"There was an elegant ingenuity displayed in the form of pies which delighted my heart." –– Sarah Orne Jewett "... geese are friends with no one, they badmouth everybody and everything. But they are companionable once you get used to their ingratitude and false accusations." –– E. B. White "It isn't often that Aunt Dahlia lets her angry passions rise, but when she does, strong men climb trees and pull them up after them." –– P. G. Wodehouse

I am very attached to my childhood home where my parents still live. I guess I have moved 18 times. I am not sure if colleges count, but I had to move all my stuff in a tiny car between them, so I am including. As a baby lived with my parents in an apartment. My parents bought a home when I was 2. They still live there. College apartment Dorm in Australia for semester abroad Grad school apartment Grad school house with friends Apartment with friend in NYC area Apartment with boyfriend, now husband, in NYC Wanted to raise my children outside city, so stayed in house MIL was renovating Then apartment in suburbs with husband Bought first house when child was 1. Closing of business caused job loss and thus move to another state for a new job, rented a house Bought a house in that state. New employee soured new job, moved, buying a house nearer new work and husband's family. Boss at work was laid off, anticipating more lay offs, husband found remote work with an Indian company, moved to India for six months. Since work was remote, upon return, sold house, and bought house near my family. Friend convinced husband to work for her, but insisted we move to the business location, bought house. Hated the location, the job, and eventually the friend, moved back near my family, bought house. NEVER MOVING AGAIN except maybe to the cemetery up the street!

All of the above. Plus they are appealing and dangerous to small children and cats, I have a friend whose cat slipped in, when she turned away from after loading the laundry and before shutting the door, for a minute to tend to her child. It did not end well for the cat and she is still deeply upset about it 7 years later. And you are supposed to keep the doors open, thus inviting children and cats to make a habit of crawling in! Also, they smell, your laundry smells even if you are used to it and can't smell it yourself (I can tell when I visit who has front loader washers when I use their towels), you have to buy stuff to keep them clean, you have to clean the door and the disgusting gasket all the time. I want appliances that work for me, not that I have to work for. All the ones I've had (never bought one, different brands that came with houses we have lived in) have needed major repairs that cost more than half the cost of replacing them. So, they encourage people to trash them. In order for them to be at a human bending height (not kneeling height) to pull out wet laundry in the back, you have to BUY separate stands to put under them. Uh, no. #TEAM top loading Speed Queen with the dials! If I didn't have the money for that I would get basic stackable top loader/dryer like I had in one of our apartments. Very small footprint. Cheap. You can stand up and do all your laundry! No bending or kneeling.

Azure Standard is my go-to for affordable, bulk organic. There is a shipping fee. But not everyone is near a drop location, so check that first. https://www.azurestandard.com

My cousins had the fashion one, and I was very envious!

Glyphosate also enters the soil and kills the soil bacteria necessary for the ecosystem that provides the nutrients for the wheat plants. Many crops are much less nutrient dense than in the past (mostly tillage, but also herbicides). There is evidence that consumers (and their gut bacteria) may be harmed. Farmworkers absorb it through their skin and through the air they breathe in highly concentrated amounts. It runs off in rainwater and has deadly effects in amphibians in nearby ponds and streams. And why are we using it? So every stalk of wheat is exactly the same level of dryness as the ones next to it on exactly the same day for the convenience of mechanized farming? Somehow humans harvested wheat for thousands of years without Roundup... It does ripen and then dry out naturally. Seems like we are poisoning people, soil, water, and wildlife for convenience? And who profits... certainly not the farmers who are kept in a debt cycle purchasing these herbicides from major chemical companies and are often one crop away from losing their farm. So many very harmful things are completely unnecessary, yet somehow continue to be used. Very interesting read: https://www.amazon.com/What-Your-Food-Ate-Restore/dp/1324052104/ref=sr_1_1?crid=203JED4EUPSPP&keywords=what+your+soil+ate&qid=1699029041&sprefix=what+your+soil+ate%2Caps%2C120&sr=8-1

There might be a second (or third or fourth) player involved, with some people having celiac disease, and other people sensitive to gluten or other additives (dough conditioners, rapid rise yeast) and still others sensitive to the herbicide glyphosate (Roundup) sprayed on conventional crops right before harvest as a desiccant.

There is a link further back in the thread to my publisher where it is available to order. But I will repeat the link here. https://littoralbooks.com/product/the-buoyant-letters-of-mimsy-bell-by-laurel-dodge/

I tell people that I chose that word just so I would finally learn to spell it! Not 100% true, but that was the effect.

