer and created the Chickadee. Over the course of 2012, my felt flock grew to 41 birds. The patterns started with birds common to the farm and coastal...
by Susan | Jan 3, 2013 | On My Mind
Enough said. Hope you’re staying warm!
by Susan | Dec 31, 2012 | On My Mind
The view at 6:30 a.m. was so beautiful I couldn’t help but stop to take a picture of the setting moon. A fitting way to say farewell to 2012.
by Susan | Dec 27, 2012 | Family, On My Mind
This is my latest favorite picture of Hannah. She’s snuggling Purfessor Snape (aka Boo). For Christmas I gave her a framed copy of this for her room. Snape is her best friend and Hannah is his human. He guards her. At night he’s parked on the foot of her...
by Susan | Dec 25, 2012 | Family, On My Mind
Christmas 2012. Not a child, not quite grown up, she finds great joy in the day. It’s not about what’s under the Christmas tree for Hannah. It’s about us all being able to share the day together. It’s the planning, the preparation, the making...
by Susan | Dec 24, 2012 | Family, On My Mind
My great, great aunt, Elizabeth Stroble, created this beautiful linoleum block print when she was an art teacher at Central High School in St.Paul, Minnesota. Carved with the help of her students, she sent these to family and friends as her Christmas card. Wishing you...
by Susan | Dec 22, 2012 | On My Mind
Written on the 21st with pen and paper – posted online at the library. It’s December 21st, the Winter Solstice, and I sit here writing this post by candle light. The wind outside is roaring like a freight train and rain is pounding on the roof. We lost...
by Susan | Dec 20, 2012 | Critters, On My Mind
Purfessor Snape slinks into the dog’s bed when she isn’t looking. What do you think? Naughty or nice?
by Susan | Dec 16, 2012 | Family, On My Mind
I spent much of the weekend cleaning and pulling out Christmas decorations. This wooden Santa face Mom gave me is perfect for one of our porch posts. I made a garland to frame my grandmother’s mirror using White Pine brush that Hannah gathered for me. An old...
by Susan | Dec 11, 2012 | Family, On My Mind
A basketball game day, all of the players have to dress up (i.e., no jeans and jogging shoes). As I watched Hannah get ready, it struck me like a bolt of lightning that my little girl is growing up. From the borrowed scarf to dress up? a t-shirt to the tiny brush of...
by Susan | Dec 7, 2012 | On My Mind
Last year when our chickens started laying, we quickly realized that a dozen hens lay enough eggs in one day to last us almost a week. We started selling extra eggs to friends and neighbors who appreciated farm fresh eggs. One week, overrun with eggs, Paul called the...
by Susan | Dec 5, 2012 | Family, On My Mind
It’s junior high basketball season. That means between two jobs, and now with basketball pick ups, drop offs, and scheduling in games, I have entered the craziest season of the year. No, it’s not the holiday season – it’s basketball season. I...
by Susan | Nov 27, 2012 | On My Mind
Hannah enjoyed the mild temps over the holiday weekend making Christmas wreaths. In the spirit of the swags she made for the porch posts, she made these elegantly simple nature inspire wreaths to hang underneath the windows. Downeast Maine is a region where many...
by Susan | Nov 22, 2012 | On My Mind
Wishing you and your family a safe and happy Thanksgiving day!
by Susan | Nov 19, 2012 | On My Mind
I have been creating these little bird felt ornaments for almost a year now. This hobby started when I made ornaments for Christmas gifts last year using patterns I found online. Not until I turned the Downeast Thunder Farm blog owls into ornaments did it occur to me...
by Susan | Nov 17, 2012 | On My Mind
Each of our five porch posts now bears one of these pretty balsam fir swags Hannah created. Hand-crafted, she decorated them with things she found in our woods – pine cones, white pine branches, and ribbons of birch bark finished off with a raffia bow. I’m...
