Here in Oklahoma, where we can experience triple digit heat for weeks at a time, I am not ashamed to say that the waning of summer is cause for a sigh of relief. Those first yellowed leaves fluttering to the ground, a sudden north breeze, the gentle mellowing of the light--- all make my heart skip a beat and I feel a change coming in the air, and it's a good one.
   School has already started where we are, and with this routine comes the sense of a fresh start, more tangible it seems than January 1. The oncoming of fall brings with it so many shifts and changes, and many of them are things near and dear to my heart.

    For the past few months my garden has been in the mode of 'just keep it alive.' The sun gets too hot and the good rains are too few. Fall brings with it almost a second flourishing as the temperatures and light get more gentle and weary plants can give one last hurrah-- especially the roses. It's time to harvest many summer plants that have begun to fade--- like the hollyhocks, the black eyed susans and echinacea. 
   We gather seeds to dry and put away for next spring, and sprinkle out a few for hopes that they'll slumber through the winter and get an early start. This month in The Stillwater Society, we will be organizing a seed exchange between friends, and urge any members who'd like to to part!

     Another facet of fall that I love is the sheer coziness of it; from the hearty soups and stews to the apple-tinged ciders to wonderful harvest pies--- it is a decadent time. Cooler temperatures mean snugly sweaters and those favorite pair of boots and at least for me, I get the urge to bunker down and make my nest. Autumn is the time for knitting and painting and all those comforting 'at home' things. Do you have activities that you love that seem to become all-consuming passions once autumn comes around?

      And so....as we bid waning summer farewell and turn towards autumn, I hope that you make time to enjoy the simple and elusive pleasures that only this season can bring. It is so fleeting....that beautiful time when the leaves change and hold their brilliance; then we will turn the corner and slide right into Advent.
    Wishing you an autumn filled with much joy and homespun moments! Take the time to relish them when they come!~
~Heather

*All photos taken at Old Sturbridge Village

Summertime and birthdays, a magical mix!

   Grandmother’s birthday was an occasion for summertime feasting. Hand-cranked ice cream, homemade cake and the season’s first watermelon, fresh from the garden. Cousins chased fireflies in the cornfield, the adults laughed and told stories on the porch, all while a symphony of crickets filled the early evening air.

   Memories such as these are what drew me into the world of celebrated illustrator and lifestyle artiste, Tasha Tudor, who 

would be one hundred years old this year. The traditions in her illustrations easily meshed with my childhood and sometimes, if I squinted hard enough, Grandma and Tasha became the same person. Summertime and birthdays, a magical mix!

   Several years ago an online group of friends began honoring Tasha Tudor on her birthday, August 28. Memories of those gatherings from long ago came flooding back to me and I was determined that a homemade cake must be part of the celebration. I told a friend about my plan and was promptly invited to the family farm for the occasion. 

   The ingredients in the “Tasha Tudor Cookbook” are very simple. Farm fresh eggs and goat’s milk were right outside the back door of the farmhouse. Butter, sugar, vanilla and other ingredients were waiting in the pantry.

   The “receipt,” as Tasha liked to call it, calls for creaming butter and sugar together and then adding an egg yolk. Milk, vanilla, flour, baking powder and salt are added to the mix, until finally a well-beaten egg white is gently folded into the batter. Then everything is carefully poured into two greased and floured cake pans to bake for 30 minutes.

   With the warm fragrance of cake filling the air, my friend and I turned our attention to making the boiled frosting. Determined to do things the old fashioned way, we took turns beating the eggs in a copper bowl with a whisk until stiff peaks formed, just the right consistency.

Then, sugar and water were boiled until “the mixture spins a thread when blown from a spoon,” just as the cookbook commanded. In reality, we used a candy thermometer to ensure the correct temperature, but we did try blowing it off the spoon to see what would happen!

   I have made this receipt several times and the icing comes out different every time, sometimes it is very stiff and forms peaks, sometimes it is soft as marshmallow crème. No matter, once the cake has cooled, spread the icing and decorate with flowers, herbs, a dusting of cocoa powder or leave it simply plain.

