A Good Home

A Winter’s Tail

A favourite from 2015

The birds are back with songs of Spring

Their tunes incite imagining

That Winter’s end will soon arrive

And living things shall haste to thrive

~~

Via vitalxrecognition.wordpress.com/
Image Thanks to: vitalxrecognition.wordpress.com/

A Winter’s tail, how bittersweet!

Today it’s sun, tomorrow sleet

And wind to stop us in our tracks

And cold to freeze Spring-hungry backs

~~

One day we feel a wave of hope

Warmed by our thoughts that we can cope

And then come gales of Winter still

And blizzards coat the windowsill

~~

Blog Photo - Icy Winter evening

Hey, Winter! Do your level best

Your time is near to take a rest

For Lady Spring prepares to rule

She’ll thaw your ice and warm your cool

~~

She’ll rout you, kick your icy tail

She’ll make you wish you’d stopped at hail

Who’s mighty now, oh Freezer Guy

Who rules the roost? Oh my, oh my!

~~

Blog Photo - Rainy Garden with Flowering shrubs

Spring wakes the earth; the gardens flower

She turns grass green and makes you cower

She strips away your winter clothes

And sprinkles sunshine up your nose

Blog Photo - Mama's Garden2

She brings new life to garden trail

She gives new strength to plants so frail

To stand up ‘gainst your mighty storm

And so defy your freezing form

 ~~

Hey! Winter’s Tail, I kid you not

Pick up your snow and off you trot

Break down your ice and melt away

See you around, when skies are grey

 ~~

Blog Photo - Lilacs and forget Me Nots

See you next time, oh Frigid One

But not too soon, for Spring’s begun

And three great seasons I shall see

Before you’re back to torment me.

 ~~

Thanks to Hamlin Grange for all original photos.

Dedicated to all northern gardener friends.

A Good Home

A Crash Course in Cooking

If you’ve read this blog or any of my books, you know that certain talents missed me completely.

Blog Photo - Jelly Jar one

I make herb jellies well enough, as I wrote in A Good Home. But cooking, baking, knitting, and any form of interior decoration are foreign lands. My husband, daughters, sisters and friends live there, and they speak a whole different language.

I once made cauliflower with cheese — a simple 2-ingredient dish — and forgot the cheese, as you may have read in An Honest House.

And that reminds me: I know part of the reason I never learned to cook. When my sisters were watching my mother cook, I was nowhere to be found. I was always in a tree, on a rooftop, or hiding in the field behind our house, reading books.

My poor husband sighs elaborately during Christmas dinners and says he knows he married the wrong sister but he’s stuck with her. 

Blog Photo - Christmas table2

“But why have you stuck with me?” I usually ask.

“You have other talents,” he laughs.

“Name one,” I demand.

“Err… ummm..”   He pauses, pretending to think hard about it.

I once joked that I’m gifted only at ‘exterior design’ — gardening — but stopped that joke for fear it would reveal an awful truth: that, deep down, I’m really superficial. I mean, what if when I dig beneath my surface, all I find is more surface?

TWIGS COVER

But I digress.

Since the interior arts are not my thing,  it’s weird that I’m the one doing most of the cooking in this house since the pandemic began.

Blog photo - Baby read a story by mother

Having invited daughter, son-in-law and new baby to come and live with us during this time, I knew we would cook more often, yes. I just didn’t know the cook-er would be me.

What’s more, the only thing I truly ruined took place last evening when the large salt grinder broke open over my one-pot meal. 

Blog Photo - Cookbooks - plant-based dishes

I’m still trying to figure out how I could have prevented that sad event, but as I stood at the stove and watched the destruction of the meal I’d spent hours preparing (yes, I am very slow at this), I froze, in horrified disbelief.

If a person has to ruin a dish, shouldn’t it be for a more splendid reason, like going off to get myself a glass of expensive red wine and forgetting the stove was on, or going to answer the doorbell because my husband had surprised me with a bouquet of fabulous flowers, or some such glorious thing?

But no. My big failure at cooking had to involve a large grinder of Himalayan salt falling apart in my own hands, over the entire meal.

Blog Photo - Cauliflower dish2

So, having declared that failure upfront, I am sharing a photo of a dish I made recently.   It starred a roasted cauliflower, which is slightly ironic, given my sad history with that vegetable.  It’s a stew, with potatoes, zucchini, onions, garlic, tomatoes and peas.

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A Good Home

Colin and Justin

In 2013, Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan made me cry.

And then they made my husband cry.

But our whole family loved them for it.

colin and justin

I had followed their writing and TV shows: they are brilliant designers. But they didn’t know me.  How surprising then, that  Colin and Justin should have done something special for my first book that helped launch my career as an author.

