The Stillmeadow road

Recieved the books in due time. Big fan of Christmas in Connecticut with Barbara Stanwyk, then finding a book that the movie came to life from was a fun find.

After listening to the news about all the hate and politics going on today,and the wholesale decline of morals in our society, this book is like a breath of fresh air. I read a chapter each evening and my sanity is restored. This is my fourth reading of it since I got it and am now looking to buy more of her books. I actually read her articles in "Family Magazine" (Butternut Wisdom) many years ago when I was a teenager and all the other girls were reading movie magazines. It is a real "feel good" book.

I love Gladys Taber's books.In STILLMEADOW ROAD, Taber diaries life in her Connecticut farmhouse, circa 1960. Perhaps the charm of her books is in the simplicity of the life she describes. Perhaps it's in her delight in words as well as in her existence. Certainly it's in the phrasing she uses, the verbal portraits she paints of her life, her dogs, her friends. Here is warmth and love and charm in print. Here are simple vignettes to warm the reader's heart and challenge her to find the same delight in life wherever she may be."We have an appointment with winter," she writes in the beginning, "and we are ready. The wood is stacked with seasoned applewood and maple, the snow shovel leans at the back door, the shelves are jammed with supplies. When the first innocent flakes drift down, we put out more soot and fill the bird feeders. When the snow begins to come in all directions at once and the wind takes on a peculiar lonely cry, we pile more wood on the fire and hang the old iron soup kettle over it, browning the pot roast in diced salt pork and onion. As the blizzard increases, the old house seems to steady herself like a ship against a gale wind. . . Snow piles up against the windowpanes, sifts under the ancient sills, makes heaps of powdered pearl on the ancient oak floors. But the house is snug in the twilight of the snow and we sit by the fire and toast our toes feeling there is much to be said for winter after all."Appreciation of life flows through these pages, sparkling with common sense and wisdom like wave-caps glistening in the sunlight of wise reasoning.Of August she writes: "For after the vigorous growth of the spring and summer, nature comes to a pause, and the countryside has a dreamy look. We need to pause, too, in the midst of pickling and canning and freezing, and let the serenity of the season give us tranquility...It is time to sit quietly in the shade of the apple trees...There is more to living than the endless activities we all pursue. Most of us indeed seem to live on a wheel which revolves faster and faster but has no true destination...But since we have just so much time alloted to us, some of it should be spent in reflecting, and some in pursuits which have nothing to do with our daily lives...because life isn't a business; it is a precious gift."Gladys Taber's legacy is a celebration of life as she chose to live it. Her books are gems of poetic but light prose with depth, perception and feeling. The shallow and pseudo-sophisticated reader may label her "sentimental" but there is nothing idealistic or shallow about her writing. She simply lives and appreciates a simpler life than most choose.STILLMEADOW is a book you can put away when life interferes with your reading and it's interesting enough to pull you back, eager to take up where you left off.

This book, with a section for each month of the year, tells about Gladys Taber's Conneticut farm, Stillmeadow. In between Gladys's stories about the plants and animals of the farm, including her Abbyssinian, Amber, are delightful anecdotes about her first days on the farm when everything seemed to go wrong. She also shares her personal insights and opinions on the youth and political issues of that time. Some may argue that she only wrote about nature so much for profit, but, if read, this book puts a stop to that argument. No one who was in it just for profit could have written anything so loveingly about nature, let alone several books.All in all, this book will truly make you appreciate nature in all of its forms, from wisteria to skunks and back again!