I just received an e-mail from my book editor and noticed her tagline had a quote from C.S. Lewis: “We read to know we are not alone.”
For sure, but if you think about it, prior to that, we write to know we are not alone. When we write, we’re talking to someone, right? A letter is specifically TO someone, but a blog, manifesto, book, graffiti? Writing. Writing with the desire to connect. Even some of the highest profile anti-social people like the Unabomber weren’t really anti-social. He wrote. To you. To me. To anyone who would listen. Yes, he wrote with deadly anger, but he wanted us to know him. He craved witness to his life, his beliefs. If a person can’t engage someone in love, do they attempt to engage them in anger? As long as they’re still wanting to engage, can it be changed to love? Here’s a Newsroom piece we published in our magazine 10 years ago. With today’s news, I got to wondering this morning if …
The Autumnal Equinox already?? It barely feels like it around here (except for shorter days). So with temperatures still in the 80s, we’re heading to the beach. Well, beach for Idaho … the Salmon River is home to some of the most gorgeous white sandy beaches I’ve ever seen.
I’m packing the s’mores, the girls, sleeping bags, and our …
At a political rally in Wonderland …
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland illustration by Jessie Wilcox Smith, Wikimedia
Our beguilingly befuddled heroine, Alice (who else?), was muddling her way through the hugger-mugger of a most unruly crowd of partisan expatriates.
She was feeling a tad topsy-turvy as a result of guzzling a gallon of green goo which had been labeled in a language of gobbledygook that she hadn’t even tried to decipher before drinking (a word to the wise: never wander into Wonderland thirsty).
While Alice fumbled amidst the fray of white rabbits slinging wristwatches at men primly dressed as playing cards, she struggled to …
Ring, ring, ringaling. Winnie Nielsen? Are you there????
We noticed yesterday that you have more comments than anyone, well, except for me, and Miss Wilma’s shipment of her Kentucky lovin’ handmade white pillows arrived, and sooooooooooooo … we got to talking.
What if we sent four of the bestest of the bunch to Winnie as a way of thanking her, no, as a way of saying, YoU RoCK SisTaH!!!!! We love you. And we wish you sweet dreams.
Miss Wilma scours the countryside for old feather mattresses. She brings them home and sterilizes the pure down feathers and then packs them back into the original ticking (cut into “piller” sizes), and then, and THEN, she makes pillowcases for them using old vintage dresses and handmade lace that she finds when out and about. They are exquisite. One of a kind. The stuff of sweet dreams. Winifred.
Awesome!!!!! All of my cows are finally pregnant (go Milky Way—you da MAN). Over the course of the summer, they’ve been in various different pastures, but now that we’re having to feed them hay again (no rain, big pain), I realize how happy it makes me to have them all together (it’s a first). I love witnessing their little interactions, their “community.”
I was going through old photos and came across this little tidbit I hadn’t seen before that my mother wrote for a newspaper when she was 13 years old.
By the time she was 14, the largest Utah newspaper (some 50 miles away from her home) had hired her as a regular columnist.
I recently discovered that not everyone know pumpkins are green until they turn orange. Most of mine this year are already orange and BIG! I’m not sure the green pumpkins pictured here will make it in time.
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
