Book & Bramble - June & July 2024
A Letter from Caitlyn Paxson
Dear Reader,
From my writing desk, I have a view of the garden. It’s been a slow start to the growing season here, and it feels like things are just beginning to take off at last. We’re starting to harvest summer crops like zucchini and new potatoes, and within days I expect the high summer flowers like zinnias and cosmos will finally make an appearance. June and July had their own beauties and harvests, of course.
Image Description: Peonies and Foxgloves
June and July also had a lot of non-garden related activities. I turned 41, went to Nova Scotia, welcomed lots of guests to the farm, started up multiple summer museum programs, and worked very hard on editing MY NOVEL, A Widow’s Charm (coming to a bookstore near you in Spring 2026!!!)! Yes, just in case you somehow didn’t hear the shrieking, I got to announce that my dream of being a published novelist is finally coming true! Everyone has been so kind about the news – though I must report that the cats do not seem adequately impressed with me.
Image Description: Monty and Tess scale the bookshelf.
Interpreting:
In addition to being back in the haunting business and giving the ghost tour I created at the Historic Yeo House, I also get to deliver a brand new program this summer at Orwell Corner, which is a darling little 1890’s crossroads village. The program is called In the Time of Maud, and basically I spend the afternoon frolicking around the village with other people who also love L.M. Montgomery. We write postcards with dip pens and ink, we meet the farm animals, we go for a wagon ride along a road that Maud herself travelled in 1910, we have tea, and then we do a dancing lesson on the village green! I think it really captures the spirit of what it feels like reading a L.M. Montgomery novel and gives us all a lot of “scope for the imagination”, to quote Anne Shirley.
Image Description: Did
I mention Orwell has baby goats???
Crafting:
Once again I have two wreath crowns to share with you. June was the time of the Heatwave Queen, featuring viburnum, daisies, boxwood, columbine, and yarrow.
Image Description: Heatwave
Queen
Then in July, the rudbeckia and coneflowers burst forth. I’d been admiring the drama of their dark pink and golden orange contrast in the garden and took great pleasure in bedecking myself in them! Both of these wreaths are very simple - just bundles of the ingredients bound up with wire.
Image Description: High
Summer Queen
Reading:
My brain has been so wrapped up in the edits I had to do for my own book that I’ve barely read anything since April! I am now on a long-term hiatus from my book reviewing work, so for the first time in eight years, I’m not reading a baseline of four or five books a month out of necessity on top of whatever I read for pleasure, which feels odd. I honestly think I needed a bit of a break, and I’m feeling excited to tackle my to-be-read pile. I did still have time for some audiobooks, and I fell absolutely in love with Leigh Bardugo’s new novel, The Familiar.
It’s about a scullery maid with magic powers living in Renaissance Spain, who gets caught up in a tournament of miracles that may give her everything she always longed for – unless the Inquisition decides her abilities are the work of the devil. I recently described it to a friend as Dangerous Beauty (the classic 90’s costume drama) but with magicians instead of courtesans. It has a lot of plot (and plotting), but at its heart, it’s an epic romance. Highly recommended for anyone who likes historical fantasy!
Musing:
I feel very ready now for the golden days of late summer and their slower, more contemplative pace. I’ll leave you with a picture of the garden – I think I’ll go out there now and see what’s new.
Image Description: The
veggie garden.
Until next time, wishing you the best books and the most berry-full brambles,
Caitlyn
P.S. Look at this fancy French cake my baking wizard husband MADE me for my birthday!!! C'est magnifique!
I write this from the traditional unceded territory known as Mi’kma’ki, and I am grateful to call Epekwitk my home.