It happened at a time when I was coping with serious injuries from a car accident and had lost all self-confidence.  Gone were the days of being a high-flying TV exec, of heading up big projects, of knowing my own strength.

Now, I badly needed to believe in myself. The book I’d been writing over twenty-plus years was about to be published.

Colin and Justin’s support, and that of other readers and reviewers, made an impact. On me, and on the book-reading public.

Book Cover - A Good Home

A Good Home became both critically acclaimed and a bestseller.

In the years since then, I continued to follow Colin and Justin’s projects, cheering them on when they launched a new TV show and an excellent home accessories line.

Blog Photo - colin and Justins Log Cabin

Occasionally, I dropped them a note. But I still never met them.

Yesterday, an appointment fell through. I ended up strolling through a nearby store, delaying the long drive back home.

I looked up at two men and recognized them instantly.

With several books to my credit, I once again know what it’s like to have fans; I know what it’s like to be approached by strangers. But no fan could have behaved as bizarrely as I did yesterday. 

I think I yelled something like “Colin and Justin! It’s me, Cynthia Reyes!”

And then I hugged them. 

They probably should have called store security.

But Colin and Justin hugged me back as if deranged women with windswept hair, absolutely no makeup — and no attempt at coolness —  attacked them in stores every day.  

Blog Photo - CR with Colin and Justin

They asked about my writing, and whether their support had helped. I was so proud to tell them that it had. 

If you look at the back cover of my first book, A Good Home, you’ll see a lovely testimonial from Colin and Justin. But if you want to know the full story, and why my family and I are so grateful to these two men, please read this:

https://cynthiasreyes.com/2013/09/07/the-review-that-left-my-husband-speechless/

Thanks again, Colin and Justin. For your brilliant designs. For being kind to a stranger. And for being you.

A Good Home, An Honest House, Author Cynthia Reyes, Book Reviews, Books, Great books, New Books

A Summer of Great Reviews

What a precious gift from a reader to an author! Taking the time to buy, read and review their book.

My great thanks to:

Hilary Custance Green (UK), acclaimed author of Surviving the Death Railway and The Green Writing Room blog.  An Honest House was her companion during her own book tour:  

AN HONEST HOUSE AND AN ALBRIZIA

I loved Cynthia Reyes’s first Memoir  A Good Home, so I picked up the continuing story An Honest House in happy anticipation. This is a book with a perfect title and has been my companion during a more than hectic summer….                         Screen Shot 2016-08-05 at 20.22.10

I laughed over the Valentine, I wept over Keats, I laughed over ‘a job that pays’. There are few easy-walking meadows in this story, because it is about the mountains and valleys. Among the things that struck me was Cynthia’s insistence on facing up to something we all know – it is never a good time for a difficult or dangerous conversation – and dealing with it so courageously….

Read More at:  https://greenwritingroom.com/2016/08/05/an-honest-house-and-an-albrizia/

 ~~

Tina of Chase N Chance Ranch (USA), who took An Honest House along on her summer vacation:  

BOOK SUGGESTION

On our vacation I brought along the new book (An Honest House: A Memoir, Continued) of one of my favorite authors and bloggers, Cynthia Reyes.

Living on a small hobby farm, working part time, having two children who play multiple travel level sports, and trying to fit in a little me time is always a challenge.  I figured I would be able to get in at least a chapter or two while away for those 6 days.  After the third day, my family threatened to hide my book as I finished it and was starting it over again.  I did not want to put it down!!

 Read More at:  https://chasenchanceranch.wordpress.com/2016/07/26/book-suggestion/

~~

Chip Barkel, realtor and writer (Canada), who made both A Good Home and An Honest House his summer picks:  

SUMMER READING: CYNTHIA REYES’S A GOOD HOME & AN HONEST HOUSE

“Ambercroft Farm, the sign out front said. Hamlin was on a first name basis with the grand old farmhouse right from the start, calling it Ambercroft. For years, I didn’t call it anything at all. The tall, two-story Victorian house seemed sealed off from the rest of the neighbourhood. Within a solid wooden fence and gates, massive maples waved big leafy arms. Pines and dense blue-green spruces soared. A cedar hedge ran the length of the property on one side. This was a private place, sure of its personality and power.”

blog-photo-garden-circle

I often think as I walk through neighbourhoods that behind every shuttered window is a story. Often those stories are ones only the walls and maybe a few select people ever witness. For some a house is a sanctuary, but when life presents a crisis….

Read More at:  http://www.chipbarkel.com/blog/summer-reading-cynthia-reyess-good-home-honest-house/

Chip, Tina and Hilary: I thank you all. 

Note to Readers:

If you’ve recently read a book you like, especially one by a new or Indie author, would you please consider reviewing it online