dreaming of a white christmas

Hey there! I just wanted to wish one and all a Cool Yule and a Frantic First!!!!

 

This year I'm facing the "novelty" of a snowless SoCal Christmas. Can't fib here, it's a mite tough to access the spirit of the season when all around me it feels and looks like it's the middle of summer! When it comes to Noel merriment, Vermont is just where it's at. Little villages dusted in snow, cutting our own Christmas tree from the forest hills out back, sledding parties and mulled cider-- it's tops! Here's a nostalgic peek back at last year's festivities, just to get those yuletide juices flowing...

 

I put this li'l tableau together for my fam's Christmas dinner.

The best Christmas dress ever!!! (And the best dog ever, Miss Banjo Frenchburg!)

 

Even the antler chandelier dons its gay apparel!

(BTW, I found this rad lamp at the town dump! Lotsa people have hunting cabins and such near me, and when they decide to "modernize" 'em, well, guess where that vintage woodsy decor ends up? Yes, the dumpster at first, but I snap 'em pretty quick ;)

I hope you and yours have a really lovely holiday season, whether you're celebrating anything or not.

OK, gotta go read some Robert Frost and dream about the Green Mountains now.

I guess I will see ya next year!!

♥♥♥♥

the art of jon langford

 Hello there! If you're a rolling stone, all alone and lost, then you too will be enamored by the works of Langford. No, I do not mean the Mekons (though I do have a real soft spot for them too). My favorite paintings of his capture a reverence for the halcyon days of country music, and a (rightful) deep disillusionment over its modern state.

 

Have a wondrous weekend everyone ♥♥

in this open country

Fond greetings from Joshua Tree, California.

How lovely it is to be out under the open skies, and to see the great landscape yawning before me! These dusty desert towns are great fun to explore. It is definitely strange and surreal to see the contrast between the new buildings and the vast ancient desert hills; they make you feel like civilization is awfully small and flimsy. It sure is different from the Vermont kind of countryside, where timeworn farmhouses and historic little villages are tucked away behind twisting mountain lanes and dense forests. There is no quaint or cozy here; instead it is fresh, big, and exciting. So far I've mostly stuck to the towns and highways, leaving no thrift shop or abandoned building safe, but I hope to venture even further into the wilds soon!

(These are just li'l old iPhone snapshots; we'll just have to wait 'til my first roll of film is developed to see more...)

Over and out ♥

sights & sounds II

Woody Guthrie sings "House of the Rising Sun".

 

Photographs of boarding houses by Walker Evans. 

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“Went to the depot and looked up on the board…. It said there’s good times here, but it’s better down the road.” – Jimmie Rodgers, “Brakeman’s Blues”

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my morning at blanchard

Though I've been driving down this country highway for years, I only just caught sight of Blanchard Cemetery last winter. It's quite hidden, nestled high upon a ridge and nearly out of sight from the road, and the path leading to it is close to entirely overgrown. The newest headstones I found here dated to the 1850s, while the majority were 1770s-1820s. Imagine, buried here are some of the first Europeans to settle the Vermont woods! Today pasture land spreads all around, and dairy farms dot the hillsides... all thanks to the hardy pioneers who now lie in rest at Blanchard.

greetings from sunny california

Sorry 'bout the grainy Mac Photobooth shots here, folks; somewhat stupidly, I only brought my film camera with me. Just couldn't wait to send y'all a little postcard from glorious Palm Springs, where I'll be hanging my hat for the holiday season! (Dunno how long I'll be able to fit into these vintage duds, though, if my addiction to date shakes keeps up.)

miner forty niner

Oh boy, look what I found!! Not only was this Pendleton 49er in mint condition, and wonderfully vivid, but it's got matching trousers to go with! Best part: they were labelled on eBay as "pajamas", so no one else bid and I got 'em for a steal, ha. Now I'm not sure if I'll wear the duo together beyond these photographs; it might be a bit too weird, even for me. Honestly, I can see how the seller mistook them for pajamas. Could do with a trip to the tailor's, too. They're pretty neat to have, though, and satisfy my long-held desire for one of those buffalo plaid hunting outfits. Not that I'd ever hunt. I'm a vegetarian. I just love the charming Olde New England-ness of them.

 

PS: By the time you read this, I will no longer be in New England. Destination: California!

♥♥♥♥

the woman in white

"So the ghostly figure which has haunted these pages as it haunted my life, goes down into the impenetrable Gloom. Like a Shadow she first came to me, in the loneliness of the night. Like a Shadow she passes away, in the loneliness of the dead."