Rosie has given me the green light to post the link for my novel, The Buoyant Letters of Mimsy Bell, published by Littoral Press. Thanks! https://littoralbooks.com/product/the-buoyant-letters-of-mimsy-bell-by-laurel-dodge/

Not sure, if by board rules (not selling your own products), I can post the link, but if you PM me I will message it to anyone who is interested.

Five years in the making, many drafts, endless writers' group critiques, and failures with literary agents later, I have the published book in my hands! So, all you writers out there, don't give up! It is an epistolary novel, which is a style the literary agents didn't like. I had three different agents tell me: "I love your writing and your main character, but I could never sell an epistolary novel to a major publisher." But sadly for them and happily for me, it is being published by a small, independent, literary press in Portland, Maine that does not fear the epistolary style. Try all avenues to get your writing out there, folks! Don't let an agent discourage you. It is not entirely their fault, like a real estate agent they don't get paid until they sell a book to a publisher, so it makes perfect sense that they are only going to go with books that are a sure thing. Small presses are a viable option. One can also self-publish under one's own imprint (much like making your own small press. Mimsy Bell, an eighty-year-old fiddler, returns to her hometown, Menotomy, in the mountains of western Maine after her decades-long musical career comes to an abrupt end. With just three items left on her bucket list, she’s most of the way to a life well-lived. But it isn’t easy to find a final resting place, make peace with the river that claimed her first love, or recapture the person she was before the course of her life was diverted forever. Especially when a closed cemetery, a crabby minister, and a curse stand in her way. And some nice reviews: “A delightful, insightful book. In her letters to a long-lost love, feisty Mimsy Bell reflects on her life and ours, on the tragedy and beauty that surrounds us. I found myself wishing Mimsy had started writing sooner so my time with her would last longer. The Buoyant Letters of Mimsy Bell is a special creation, a story I will eagerly revisit.” — Gerry Boyle, author of the Jack McMorrow mysteries. “Like a Maine river, this book has depth and beauty, offering up surprises where you least expect them. You’ll be transported to Menotomy and won’t want to leave" — Robin Marrow MacCready winner of the Edgar Award Best YA 2006 I am so excited! Book launch coming up in two weeks. Already started the next one. If you would like more information on the novel, PM me.

Every time Lucy Calkins opens her mouth she spews stupidity. Most school-age children can learn what a phonogram is, what syllables are, what the spelling rules say. It is ludicrous that she'd use terms like "slider power" and "picture power," an insult to the intelligence of all children and proof that she does not believe children should be given the tools they need for reading at all the levels of difficulty they will encounter throughout their lives. Accusing phonics-first proponents of not caring about writing!?: Straw man fallacy, a last-ditch effort made by those drowning in their own wrongness: "Stop discussing this topic! Look over there at what they are doing!!" And no phonics-centered educator has ever suspended language arts instruction after making sure the students can sound out words. The very idea is insane. I wish she would, ashamedly, disappear into a hole somewhere. Perhaps donate most of her ill-gotten fortune to a simple charity (one she can understand) that does good works, like feeding the hungry. She can never make up for what she has done, particularly to so many children in poverty, children in minority groups, children for whom English is a second language, and children with learning disabilities -- and even the children of upper middle class, suburban parents! She managed to spew her flawed methods all over the demographic diversity of our country. As you can see, I have feelings...

More Maine:

I haven't been to that many states, but from what I have seen in real life and in photographs, I think all of them have extraordinary places worth visiting. Having chosen to live in Maine over all other states, I do say that Maine's variety of terrain and habitats (mountains, hills, ocean, sandy beaches, cobble beaches, rocky coast, salt marshes, wetlands, bogs and fens, ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, old fields, and farmland); its low population; and its dark skies for seeing the stars; and it's four seasons (five, if you count mud season) makes it a place where one can visit or live and experience many different natural places within a days drive without much crowding from other people. Places I have been that I found incredibly beautiful include the rivers and sandstone bluffs of eastern Kentucky (Cumberland Falls region); the pointy, close together mountains of West Virginia and the Monongahela region; the Catskill Mountains of NY; a preserve called the 1,000 acre swamp near Rochester NY, the Kancamagus Highway in NH that goes through the White Mountains; the Honey Island Swamp in Slidell, LA; and the phosphorescence on the beach at night on Cape Cod.Though I have been to Michigan many times, it is to a very flat, featureless region in the lower center, so I am sure I have not seen the best that state has to offer. On my list, there are hundreds more natural wonders in other states I would love to visit. If I could see a remnant native prairie in flower, even though I don't gravitate to flat terrain, I would be really happy. Other places on the list are the Sonoran desert, Utah, British Columbia (not a state, but a province!), Glacier National Park (well, all the national parks), and more.

