My Place in the Woods

             ~Louise Dickinson Rich

I fell in love with Helen Hoover's The Gift of the Deer when I was a kid. It was in one of my mom's Reader Digest books. I read the rest of her books over the years. I stumbled on Louise Dickinson Rich about a decade ago. I loved her We Took to the Woods. I'm reading a biography of her right now. I love the pictures she paints with her words and I find myself longing to disappear in the Maine woods. 

Since I found out that Emily Dickinson is a shirttail cousin and Louise is her cousin, then that makes her my cousin, too. I love that. 

I'll confess, I feel a connection to both of these writer cousins. They saw the world differently than those around them. But I'll confess, I feel a greater connection to Louise. The biography (She Took to the Woods) shows Louise had her problems, but her love of nature...I get that.

I grew up in the county. Not quite country to be honest. But I was country adjacent.  I had a creek and woods behind the house. I roamed those woods with my neighbors  and snuck to my favorite spots with a book as often as possible. I was an almost-country girl. My friends Tina and Mel had the most fantastic rope swings at their house. We would wind them until the ropes creaked and groaned and when they let them go...well, these days I'd be sick, but back then, it was so much fun. We built almost annual treehouses. As an adult I'm horrified that one of them was burned down by a rival group of friends. At the time, I was just mad. I caught crayfish in the creek. Sometimes I went fishing...I don't think I ever caught anything. And if I did, I blacked it out. I'm sure one of my friends had to take it off the hook for me because there's no way I'd do it then...or now. 

I married a city boy. And here's how you know your partner gets you...he bought me eighteen acres of woodland at a time that we couldn't afford it. Then he built me a cottage out there. Now, for over twenty years, we referred to it as a wooden tent because that's all it was. The frame of what could be. But as our kids got older, we started improvements. A well, insulation, a shed (no more lawnmowers in the cottage!), a barn (with my pottery studio in the back!) and just this last summer, we added a bedroom/bathroom addition and septic. Yep, I'm all fancy...indoor plumbing.

But back to Louise and Helen. with heat and indoor plumbing, we've been spending more time out there. And it reaffirms what I always known, out there I'm truly home. Last spring on a hike, we found my hawk's nest. I got to watch the babies (well, just bits of their heads over the top of the sticks) all spring. I've eaten dinners watching the deer creep out of the woods into the yard. I've caught pics of a fisher and my foxes. I've seen so many fungi and mosses. I've walked a couple miles in every direction on the road. I've spent hours hiking the woods. And every moment of that, I've felt such kinship to Helen and Louise...because I am home. I'm not as deep in the woods as they were, but it's enough for me.

I've written about the cottage in Just One Thing. It's not a memoir of my time in the woods, but I think it reflects my cottage as much as their books reflected theirs..

I feel lucky that I have a family who gets me. From Himself who bought me...HollysWoods, if you will! LOL To my kids. They keep me grounded. They keep me busy. They keep from becoming a total hermit. But there's a bit of a hermit there. They all respect that. They allow me those moments of solitude in the woods. And when I had to lose one of my shagbark hickories, Himself understood my morning. (It's now my counter in the bathroom.) Louise understood it as well...

“A house you can rebuild; a bridge you can restring; a washed-out road you can fill in. But there is nothing you can do about a tree but mourn.”
― Louise Dickinson Rich, We Took to the Woods

My "cousin" Emily also said...

“Beauty is not caused. It is.”
― Emily Dickinson

That's how I feel about my woods. It simply is. And every walk, I discover something new. Some new footprint, some new tree. Nature. Sun. I love every stone in my creeks. I love my trees. I mourned the ones we had to cut down. We started replanting last fall and will continue in the spring.

If I could have a wish for all of you, I'd wish that you'd find your place. The place that soothes your soul. The place where you walk and say, I'm home. And more than that, I'd wish you the people who get you and who enjoy when you're with them and understand when you need a moment or two of hermitude.

Holly




On sale this month:


Carry Her Heart

Everything but a Groom.

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And check out...

Surprises in All Sizes anthology.
One of my Hometown Hearts stories is included!

Signs of the Times
Available for Kindle and Kindle Unlimited
Book #2 comes out in February 7th! 
By Design takes a the marriage of convenience trope and...well, has a bit of fun with it.

Chances
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A View to a Kiln: A Harry's Pottery Mystery
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Nook

Deep Roots

 Working on my family tree has been so enlightening. I found my roots are deep in the Appalachian mountains. Even before I knew it, I had a collection of Foxfire books and loved reading the articles. My collection of Appalachian books has grown since then. But more than that, those roots have impacted my work in the studio. I collected antique pottery long before I threw my first pot. I knew that was the kind of look I wanted with my own work. Old. Folk Art. I did my first report in decades for my ceramics class on Burlon Craig, a Catawba pottery. Oh, how I loved his face jugs. I loved the history of them. Mine don't look anything like his, but he inspired me. And my FIL was a woodcarver...his Santas inspired me as well. I'm sure others will open doors for my work that I haven't even imagined yet. Inspiration is everywhere. 