 -- Wilkie Collins, The Woman In White (1860)

Between Hurricane Sandy and my own state of geographical limbo, Halloween got away from me this year, but I'd had this costume schemed up since late summer and couldn't let the idea go to waste... so here we are. I really wanted to dress like the Woman In White, from Wilkie Collins' infamous novel of the same name. Though the remarkable Marian Halcombe is the true heroine of the Collins' 1860 Gothic masterpiece (and among my favorite female characters in 19th century literature), I've always been a little haunted by the character of Anne Catherick. How I love the sad, spectral Miss Catherick: slipping around the lonesome swamps and country graveyards, just polishing the headstones & doing her own spooky thing, yet so entirely dismissed and alienated that her only hope is to lie in death beside the only person to ever have shown her kindness. It's Victorian melodrama to the max, which is always fun, but she's also oddly likeable. Hear me out: the girl wears weird clothes, and spends a lot of time wandering the countryside alone in a melancholic mood.... eh, not so different from yours truly.

{ The blouse is antique 1910s, found at a thrift shop for $3.

It was horribly stained, but an OxyClean soak brought it back to life.

The petticoat is also antique, and was $5 at an antique shop.

The velvet cape is 1930s and was a gift from my aunt.
Cameo inherited from my grandmother.}

Songstress Style: Cindy Wilson and Lady Miss Kier

These dolls took the campiest, kookiest, and most delightful elements of '60s fashion to a fabulous new level... and their music isn't half bad either. Crack out the powder blue eyeshadow 'n' the teasing comb, and let's have some fun this weekend!!

 

in the sun

Greetings!!

Well, these days I've been craving color and pop-art vividness like never before. Must be the gloomy time of year... here on my country lane, I'm surrounded by exquisitely bleak vignettes of brown fields draped in frost, skeletal tree branches teeming with crows, and dead leaves wafting around the cemetery. In the past I've gotten all into that ~gothic ambiance~, but this year I'm like "no thanks". Roll on the sixties looks, 'cause nothing says summertime fun like a li'l mod dress and big hair, and I don't want realism, I want MAGIC!

short 'n' sweet

"There is a pony light that will never go out..."

Well hello!

Sorry it's been a bit quiet over here of late, but if you miss me, why not read a sweet li'l interview with yours truly over at the beautiful Quail Bell Magazine site?

♥ Interview Link

in the last days of wonder

Just another look at my life in a forest glade.

These are the dying days of summer :'(

passenger pigeon blues

in the good old summertime

"Good old summer time,

When you day's work is over

Then you are in clover,

And life is one beautiful rhyme..."

 Gee, I just have no concept of time anymore... good ol' summertime. Every day seems just like the one before, except even more mystical. Summer in Vermont is like a delicate dream, when the forests and rundown buildings are overcome with twisting vines, and time slows to a pleasant creep. It can also be this melancholic time, when nostalgia haunts the heavy air, and the looming winter adds a blue note to every evening.  I mean, it's like another dimension, and the days are just packed!! 

Fancy Summatime Hair:

(easier than it looks!)

Kitty Wells (1919 - 2012)

May the Queen of Country Music rest in peace ♥

100 years of Woody Guthrie

"As through this world I've wandered

I've seen lots of funny men;

Some will rob you with a six gun

And some with a fountain pen.

And as through your life you travel,

Yes, as through your life you roam,

You'll never see an outlaw

Drive a family from their home."

 

 

Today marks the centennial birthday of Woody Guthrie. The man wrote some of the most direct and eloquent songs concerning our country: he spoke out against our gross failures and social injustices, and stood up for America's most marginalized people, while also celebrating the intense beauty and richness of our unique heritage. Unfortunately not everyone listened, and to this day I think many folks could stand to give a good hard listen to Guthrie's songs and ideas.

Happy birthday, Mr. Guthrie!

the place to go is mexico

Here's a li'l more from my voyage to Old México!

 

Mi madre resides in a beautiful village down in Baja California, if you are wondering just what I was doing there. I spent most mornings riding Coco down the beach, watchin' the pelicans play, and by day explored the local villages & desert hills. Nights I came home to my own li'l bungalow, and even had a darling Chihuahua named Tammy Faye who slept on the end of my bed. My mother is just a wonderful hostess (and cook!), and truth to be told, I was kinda sad to leave that beautiful land behind!