I was planning on going to Popham today, too! The fact that this was the last good painting day of the year meant that I spent every minute painting my barn instead, but it pleases me that we WTMers might have been there at the same time had I not had so much work to do and so little time left to do it. 🙂

I am sickened that this has happened in my relatively peaceful state. No place is immune from the cancer of gun violence. Maine had a shooting in April, someone who never should have been let out of jail, a failure of the criminal justice system/courts. The only one before was in 1943 or thereabouts. This one is of the kind we thought only happened elsewhere. But with the media and internet fueling fear and hate and self-aggrandizement and all other manner of twisted thinking , there is no escape from it, even in a state with a long history of responsible gun ownership. My heart goes out to all families affected and to the town of Lewiston which has worked so hard to grow from a forgotten mill town to a modern, vibrant, multicultural community. I am so sad they felt so much fear and loss tonight. At least they have a very clear photo of the assailant. May he be captured and come to judgement soon.

Not to derail the thread, but Maine is quite welcoming to newcomers, especially within 30 miles of the coast.

I went to grad school right across the border from Bellows Falls, VT and live in Maine (Maine is like Vermont and also unlike Vermont). Vermont has all the natural beauty you'd ever want and lots of local businesses that are truly local. But for states like Maine and Vermont where the people are naturally reserved and cautious, you have to prove to the locals that you are respectful of their ways and useful by truly becoming part of the community. Help people when you can. Make an effort to learn people's names and use them, go to town meeting and be quiet and listen, actually always listen and learn before giving your opinion, volunteer for something, show up at the town and school events, recognize that probably Vermont, like Maine, is more egalitarian and politically diverse in terms of where people live, with people of lower means living right beside those with more means and republicans living right next to democrats. If you are used to an us/them on the political front you are going to have to change that thought process to "neighbor first". If you are one of those of greater means, it will not do you well in the community for you to complain about someone's clothesline or that they fix old cars in their yard or get heaps of logs delivered which take many hours with a chainsaw to cut up into firewood. Know that there is a backstory to everyone, the locals know it, and act accordingly. They know that Mrs. Jones' husband left her a month ago and she still hasn't recovered enough to mow her lawn. Some might even send their kid over there to do it for her, no thank you necessary, just being neighborly. Your neighbors will help you if they see you in extremis, pull you out of the ditch in winter, shake their head as they see you standing on the top of a stepladder trying to chop an ice dam on your roof which is going to fall on your head if you are successful and then come back with a couple of guys, real tools, and tall ladders to fix it (happened to me in Maine). Here are two videos I think are eye-opening and seemingly kind of harsh to the newcomer, but filled with ways to become a Vermonter or Country Person, slowly over time, rather than remaining that flatlander from away. The first one is a family that moved to Vermont to homestead, so their lifestyle fits in, but they've still had some trouble. It is a harsher video. The second video is excellent, Carolyn is (a homeschooler) from the west, but her advice is gentle and excellent.

I think I am the odd woman out in Maine dying my hair. Working or not, older women rarely dye their hair here unless they are on TV. I started going gray at 36 and if I was with my kids and my mom or my mil, both of whom dyed their hair at the time, people would think Mom or MIL was the MOTHER and I was the GRANDMOTHER (despite my lack of wrinkles). So I dyed my hair. I look 10 years younger when I dye it. Now at a much older age than 36, my hair is white and extremely fine, sometimes it breaks just finger combing it. When I get the roots showing you can see my scalp. It is not acceptable to me. I am a woman who does not wear makeup, only uses natural ingredient moisturizer, and eats organic, yet I buy boxed color ($9.99 a box) and it makes me happy not to look like I have 80 year old hair in my 50s. In general society, I think feeling it necessary to dye to have a professional job would be more ageism. Women throughout history have had more interest in having fun with their looks than men have in theirs and so women would be more likely to recognize and respond to ageism in this particular form. Oh, and my husband and both my kids want me to go grey again like I was in my thirties (technically, I couldn't because it is now white, but they wouldn't mind white either), so clearly it's for me that I color.

Not right on the coast, but about 30 min from the end of the peninsula and ten minutes from the mouth of the river/bay. Gathering up the lawn chairs and disc golf targets and taking them inside. Hoping the giant limb we have been eyeing with fear does not come down on our barn roof if the storm is bad. Hopefully it will burn itself out and/or go out to sea, but we always lose power, even in small storms, so we have gas for the generator.