     Later that evening, with friends gathered round eating cake and telling jokes, I was reminded how the simple celebrations are often the best. In these days when life is moving too fast and stress abounds, take joy in Tasha Tudor Day! Make a cake with a friend... or just a cup of tea. Relish time together and give thanks for the good times and memories you have shared. Summertime and birthdays, they are a magical mix! Happy Tasha Tudor Day!



Mr. B. Smith

Cleveland, Ohio

August 2015

Celebrating Tasha Tudor

   This month in the Stillwater Society we are celebrating what would have been the 100th birthday of celebrated artist and illustrator Tasha Tudor! Many of our members are devoting blog posts to this happy occasion--- so keep an eye on our side bar blogroll!
   Tasha's actual birthday was August 28, 1915. We hope to have lots of celebrating to share on that date!
   Until nest time----
The Stillwater Society

New England Love: Old Timey Interiors

The following post comes from Stillwater Society Member Blog Audrey Eclectic Folk Art....

      Many, many times on our big trip to New England, I would walk into a room and my heart would just ache. I was just---- in love--- with every little piece of pattern, paint, furniture, detail. On all our adventures, from Historic Deerfield to Old Sturbridge Village, we were able to go into antique spaces that just made my heart sing. I would think "Yes! This is what I'm trying to paint!"

      One of my favorite live-in spaces was The Red Lion Inn (see my bearded sweetheart looking so nice in this old timey setting!) with its many rooms filled with antiques, beautifully done wallpapers and just ambiance to the hilt. It's my dream to one day run away with said bearded man and spend a weekend there--- just us two--- at this beautiful inn tucked in the Berkshires. 20 year anniversary, perhaps?

    These following photos were taken at Old Sturbridge Village, which--- if I lived closer-- I would positively haunt. So many beautiful spaces, all set up for you to actually look at, touch, be a part of. You can walk through these parlors, through these kitchens and little rooms where so much life went on. It is a museum, yes, but it is one mean to be savored. I stumbled through just in awe, every corner just a painting waiting to be captures. I fell head over heels in love, for sure!

   What strikes me most about all these interior spaces is the love of color--- rich color--- but it doesnt feel overwhelming. The Americans of the 19th century had such a marvelous sense of color and pattern. I loved all the sage green, the aqua, the hints of mustard and ox blood red. 

   One thing is for sure---- I am so inspired to take all this inspiration and use it for future paintings, and my own home! 

  Hope you enjoy them too!~
H

Corgi Cottage Tour Revisited

   I wrote this originally as a guest post on Audrey Eclectic in June 2014 after my first tour of Corgi Cottage.  I thought I'd share it here now while I work on a follow up post about the tour I took recently.  If anyone else has taken a tour, we'd love for you to share your impressions and thoughts with others here at the Stillwater Society!  -Patricia

I can’t remember a time when Tasha Tudor was not a part of my life. She seems to just have always been there, sitting on my bookshelves waiting for me to pick her up on a regular basis and read her stories, look at her illustrations, and learn about her lifestyle. 
     In the late 80’s, when I went away to college in Vermont, I knew Tasha lived somewhere not too far away, but I never really knew exactly where. This was many years ago, before Google! 
     I would drive the back roads of Vermont, just certain that I would stumble across her home; I’d knock on the door, she’d let me in and, recognizing a kindred spirit, we’d become fast friends. 
  I was always fascinated by the life that Tasha led and the way she lived it on her own terms, in the manner she chose. I read anything I could get my hands on about Tasha. 
    I remember the joy of getting The Private World of Tasha Tudor and being able to pour over the photos of her home and life. I still have that original copy that I bought over 20 years ago. I always hoped to have the opportunity to see her home, but never really thought I’d be able to.

