So close. I expect them to pop any day now.
My plans to head into NYC were changed when the director of the project (whom I have never met) decided he was going to ‘pull back’ on the accents the actors were using, so he wouldn’t need my help. That’s fine, though I lose some potential income. I laughed a little, however, because asking an actor to pull back on a dialect or accent without telling them specifically what to change or how to change it is problematical. You have to give them specific sounds to change so that they’re not put in the awkward position of having to ‘soften’ something. Oy.
I worked on miniatures for a bit yesterday afternoon. Today? Mowing day. At this time of year, the grass grows so quickly that we have to keep on top of it.
Yesterday, we were on a trail walk. Don starting talking about how wonderful it would be to live in a small town where the pace of life was slower, where you knew everyone and shopped for your food daily, where children could play outside and be safe; basically, where you could hide away from the horrors and politics and stress and pressure of the world.
I said “That’s Three Pines! That’s why everyone who reads Louise Penny’s books about Three Pines says they want to move there.” (I’ll add Mitford, as well.) I described Three Pines to him, hidden away in Quebec, not on any map, a haven for all, with spotty cell phone and internet coverage, if any. A bistro, a bookstore, a bakery, a general store, and a green in the center of town where children play.
We’ll leave the murders that are the basis for the plots out of the picture.
I second him on that wish. In the meantime, we can limit our time online (we do), we can limit our exposure to 24-hour cable news, we can choose when and how to engage. We were saying that we often think it would not matter one iota if we ever knew about most of the stuff we read online or hear on the news. Much of it just sparks more fear, more worry, more stress. There’s something to be said for the bliss of not knowing. (I’ll add that of course I believe that being informed about certain things is necessary and important – you know that.)
Sometimes, I have a strong desire to live off-grid somewhere, or move to a small town in Italy, where the pace of life is entirely different than it is here. Heck, my mother was Canadian – if Three Pines really existed, I’d be moving there.
Ah well.
Today marks six months since my father died. A bittersweet day. That, and the realization that Scout would never lie in my ‘tunnel’ again led to me starting the day in tears. Mowing is just the thing I need today!
Happy Friday.
Ah yes, I would certainly join you in Three Pines. I’m betting it would no longer be a small village after the popularity of Louise Penny’s books…but it is a nice dream. Happy mowing! It is grey, cold, and damp in PA. My husband is out of town and I’ve not been putting heat on – especially during the day when I am at work. I arrived home yesterday to find the house a chilly 52 degrees inside. Yikes! Today I left a little heat on before heading to my office. These old bones can’t take the damp and cold. Have a wonderful weekend Claudia!
You too, Vera! It’s gray, cold and damp here, as well!
I agree with you about the news. I limit myself to watching a newscast every couple of days, just to catch up. Most of the time they recycle the stories, I get sick of hearing about the same thing from every which angle.
It is sleeting and snowing here today. The grass already needs mowing from last weekend, but it will have to wait until the weather dries up a bit.
Happy Friday, Claudia!
Oh no! Snow seems to be a bit much at this time of year. Ah well. Hang in there, Karen.
Brian and I dream of living in a place like that, too. Must be part of getting older and wishing things were more peaceful? Neighbor-friends of ours retired early 1-1/2 years ago and moved to a remote place in the mountains of northern WA. They bought a tiny 2-bedroom home with lots of land and are living off the grid. It was their dream and they absolutely love it. I don’t have a desire to live that remotely though. ;-)
I think I’d have a problem living that remotely, too, though it sure looks attractive at times, Melanie.
It would be tough to choose between Three Pines or Mitford. But if I had to make a choice I think I would pick Three Pines. The food is better!
I think so, too!
Happy Friday to you! I love the idea of moving to Three Pines or Mitford. I try to watch the news for only one half hour a day. I don’t always do this, but I try. Our local news starts at 4:30am and goes till 10am. (I don’t like the national news programs) Too much, but my fault if I watch the entire time. I like to know the weather, but even the weather people have a 10 second spot to tell you to watch because (“it could be a difficult day today”). So I watch and find out there might be a thunder storm in the afternoon. I was thinking flooding. Anyway, watching only a half hour gives me the news I need, the weather, and then I am good. I can’t deal with every murder that is happening in the US! So I hope you have a great day mowing the lawn. Exercise is so good for us.
You are very wise, Tana! We are going to do the same.
Oh you are so right Claudia – as Thomas Gray said in 1742 “Where ignorance is bliss” but then followed with the lesser known conclusion of the quote, “’tis folly to be wise.” I often prefer to be ‘ignorant’ these days, not permitting myself to be stressed from so much heartbreak, drama and sadness that we are bombarded with daily in print or on a screen. Bob still reads the daily paper – I only read the home/garden section on Saturday morning! Bob reads worldwide news online – keeps me updated when necessary. At this advanced time of my life I want quietude and happiness – all of which I can get right here in my cottage and garden.