"Don't worry about a thing. Every little thing is going to be all right." Listen to this beautiful "Three Little Birds" cover by Dresage & AG. So soothing when I am freaking out.

In eighth grade, I started out with French and progressed poorly, able to read it but not understand it when spoken, probably a language processing disorder of some kind. After three years of good teachers, I couldn't even figure out where one word ended and another began! So I switched to Latin for my last two years of high school. What a relief! Everything was pronounced slowly and with no accent! Most of the work was on paper and not aloud. We did grammar which I love instead of "foods of France" which with my sensory processing disorder was always embarrassing, having to refuse to eat. In Latin we learned tons of root words that are used in English, which I still think about today as a writer, and I even study more when I have time to add depth of thought to my word choices when writing (even if no-one else knows what I am doing! lol).

grass-fed butter, organic refined coconut oil, and organic lard.

I had very early readers. One read chapter books at 3. The other at 4. By 5 and 6, they could read almost anything. So I had to be very cautious about what they read. There were threads on here back then about books for advanced readers that didn't have mature content. I really appreciated those, so much, as I didn't have time to pre-read all the books my voracious readers devoured. One of my children was much more sensitive than the other, but also leaned toward nonfiction so that usually wasn't a problem. But he did self-censor once when he was 4 after reading a chapter book series that I can't remember the name of (I think the covers were black and they were published in hardcover). There was a troll under the stairs with an illustration in one volume. He'd encountered trolls in fairy tales before, but this one was in a modern kid's house. He was screaming hysterically for me to "get this book out of the house!" And I did. We also examined our stairs and I showed him there was no closet where things could hide under the stairs, just another staircase to the basement. My daughter who is 18 and mostly read fiction, tells me now I should have censored her more between the ages of 10-13 which she calls "the danger-zone" and she says her child will not have the freedom she did. She will be censoring books. Her kids will be tightly locked down on phones and internet. (To which I say, not really joking, by then your child will be lucky if their brain isn't physically hardwired into the internet.) The internet anorexia influencers (girls taking you along on their anorexia journey on youtube) were the start of her eating disorder, she said, she had never heard of limiting one's eating or thought of herself as fat before encountering them. Then she began to search out books with characters who had anorexia or bulimia to feed that body dysmorphic disorder. She said that, plus the interpersonal hatefulness and angst over weight, beauty, popularity, feelings of much of YA was extremely detrimental to her sense of self worth (she did like fantasy YA very much and is writing her own now). Basically, as most people have said in this thread, I agree that for MOST kids 12/13 seems to be an age where the brain has matured enough to be more free about book choices. But then hearing my daughter's report of her experiences, if I had it to do over again knowing what I know now, I would have curated books up until 14/15 (and would have never given access to the internet until that same time). And I say this as a liberal, freedom-of-speech loving, non-religious person. What others do, think, or believe about parenting is not worth my child heading down a potentially fatal path. (p.s. My daughter is doing a lot better lately, but she does have to be occasionally reminded that she skipped a meal.) So, if I were to do it over again with my children. I would censor topics that are likely to be "contagious" and potentially fatal (body image, addiction, gun-worship, etc.) up until high school, not stopping at 10/12 like I did. With frontal lobes not fully connected and tween/teen brains tuned to hyper-respond to everything in their environment, neuroscience is telling us developing brains are vulnerable. My child tells me now her developing brain was vulnerable. I do not believe "talking about the books" would have made any difference with her vulnerability. Books and internet content will still be there to be read when a child's brain has matured, there is no rush and my job is to watch out for my individual children. As for the Clan of the Cave Bear, I remember reading the series in high school and loving it. I recall vaguely there were rape scenes and I am sure there was other awful stuff but it didn't traumatize me. "Teen me" figured that life in Paleolithic times would often be brutal and the author was trying to depict that. As for Lord of the Flies. The book really can't be understood without knowing that it is a rewrite of the author's favorite childhood book, The Coral Island by R. M. Ballentyne, which is a gentle adventure story about boys shipwrecked on an island. (Even some of the character names are the same.) After being in the military and seeing the atrocities of WWII firsthand, William Golding lost faith in the innate goodness of human beings. The innocence of his beloved childhood book, The Coral Island, now seemed naive and he set about rewriting it to show what would have "really happened" if a group boys were left alone on an island (as informed by his experiences in WWII). If it was taught in that light, how the brutality of war completely upended his core beliefs about the nature of humanity, Lord of the Flies would be much easier to understand and richer discussion-wise. In my opinion, both books should be assigned/read together. Not sure in which order though...