cupcakes

bonfires & birch trees

Whirlwinds! Running all over and packing and getting ready to move into a new wee house with the Professor! (Who really needs a new nom de blog, by the by. He’s not really a Professor!) Very exciting and very scary too! Shhh! But, life is going faster than blogging is possible, so I have a backlog of moments I want to treasure and remember and document. First, before tiny moments start slipping away: Vermont.

This seemed like the fastest trip ever, even though we had 6 days. Dark nights curled up in the tiny cabin – the first time sleeping in it.  I love it more than anything. Wrapped tight in creamy flannel sheets drinking hot spiced wine, reading by candlelight, watching the most gorgeous low hunter’s moon rise over the skeleton treetops, hearing the brook burble all night, pheasants in the underbrush, endless kissing of babies, family time and love love love. So good and coming back to Oakland was just not right! I want to go back now! Rawr!

leaves2This is in front of the 1800s stone foundation on my land. There used to be a lot of old houses on this road, but now it’s a dead end and all tiny camps.

leavesfirebirchtipiMy 5 year old nephew decided he needed a tipi. Look at that winter sun – it was pretty dang cold.

Cabin! I didn’t do ANYTHING I wanted to this trip – no painting, no finishing, nothing. So interior windows still need finishing, the walls need to be whitewashed, I need a woodstove (oh, I really really do, brrrrr!) and furniture! It will all have to happen in May. Slowest cabin building, ever.

bedHis shoes, my shoes. The edge of the bed, in the loft. Seriously, I could just stay in this bed for days and days.

ladderLadder to the loft.

bed2chairThese ice cream parlour chairs were still at the antique store, so I got them. Now I need a wee table!

windowThrifted claw bottle.

timeTime to eat! I worked at this diner when I was 16, very briefly. It’s now all local, all organic, totally amazing.dinerdiner2milkshake

And on the subject of deliciousness, I leave you with…cupcakes! My mama is the best baker ever. Yum, carrot cake. How can I live 3000 miles from this, I ask you!?cupcakes

18 Comments

  1. it looks wonderful, so cosy, (a woodburner does sound like a logical step though), how lucky to have this little kingdom all of your very own. and that diner looks and sounds delicious.

    1. Nath: I had a little gas heater, which made it cozy – I did find the perfect used woodstove in the classifieds, but they never called me back! The search continues.

  2. oh, tamera, this actually brought a little tear to my eye (sshhh!), i’m so happy for you. everything about this is so magical and perfect that it makes me want to get away from the city even more. suddenly malts are so much more appealing to me in ball jars!
    i feel i should come up with a little housewarming gift for your cabin. it is really such a wonderful home.

  3. wow the cabin looks wonderful so far! sounds like you had quite a nice, relaxing trip :)
    totally loving the chocolate shakes in the old mason jars and your sweater vest!

  4. oh, sigh.
    everything looks and sounds just so perfectly cosy and lovely! i have daydreams about those kinds of cabin days all the time. i hope you get to live your dream soon!

  5. this was one of the first things i saw on the internets right before bed last night after a weekend of sick and yuck and recovery. i had to call the boy over to the computer to show him and also tell him we’re going to vermont one day. at least for three million visits. !!!!!

      1. oh! depends what time in may? the 17th is my birthday and the family back home will be expecting a visit around then. maybe i could squeeze in some vermont time too? i have to check when my passport expires also!

  6. Ha! I just saw that purple claw bottle in a free box on Saturday morning…picked it up, thought about having it myself, then who else might like it, then realized nobody I know needs another pretty-sitting-around-thing. So I put it back in the box and walked away. Weird thrift/free coincidence.

  7. Oh I do love your cottage posts! It was the perfect thing to read up on while sick in bed. Darn these icky colds that are making their way around. It made me ache to have cool weather (Florida is still making it to 80 degrees in the day) and trample through leafy woods!

    I love love love your magical posts.

  8. Ach! I am just seeing this now – I came back to re-read your writing for Janna, and try and summon the whirlwind into words to comfort – but is gone! So I found this, and it made my heart feel like a snowflake dipped in cocoa. So amazing. You better build a loft on top of the loft for me, because I’m moving in! Don’t whitewash, aaah! The wood is soooo pretty. Take me to diner, to teepee, to winter sun fires, to flannel sheets, to antique stores, to hills. Hearthome!

  9. I am very much a “living in the big busy city” person but reading through this entry, and catching up on recent entries, including those re your new little home, well, it all made me long for a quieter life in a cozy place with four solid seasonal changes in a year and lots of nature surrounding me. I know this is just a longing, perhaps a romanticizing of the concept, because I’ve known myself to go positively stir-crazy even after a weekend vacation in cozy quiet places. Yet, it is still a pleasure to experience those stirrings. I love reading posts and seeing pictures that nudge these stirrings into being. Thank you for the lovely inspiration!

    Who knows? Couldn’t it be possible that one day I will actually transport myself into the coozy/quiet lifestyle – and love it? Time holds the answer to that one, I suppose.

    1. I thought I was too – and when I tried to move from SF to Vermont in 2006, it didn’t stick, I went stir crazy! But SF annoys the hell out of me now after 13 years, it’s more like a small town than a city – Philadelphia got the same after 3 years of living there. Ideally I’d live in NYC or maybe Montreal? and stay in Vermont a lot. Or win the lottery and go from city to country on a whim. My new place is in Berkeley so it’s not really quiet either, but at least it’s a whole house without hearing neighbors, for the first time ever!!! I feel very lucky to have my little Vermont escape!

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