March Newsletter - Bring on Spring!

Enough of wintering. I'm ready for flowers and sunshine.

Hello, friends! Last month I waxed poetical about savoring the season of winter, but as we enter the third month of 2025, let me just say: I’m 100% ready for spring.

January may have been all about Norman Rockwell New England scenes and kids skating at the local pond like the Peanuts gang, but February hit me like a sledgehammer. In the middle of month, I wound up at the ER for only the second time in my entire life. I was the kind of sick where you lay in bed in a dark room all day wondering if you’ll ever be well again. I couldn’t even watch TV or doom scroll on my phone. Thankfully, I have recovered, but it was an experience that certainly helped me understand how people used to die of the common cold before our modern era.

Aside from dealing with the germs of season, February also reminded me of some of favorite aspects of winter. In January, I told you how I get Pioneer woman vibes bringing in logs for the wood stove, and that’s true, and it’s all well and good, but the wood stove is also messy. My socks are endlessly full of splinters and the mantel is covered in ashy dust. Sure, I could vacuum more, and I do, but it’s endless. And then there’s the joy of fetching wood when the backyard turns into a river of ice. Not quite the pleasant boots-crunching-in-snow experience.

And have I mentioned the twenty or so steps from the driveway to my front door? Those are really fun during the ice hellscape of February. Here’s a peek the the steps to the garage. Isn’t that inviting? You need crampons to get to the car.

And here’s another less fun Pioneer woman experience we suffer through at my old house in winter:

Should one want a relaxing, hot bath around here, well, you’re pretty much out of luck. Our furnace heats hot water in an on-demand fashion, and when the weather is cold, it just can’t keep up. It doesn’t help that the pipes run up a poorly insulated wall from the basement to second floor. So we use the wood stove and kitchen stove to heat up stockpots, which we then lug up the stairs. And it’s not as if we have a large clawfoot bathtub or anything. Our Pepto-Bismol pink, 1950s bathtub is, if anything, a bit shorter than standard, with very average depth. We have to cover the overflow outlet to fill it high enough for a meaningful soak. Frankly, you have to really, really want a bath for this all to be worthwhile. It helps me understand why pioneer folk didn’t bathe very often. Thank goodness we have a shower as an option! With careful water-pressure control, you can almost manage a hot one.

So, as I said, enough of winter. I’m ready for spring. Thank goodness in a few short weeks, we’ll cross the equinox. For my part, I’ll be on the lookout for my early spring bulbs and warm afternoons for plein air painting. Thankfully, for now, it’s warm and dry in my studio, where I’ve been practicing my spring flowers.

Painting on View

From March 6 to April 13, you can view my “Portrait of Eve” at ArtsWorcester as part of the monochrome exhibit. I made this YouTube video about the inspiration for the piece and the painting process. The figure is inspired by a statue of Eve that I saw—and sketched—at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London last summer. Check it out!

Learn Watercolor with Me

I’ll be offering Watercolor Fundamentals through Two Bridges Art Academy again this spring. In the 8-week session, we’ll work through concepts and exercises to help you level up your watercolor skills and approach a variety of subjects with more confidence. Classes are live via virtual meetings. The session runs from March 27 to May 15 with classes meeting on Thursday evenings from 6 to 9 PM. The class is geared toward beginner to intermediate painters. No experience is necessary! Sign up today to reserve your spot. Space is limited.

Let’s Write Together

If you’d like to work with me on your writing in a supportive environment this spring, check out the Monadnock Pastoral Poetry Retreat, which will be held in Greenfield, New Hampshire, from April 25 to 27. While it’s called a poetry retreat, we also welcome novelists and nonfiction writers! I have been fortunate to work with fiction writers at this retreat for a number of years now, and every year it exceeds my expectations in terms of community, camaraderie, and inspiration.