I'm back home, and slowly catching up on sleep, email, and everything else. . . . Tilly says thanks for all the birthday messages!

Today is Tilly's first birthday. She was born exactly a year ago on a farm in Tiverton, and came to live with us at Bumblehill just eight weeks later. I'm away from home at the moment, but I'm setting up this post in advance so that it will appear on the proper day -- to celebrate our lovely, goofy girl, who brings us so much joy and laughter.

So happy, happy birthday, Tilly! And thank you, dear Howard and Victoria, for talking me into the idea of adding a dog to the family. I remember just how reluctant I was...and I admit it, I was wrong and you were right....

I'm dealing with some difficult Life Stuff at the moment, so if you're one of the many people awaiting email from me, I apologize for the silence from this end -- and regret to say that unless it's something urgent, I'm unlikely to be able to get back to you before the end of next week. Thank you all for your patience. 

In the video above, one of my absolute favorite bands, Mumford & Sons, performs "Sigh No More," a song that starts with one of my absolute favorite lines from Shakespeare: the moment in Much Ado About Nothing in which Benedick comforts and advises the suffering Beatrice with these simple, powerful words: "Serve God, love me, and mend."

I send this out to my own loved one who is suffering today, and to any of you out there who are having a rough time too.

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of
all art and science." — Albert Einstein

"Throughout the time in which I am working on a canvas I can feel how I am beginning to love it, with that love which is born of slow comprehension."  — Joan Miró