Last evening we sat in the gazebo with neighbors, candles flickering in lanterns, a nice bottle of wine, some chilled shrimp and cocktail sauce, cheese and crackers. The storm arrived – the trees bent and groaned the wind, the thunder boomed, and the rain blew through the screens – it was perfect! I felt alive and very content with my lot.
That said, I saw your comment today on my packing for the upcoming journey! I’m thrilled you will be traveling next year – let me know if I can share any tips later.
Happy weekend – Mary
(who would like to return to her English village with thatched cottages to live – but it would have to be just as it was when I was a child/teen – and that’s just not going to happen!).
I feel the same way. At this point in my life, I want peace and quiet and happiness. Bon Voyage, Mary!
I watch 6:00 local news and 6:30 national….that is all. When politics is on the news I check on dinner, I have had enough! I am not say who, but really him! Except for the murders Three Pines would be great. One of my daughters live in Jackson Nh, small town with a town center. People meet up at the local restaurant and talk. Nice except they got snow last week, Happy Spring.
When politics is on, I read a good book, Mary!
Well, you know I would move to Three Pines in a second! I couldn’t live too far out in the country…just far enough, but close enough to a city should I need one. I think Three Pines would be ideal! Watching the news…or staying “too informed” is depressing….so I try and limit it….for my sanity. It’s been cold and damp here for days….today is mow the lawn day here too! Happy Exercise! ;)
We’ve just finished mowing, I took a shower and now I’m having some lunch and responding to comments. We still have the back forty to do, but that will be another day!
“We” mowed this week for the first time this year. (My husband laughs hysterically when I say “we”.) We have had quite a cool week, and we did get some rain. yay! I would be so happy if it would just stay in the mid to upper 60’s. My weather wishes, however, don’t often come true. My friend in Denver is expecting another 2-5 inches of snow today and tomorrow. ugh. ugh. I will take the low 50’s & clouds over snow any day!!
I often thought living in Mitford would be wonderful, but the food at the diner really doesn’t sound very good, does it? I would love sitting in the stuffed chairs in the bookstore, though!! It would be great fun to be in charge of decorating that window!
Happy mowing!!
More snow? I don’t think I could handle it. Seriously!
The food at the bistro in Three Pines sounds very good! Might have to move there for the food alone!
We are lucky to be living in that kind of rural community, on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, where we built our home ourselves. A fellow blogger, Shannon from A Green Hearth (now defunct) said, “Part of building a home is finding a community where you belong and settling yourself there in good faith. You do not have one foot out the door. You do not have your eye on the map, itching for the next leap. Instead, you are hunkered down and listening, both for what your community needs and what it has to offer.” I love that.
Thanks for your thoughts, Claudia.
Gail (from thisgreenhouse.ca)
You are indeed lucky, Gail! We live in the country but the town itself is very, very small and people are spread out over a large area. Ah well.
Love that quote!
Ah Three Pines the place of m y dreams. And Mitford in my dreams too! Never saw the news as stressful in my youth. But now! I am training myself to not let my peace be taken by people and events. I have made baby steps of progress and will continue to practice for my peace depends on it. If I ever stumble upon a small town like those created by those two wonderful writers well I would be moving as quickly as possible. Thank you for the wonderful and real glimpses of life you share with your readers it is so appreciated.
You’re very welcome. It’s not easy, but I feel the same way. I don’t want my state of mind and my peace to be in the control of others.
I understand this…we are craving a life out of the big metro area. So we have decided in the next year or two…we are moving to our lakehome in a small town. Everything we need is there, and a larger city is just 45 minutes away. I need to be away from traffic and crowds and I actually enjoy quiet right now. It will be a new chapter for us…one we are putting into motion…
That sounds like a wonderful idea, Linda. I don’t blame you. Peace, quiet and serenity. Good for you!
I feel somber after reading your post but it’s because 1) I know you are having a hard time and 2) I give great pause to everything you said about yearning for the right place to live. I just read headlines and agree with you completely…what did any of that just do for me except make me feel bad? Do I need to know HOW somebody killed their children? Just one horrible example. There are a lot of details about a lot of things in the news that do nothing to improve our life except to make us more wary, less likely to warm up to new people (because we’ve developed caution…clearly there are a lot of weirdos in our midst) or even go new places (terrorism). I remember reading about some retirees on a road trip who were victimized/murdered on a stretch of highway (vehicle forced over, apparently and etc.) and it makes me wonder if it’s even safe these days to go on a driving vacation the way I did with my parents when we were kids (I can remember some isolated roads, turnouts where we’d make a sandwich for lunch out of the back of the car [cooler/picnic hamper] yet never knowing who might just drive up and mean us ill will; I look back at it and it makes me feel like we were vulnerable; innocents).