As I opened a glaze kiln last week, I saw my past in the new pieces. Face jugs, for sure. But a face soup bowl. Face Planters. (I laugh every time I say that.) Even the glaze I use on these is inspired by the old time mountain potters. It's an ash glaze. You can see the runs on their faces. And those ashes? They came from the woodstove at the cottage. 

I wonder if my undiscovered roots inspired my love of Foxfire books? If they spoke to me because some deep DNA tie to those mountains? Maybe my love of kilts is because of my Celtic heritage? Or maybe it's just because men in kilts look good. LOL Either way, my heritage has become a part of what I do in the studio. 

We watched an episode of CB Strike last night. An author character was talking about how all writers put pieces of themselves in their books. I nodded. I do that and I recognize it. Himself and I were talking about it. I said so many of my books deal with family and kids. And my future love of pottery is there in Just One Thing.  My current love of pottery is going to be highlighted in a new series in '22. (Yes, that was a tease!)

Deep Roots.
I am so inspired by this Appalachian family I've never met. I've heard my grandmother's recording...she's singing with siblings and playing the autoharp. It led to more exploration. I bought an awesome CD of Old Time Music, Songs of the Mountain.  I've been playing it in the studio as I build my jugs and think of my grandmother and all the people I've never met.  I read a great piece, Mountain Traditions, which led me to their podcast. That podcast led me back to Old Time Music and pawpaws, which I'm growing at the cottage...anxiously waiting for my first fruit.

One thing leads to another. One discovery leads to the next. Most of them end up in a book or in my studio. All of them just become another layer in me. Like Shrek said, I'm an onion...with lots of layers.

Thanks everyone who's been following my writing, claying and family treeing! I hope you're finding your own layers!

Holly

PS. My Hometown Heart short story, Something Unexpected is out next week! I got my start with shorts and always love going back to the format. This one was inspired by and dedicated to two people who really helped me out!

HollysWoods Studio

Hometown Hearts

Crib Notes: Hometown Hearts #1

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A Special Kind of Different: Hometown Hearts #2

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Homecoming: Hometown Hearts #3

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 Suddenly a Father: Hometown Hearts #4

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Something Borrowed: Hometown Hearts #5

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Something Blue: Hometown Hearts #6 

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Something Perfect: Hometown Hearts #7 available 5/21

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Preorder: Something Unexpected: A Hometown Hearts short story, available 7/21
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Preorder: A Hometown Christmas: Hometown Hearts #8, available 9/21
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I'm a Magician

I've had two glaze-palooza days and will need one more to finish everything at the studio. As I look at all the glazed pieces I know what I hope they look like when they come out of the kiln. But I can't be sure. The same glaze on the same clay in the same kiln can come out a bit different each time. But the truth of the matter is, none of them will look the same as they do now. Pottery is like writing...both are magic. Pottery takes some clay from the ground (or from a pugmill or manufacturer) and the potter turns it into something else entirely. Writing takes a blank sheet of paper (or a blank computer screen) and turns it into a story with people and feeling and stuff happening. (I know, you're amazed by my prose here. LOL) Both are magic.

That makes me a magician. 

Move over Harry Dresden.

There is magic all around. Seasons changing...that brings its own kind of magic. Out at the studio, animals are on the move. Trees have the first breath of green. Neighbors are outside when I walk in the morning. It feels like after a very long year, we can all use a little magic. I went to the grocery store Monday night and that felt a bit magic. After a year of isolation, I went out in public with out that ever-present nervousness. My vaccine is sort of magic, too. It let me see family for the first time in months...and it let me go to the grocery store. 

Magic. It's every where. Seasons, pottery, books and vaccines! 

Sometimes we take things for granted and don't really think about things that surrounds us! I hope you take a small pause today and look for the magic in your life. 

Holly 

PS Another example of my magicness...I brought four kids into the world, raised them and turned them into my best friends. Now, that's a handy piece of magic! 

