Edith Wharton had a vivid imagination. As a child, she loved to play a game she called “Making up” which involved inventing stories as, book in hand, she walked around feverishly chanting as if in a trance. This caused her parents much consternation. When friends came to play, she asked her mother to entertain them … More Edith’s Vivid Imagination
We’ve had a busy few days up in the Berkshires, mixing book business with fun. Our primary purpose was to check with the places carrying my children’s books to see if they needed more copies. And on Tuesday, I was scheduled to read with families at The Mount, home of the writer Edith Wharton. (But … More I Visited Utopia Today
The month of April was one of the best ever. Charley decided that since it was my Birthday, I should have an entire Birthday Month. Now, I’m not big on cards and gifts and parties. I’m extremely pragmatic and he is well-aware of this. When he asked me to marry him, he wanted to buy … More Lovely April
I’ve been informed by WordPress that it is the two-year anniversary of my blog Around ZuZu’s Barn and it brought back many memories from the early days when I was even more clueless about this social media stuff than I am today. If it wasn’t for my Rhode Island friends, Rob Bentley and Peg Goter, … More Anniversaries and Friends
Norman Rockwell was one of America’s foremost artist illustrators. He once commented on not having an idyllic life and how this affected his work. “Maybe as I grew up and found the world wasn’t the perfect place I had thought it to be, I unconsciously decided that if it wasn’t an ideal world, it should … More An Old-Fashioned Christmas
Charley and I decided to escape reality and travel up to the Berkshires for the weekend. We had book business to take care of and I had to shoot some photos for another story in the ZuZu Series – A Christmas Book which I’m planning to launch in the fall of 2017. Charley’s been wanting … More Who Dunnit?
Well, Talk Like a Pirate Day 2016 is over and we are getting back to some semblance of normalcy, i.e. using a commonly understood dialect and not AAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHTICULATING in the little-used (no mystery why), limited pirate vocabulary that comes out every September 19th around this house. I tried to give myself a break and recycle … More “The Pacas are Coming!” – National Alpaca Farm Days
Hi, it’s Roxie and I’m still here. Now, some of you probably thought I’d died or worse, that I’d run out of things to say. Rest assured, I’m full of things to say. I just haven’t been able to get any computer time around this place. Mom and Dad have been in and out for … More Roxie D. aka “The Other Cat” Feeling the Burn
I’ve been thinking about last Tuesday and the fun I had reading with third graders in Connecticut. I’m convinced that third graders are the sharpest people on the face of the earth. They are incredibly enthusiastic about everything. Their faces literally shine with unabashed anticipation. They volunteer for anything. They sit on the floor with … More Sharp As Tacks!
“I was raised to be charming, not sincere,” This is one of my favorite quotes from Stephen Sondheim’s musical Into the Woods. It’s Prince Charming’s rational explanation to Cinderella when she finds out he’s a cad. Ah, the fairy tales of my youth! So many subtle messages sent to guide me on my way through life; through … More On Expecting Princes To Be Charming
I’m a late bloomer. Very late! At age 65, I wrote a story featuring a tabby kitten named ZuZu, born in a barn at Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. I liked it so much I wrote more stories set in the Berkshires and added in lots of farm animals and an … More Claremary P. Sweeney, RI’s Late-Blooming Author
From the Berkshire Hills and from our home in South County, Rhode Island, we are sending you our heartfelt hopes for a Peaceful Day of Thanks wherever you may be today. And I just want to add that I feel incredible gratitude for all of the bloggers I’ve been communicating with during the last few … More Wishing You a Peaceful Day of Thanks
Around ZuZu's Barn 