My husband reminds me that for every bad thing in headlines on the web or TV…like if this or that happened to one person…you have to balance it out against the other thousands and thousands of GOOD things and GOOD people (if one person had a bad fate; half a million did not). We so seldom read about the good; the media loves bad and sensational, for the story. I know what I’m talking about; both my husband and I have a TV news background, in earlier lives. I don’t know, maybe it’s especially since 9/11, but definitely since 24-hr ‘news’, we’ve lost a certain naivete and openness. If you weren’t a worrier before, you could sure become one with stuff nagging at the back of your mind. We all want to feel safe and who wants to be thinking about these things?
I am living near where I was born and where ‘my people’ have been for over a hundred years, but the area is not now, what it was THEN. I’d like to take our little family home and transplant it somewhere, like Dorothy’s farmhouse in the twister, set down in the beautiful Emerald City. I spend a lot of time online and reading books about the best places to live in retirement. Those decisions need to be made in the next few years for my husband and me (under 5 years; imminent). It’s up to me; my husband would just stay (he’s less unhappy). There’s such a lot to consider in such an important life change and you can’t discount the importance of good medical care. I can’t ever live too far from a hospital; I’ve already had ‘way too many health issues. This happened to friends of my parents…they couldn’t ‘wait’ to retire to their rural property which they’d paid on for years (so much happy anticipation; it was joyous); went up there and built a custom home and enjoyed life for a short while, but then he had a stroke and she was too far from anyplace to get him the ongoing care he needed, so their plans went bust. And they hadn’t had a Plan B.
I know I’m a little down because I’ve been sick for a week with a bug and I resent losing a week of my precious life (!!) but I completely, completely ‘get’ what Don is talking about. Read about Ferndale in Northern California, population 1300 and five miles inland from the beach. Now, there’s a place to live. If you could just handle the earthquakes. My husband couldn’t live there because they get fog and it’s only in the 70s in summer, mostly 50s or 60s temps the rest of the year. He’s a former Midwesterner who now doesn’t like to be cold (and those temps I just cited are too cold for him). Me? The place and that weather (they don’t get snow but they get decent rain) sound like Heaven, and a hospital is only 12 minutes away (by car). I read some indepth articles about the town and it’s small but well-tended; people don’t leave.
Yes, I don’t need to know the details about everything. In fact, I don’t need to know everything that is happening in the news. I just don’t. As you know I have been an outspoken critic of the 24-hour news cycle of cable tv. My current pet peeve: Using the headline Breaking News for something that a) isn’t really news or b) was news 12 hours ago but is no longer ‘breaking.’ Drives me nuts.
I’ll check out Ferndale, Vicki – though the earthquake thing doesn’t make me happy. I’ve been through several and I don’t want to go through any more!
Or, you know, another thing that I just laugh at about TV news nowadays: I’ll have had a restless night or am up for some reason and will turn on the TV at, say, 4am and out here in SoCalif (maybe it’s this way other places, too) local newscasts start REALLY early but, you know, so many people are commuters in this ‘freeway’ world we live in, sitting in traffic jams and rush hour (we’re the car culture in L.A. and its burbs), needing to be on the job at 7am so, yeah, they have to get up early-early (so there’s obviously SOME audience, of course, for pre-dawn TV news/weather) But they’ll have some poor sleepy and cold reporter standing in the dark in a parking lot in anywhere-L.A. reporting ‘live’ about some event that really has nothing to do with that parking lot and I think to myself, ‘the point of this is…???…” (what a waste of employee/company resources [the mobile ‘live’ truck, the camera person, the reporter, somebody inside the truck]) but, you know, we’re such a visual society now and a talking head just can’t read the news at the newsdesk like in the old days; whatever…)…anyway…
Ferndale. What they’re actually known for is their preserved Victorian, historical business district and homes, all of which seem to have survived earthquakes. I had to think about that after I’d read they’d gotten hit pretty hard with quakes in I think 1992. Some houses wound up with downed chimneys and off their foundations but, heck, that even happens where I’m living right now (in a Big One). I tend to be blase about earthquakes because I’ve lived in Calif most of my life; they’re a fact of life. But none of us should ever be complacent. I dunno, my last house built in 1923 was solid as a tank when it was thoroughly inspected before renovation in the early 2000s and it hadn’t had a thing done to it, ever (and the interior walls were plaster; just some minor 80-year-old surface cracks, like hairline)…and the house wasn’t even bolted to a foundation. The old girl was strong. I currently live on a fault line. What can you do? (Except move…to somewhere else…where they have blizzards, tornado/hurricanes…this is the other thing that happens to me when thinking about where to move: I never find an exactly good place that seems worth it enough to uproot. You can turn it into a real dilemma. We have friends in our age group, a few of whom are considering downsizing to the point of really not even being home OWNERS anymore and deciding instead to rent/lease like they did when they were young and carefree (there’s no denying that owning a home isn’t a lot of work and it can nickle & dime you). It’s so individual; so pinpointed to one’s particular circumstances, likes/dislikes, financial status, etc. But I could easily move out of the area and into a still-smaller home. I do know of case after case of a home with stairs becoming a real problem for aging seniors; the legs, the hips, the vision, the balance. I know someone who has enough wealth that they’re putting in a home elevator, but not everybody can do that. And not everybody is going to want to go thru the expense of remodeling to add a bedroom on the ground floor. A lady in a ancestral farmhouse near us who died in her 90s [house she was born in] shut off her second floor entirely and hadn’t gone up the stairs in years and years.