     Heather and I have spoken about Tasha many times since we’ve become friends- it was nice to finally have someone to share my love of Tasha Tudor with! Last October we were able to go to the Tasha Tudor Museum together, and since that time we’ve had a lot of conversations about going on the house and garden tour together (for some reason this always involved the two of us in prairie outfits hanging out of a tree with binoculars- I guess we never thought we’d actually be able to go properly!)
     Through a series of serendipitous events, spurred on by Heather, I recently had the good fortune of being included in a private tour of Tasha’s home and gardens with a wonderful group of people who also share our love and interest in all that was and is Tasha Tudor. 
    I was very nervous before going. I kept viewing it as “before Tasha” and “after Tasha”, certain that I would never be the same again after having seen for myself where Tasha had created her world. I am also a very shy introvert, so just the thought of meeting a group of other people, including Tasha’s own family, brought on a bundle of nerves. 
    But I could not have had a better experience. The group that I met up with were kind, interesting, and welcoming people. Tasha’s family were very welcoming to us all.
     I also realized as I arrived that I would never have found Tasha’s home all those years ago! It is truly off the beaten path and you feel like you are arriving in another world; indeed a quieter, kinder, gentler world.
    We were separated into two groups, and my group was led by Tasha’s son, Seth. He was very down to Earth with a great sense of humor! He made us all chuckle several times with some of his stories about life with Tasha. 
     Walking into Tasha’s home was surreal. It is not a museum; it is most definitely a home that was well lived in and loved. They do ask you not to touch anything, as everything was left exactly how Tasha left it. 
    There are pencil, chalk, and ink drawings on the walls that Tasha did herself. Seth told us how she always had the habit of writing down the dates of her dogs, goats, and chickens births and deaths on the kitchen walls. She also wrote quotes, phone numbers, and notes to herself on the walls and doorways. There were dates of the first and last snowfalls, quotes that were meaningful to her, and even a small notation about the death of her brother, which Seth had only himself noticed that week.
     I found it very charming that written on a door in black marker was the notice “Very Important Don’t Open this Door- chicken.” 

   Tasha’s home was homey, cluttered , cozy- the type of home you want to curl up in with a cup of tea and a good book. 
   LaVonne, one of the women on the tour, had given us all notebooks when we arrived and I filled nearly every single page with notes about my impressions of each room of her home as well as the barns and garden. I had written on the first page “very dark, chilly but every room has a fireplace…cluttered with china and candles and lots and lots of books….”
   I keep rereading this description I wrote and I realized that, for me, it is absolutely the description of the perfect home. Every room had books, pretty floral china, lots of candles and all manner of candle holders. As you can imagine, the entire home is old fashioned and filled with antiques and old things. I spent quite a long time in her bedroom, where I felt I had to write down every single book on the shelf. I had to know what books Tasha kept close to her in her bedroom. 
   Whereas most of the other books scattered about the house were a mixture of literature, flower books, herb books, gardening books, and books about New England, in Tasha’s bedroom they were all literature save for a well-worn copy of the Bible. Her bedroom books included titles by Jane Austen, George Eliot, William Thackeray, Washington Irving, and Louisa May Alcott. 
    I was absolutely thrilled that she had what appeared to be an original copy of Irving’s Old Christmas, one of my all-time favorites to read during the holiday season. It made my heart happy that a woman I so admired had similar taste in literature as I have.
     Just outside of Tasha’s bedroom is her dollhouse. It is a three story high, “L” shaped glass fronted cabinet style house. The kitchen was at the top floor, the living room was in the middle, and the bedroom was at the bottom.
     It was a wonderful sight to see, with its tiny versions of real life items. I’m a big fan of Tasha’s Sparrow Post, so I was delighted to see several small letters on a desk in the dollhouse. 
   In Tasha’s library was a small clay nude sculpture. Seth told us that Tasha always said it was of her, that she had unwillingly posed at the age of 16 for an artist friend of her mother’s.
    In what was referred to as the winter kitchen was a large loom that still has the orange cloth on it that was the last weaving project Tasha worked on before her death. In this room is also the famous painting of her brother, Frederic, painted by their mother, Rosamond Tudor. 
    I will admit that I was more excited to see the painting of Frederic in Tasha Tudor’s home then I was when I saw the Mona Lisa at the Louvre! 
   Walking down the long hallway to the barn that was attached to the house, we were able to see where Tasha milked her goats and where she kept her doves. The canoe she has been pictured in on the pond was hanging from the ceiling. 
   We all got a bit of a smile out of seeing a dead mouse in one of the large barrels- mainly because as any Tasha Tudor fan will know, Tasha would have scooped that mouse out of the barrel and posed and painted him! 
   Seeing her home was so overwhelming that I was genuinely shocked when we were led outside and informed that Winslow would be taking over to do the garden tour. I had absolutely forgotten there was more to come! 
   Spring came late to Vermont this year. There wasn’t an abundance of flowers out yet, but there were tons of forget me not’s and violets scattered throughout the entire property. I never realized how wonderful those flowers truly are until I saw them in that setting, in that abundance.
    We were shown the pond and the vegetable garden, the redone pinks garden and the peony garden that Winslow is currently restoring. We were shown the greenhouse with its gorgeous large pots of roses and the bay tree and the secret garden, full of forget me not’s.
    As someone who is only now just learning to garden simple and basic flowers, it was truly awe inspiring. It definitely made me want to go home and reconfigure my own garden areas! 
   All too soon it was time to leave the property and head back to the 21st century. We were given lemonade, fruit, and cookies after the tour but I’m afraid my brain was so full of trying to remember every single detail, I’m not sure I really took in much after getting back to the Rookery! 