On Sale this month on Amazon:

Just One Thing

Everything But a Groom

 Hometown Hearts:

Crib Notes: Hometown Hearts #1

Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iBook

A Special Kind of Different: Hometown Hearts #2

Kindle, iBook, Kobo, Nook

Homecoming: Hometown Hearts #3

Kindle, Kobo, IBooks, Nook

 Suddenly a Father: Hometown Hearts #4

Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iBooks

Something Borrowed: Hometown Hearts #5

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Something Blue: Hometown Hearts #6 

Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Apple Books

Preorder: Something Perfect: Hometown Hearts #7 available 5/21

Apple Books, Nook, Kobo, Kindle

Preorder: Something Unexpected: A Hometown Hearts short story, available 7/21
Amazon

Preorder: A Hometown Christmas: Hometown Hearts #8, available 9/21
Kindle 
Nook
AppleBooks
Kobo

One Year

 One year.  Wow. For the one year anniversary of Covid, I listened to Chris Hayes' Why Is This Happening podcast. He visited with a guest, Michelle Goldberg in an episode called One Year of Plague Living. They both live in the city and talked about how difficult lockdown was on them  I loved their point that we all had that shared experience of lockdown during a pandemic, but each experience was different and very individual. They wondered if there was anyone who didn't feel the strain of being shut-up for a year.

I very quietly raised my hand. (Of course, I was alone in the truck with just Tallulah, which made the action a bit quirky...but hey, I've been locked up for a year, so give me a break. LOL)

Imagining is my job and I can easily imagine that if I were a city person who was accustomed to eating most of my meals out and spending my days out and about, this enforced isolation would have been hard to deal with. But I'm a hermit by nature and I feel a bit guilty admitting how very little my life has changed over the last year.  I still write, pot, and take care of minions. Yes, I weighed the risks and still keep the minions a few days a week because their parents are in the healthcare field and their jobs are as necessary as things get right now. But otherwise, my life is mainly Himself and Tallulah. I still talk to family, mainly on FaceTime.  I shop a lot less but I hate shopping, so that's cool. Mainly, I write and pot. Pot and write. Take walks with Himself and Tallulah. Then write and pot some more. I'm either here in Erie, or in the county at The Cottage.

As I write this, I acknowledge that I am beyond fortunate. Not only that my job is inherently solitary, but also I'm hermitty by nature. I'm super lucky that I'm married to my best friend and a year together made me realize how lucky I am over and over again. 

It's not that my year hasn't had heartache. The biggest one was we lost Marge (I've blogged about her here before and she really was the inspiration for the May-December friendship relationship in Something Blue) early on in the pandemic. She was alone at the end and I still feel guilty about that. But I know she knew she was loved. The nursing home let us come for one compassionate visit the day before she passed. We got to say goodbye. Still, there's a hole in our family without her. The minions still talk about her.

It hurt when I canceled our family Thanksgiving and Christmas. The fact I canceled wasn't because I wasn't desperate to see my kids, but BECAUSE I was wanted to see them over the holidays for years and years to come. FaceTime is great, but it's not the same and we all know that. To lose a few holidays and a trip to Disney was so worth knowing that we'd have many holidays and Disney trips in the years to come.

It was an interesting podcast that really left me reflecting about this last year. (Books, podcast, movies...anything that can leaves me reflecting is worth my time.) One of the things I've been thinking about since the podcast is there's a light is at the end of this Covid tunnel. I'm more than willing to hold tight and shop less (I'm always happy to do that), mask up and social distance because someday I won't have to do those things.  Someday soon we'll have family holidays. And to be honest, someday soon I'll be in Disney again. 

And I spent a lot of time this last year (like so many of you) thinking about what's really important. I've always known the answer to that...my family and friends. And yes, I think of all of you as friends. You've made this year so much easier for me. I hope that some of my glee has eased yours as well.

So while I wait for herd ammunity, I'll be potting in HollysWoods Studio, writing (I wrote a pandemic short story last year, aptly named Quarantine and I'm working on a new Hometown Hearts short story now) and hanging out with Himself and Tallulah. I'll take care of minions. I'll go along with my quiet, hermitty life and I'll enjoy every moment this spring out at camp. Today I saw Canada geese and mallards at the pond. And deer have been visiting a lot. Birds are loud when I walk and the snow is finally melting. Yes, we're going to go from ice and snow to the mud season. But I'm okay with that. Summer will arrive and things will be better.

My heart goes out to everyone who's suffered a loss. I hope this next year is a healing one for you. 

Things will be better...that's my lasting thought after the podcast.

However your year has been, I don't think anyone will complain when it's over. And it WILL be over. Until it is, stay safe! 

Holly

 Hometown Hearts:

Crib Notes: Hometown Hearts #1

Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iBook

A Special Kind of Different: Hometown Hearts #2

Kindle, iBook, Kobo, Nook

Homecoming: Hometown Hearts #3

Kindle, Kobo, IBooks, Nook

 Suddenly a Father: Hometown Hearts #4

Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iBooks

Something Borrowed: Hometown Hearts #5

Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iBooks

Something Blue: Hometown Hearts #6 

Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Apple Books

Preorder: Something Perfect: Hometown Hearts #7 available 5/21

Apple Books, Nook, Kobo, Kindle

HollysWoodsStudio