We have stairs that we have to navigate up to our bedroom. Ah, well!
My husband wants to buy 5 acres of land and move away from the city and all of it’s issues. My Grandma lived in a town just as you describe and I would visit her every summer for several weeks. She’s the one who taught me to crochet. Everyone knew who I was and would say hello when I walked to the store for her. I truly miss that. My father-in-law often accused me of being his “Bubble Girl” because I chose not to watch the gory details on newscasts 35 years ago. If he were alive now to see the news I choose not to watch he would be horrified on how the world has gone downhill.
We mowed Wednesday night and I’m still exhausted. This time of year everything is growing at warp speed!
Blessings,
Betsy
My parents lived in a small town in Northern Michigan when they first retired, and it was a place where most people knew each other. My parents had an active social life. Some place like that would be great.
You can come and live here!
Although officially a small city, I would describe where I live as very “small town”. We have free health care, a first-class hospital, virtually no unemployment, an active arts community and loads of green spaces. Oh, did I mention that we have also have arctic winter eight months of the year and blistering heat/construction for the other four? Not to mention the exorbitant taxes? Okay, maybe not.
I actually picture you typing your next best-selling mystery novel on a sunny bougainvillea-filled balcony in Spain. My sister-in-law rents the same apartment there every summer to study dance (flamenco!) and it’s just lovely. Plus there is the Prado filled with Old Masters. Doesn’t get much better than that.
Well, I’d quite honestly rather live in Canada than here in the States – for all sorts of reasons – not the least of which is my Canadian heritage on both sides of my family. But the winter? I’m thinking it would be hard to get Don to go along with that one, though we are very fond of Alberta.
Bougainvillea-filled balcony in Spain? Count me in!
When I watch TV now, it’s either PBS, a cooking show or the Antenna TV station that plays oldies. I have a TiVo collection of Burns and Allen and Father Knows Best and Leave it to Beaver. If I feel like chilling out, I watch one of those old shows. Burns and Allen is my all-time favorite. I just adore Gracie, so cute and funny. If you happen to find a little town like Three Pines, let me know :-)
Big Texas Hugs,
Susan and Bentley
I will, Susan. Love Burns and Allen! And everything else you’ve mentioned. xo
Three Pines sounds wonderful, but I don’t want to be murdered. How about Dunedin near me?
Hugs sister,
M
Is Dunedin small town enough? You know I’d love to be near you, my sister.xoxo
I hope you got a good day for mowing! I’ve had a busy day and I’m ready for an early night and some sleep. I lived on Cape Cod back in the 70’s and some of those little towns were magical to me. I would love to live someplace like that again. We can dream! I understand the tears!
Big Hugs,
Linda
I know you do. It was an emotional morning, but I got busy mowing and working on the TSP and that helped.
Humm…I was thinking I would like to join in moving to Three Pines..but then I remembered there have been a lot of murders there…lol..I guess I will just have to make the best of where I am…Sorry to hear of you losing work..good heavens…are the actors supposed to now unlearn what they have been taught…confusing…
Very confusing. And to top it off, I got a message on Facebook from the stage manager, who it turns out is an old friend. He had been looking forward to seeing me again…then he found out I wasn’t coming!
Ah Claudia, it seems “to escape” is a dream for many of us. For me it is Brookings Oregon. In the mean time I try to satisfy my lust watching “Escape to the Country” on YouTube. think you would like it too.
Dianne
I’ll check it out, Dianne. Thank you!
I too would be more than happy to move to Three Pines if it existed, I think it would be a wonderful place to live. I never watch the news (far too depressing) and yet somehow I still know what’s going on the in world, most of which I could live without knowing. I hope you find some happy moments in your day.
You too, Jan!
I’m pretty happy living where I am. It’s not a small town, but it’s not a big city, though I’m only 20 minutes from one. We came home after a couple of days away and discovered one teeny 1″ pea pod growing among the young pea plants. We got so excited….never grew peas before.
Yay for pea pods, Wendy! That’s very exciting!