   There is no photography allowed, in fact they ask you to leave your cell phones in your car, so I have no photos of the day to share. 
   After being on the tour and seeing her home, I am absolutely grateful that this is the rule. I think having people snapping away would disturb the magic of the place and I heartily agree with leaving the cameras behind. I was truly overwhelmed by the wonderfulness that is Tasha Tudor’s home. If you ever have the opportunity to take the tour, I highly recommend it.

A Little Update!~

 Hello friends and fellow Stillwater Society Members! 
    Our group is now in full swing on facebook, but I'd like for this to be an active group space as well.
   
   The Stillwater Society is very much a collective. This will be our space-- to share, celebrate and learn. If you would like to be a contributor to this blog, please feel free to email me! Once every-so-often posts or a regular series of posts.
   
   Each month we can also have a 'theme' for posts (though we don't have to necessarily stick to them, they would purely be for inspiration) and each month's theme will be posted in the sidebar. 

   Perhaps, if we so feel--- we can do trade, giveaways and exchanges! I personally would love to do a seed exchange at the end of the summer. Especially for hollyhock seeds!

 For August we already have some great plans for a theme and some chances to win treats in a weekly giveaway! Since many of us are Tasha Tudor fans--- and in August she would have been 100 years old, we are going to take the whole month to celebrate this artist and writer who embodies what "The Stillwater Society" is all about--- and in fact, gave us our name! So check back through the month of August as we start celebrating, And until then, we will have such fun getting to know each other!

  Also--- I'd like to start a sidebar list of all the  personal blogs of our members! If you'd like your blog shared on the sidebar please comment on THIS POST with your blog address, and I will add it to our list. 

   If you'd like to share your membership of The Stillwater Society on your blog, please feel free to use the button above! Just right click and save and link it back to this blog.

  Anyhow---- stay tuned for more posts! And please come join us on the facebook group if you're able to. I know not everyone uses facebook, but it is the easiest set-up for our purposes at the moment for chatting together. Please feel free to chat, ask questions and send your own musings to us here on the blog, however. 

  The most important thing is that we have fun, get to share in community, and above all, enjoy the simple life!~

Welcome!

A cooking scene from Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts

    Hello and welcome to The Stillwater Society! We are a group of people from all walks of life, corners of the world far and near, ages and occupations. Though we may all be very different, we have some important things in common--- an appreciation for the simple things, for what was good in the past, and maintaining a connection to our world and each other. 
   Here at Stillwater, we will share many of our dovetailing interests--- including good books, good art, old fashioned recipes, passtimes and home decor. 
    The name of our group is derived from a concept created by artist Tasha Tudor. In her own word Tasha explained, "Stillwater connotes something very peaceful. Life without stress. Nowadays, people are so jeezled up. If they took some chamomile tea and spent more time rocking on the porch in the evening. . . they might enjoy life more."

  And so, that is our mission! We hope that this blog and companion group may become a source of peace, inspiration and comfort for those of us who long for a simpler and quieter way of life. There are so many things in the world screaming for our attention, blaring at us how we should think and feel, what we should buy and consume. Stillwater will be the antithesis of that. Stillwater will be like an afternoon spent on a dear friend's porch, a warm cup of tea in hand, talking about the small pleasures of life.

   We hope that you join us, whenever you can! You're welcome to join us here on the blog or chat with us on our 'vitrual porch' in our online community. It is our hope that this group enhances your pursuit for a simple and joyfilled life.

  Because, as Tasha would say, we should Take Joy! The gloom of the world is but a shadow!

The Stillwater Society