Susi Stone Every month I want to highlight the items that have captured my attention. From music to decor, ingredients to antiques; here are some of my favorite monthly obsessions.   Stonewall Kitchen: White Truffle Oil I have a thing for unami.  Recently recognized as a distinct fifth taste, after salt, sweet, sour, bitter, umami […]

Susi Stone One of the best parts of the pandemic is having the time to explore new things. Armed with Netflix, Audible, and my trusty sidekick Google, I have been diving into food trends, international recipes, flavor profiles, techniques, and food history. Lately, I have turned my sights off the plate and into the cup. […]

Susi Stone It’s 2021 finally and time for a reboot. 2020 was hard and I fear that if I am not imaginative and self-motivated January may feel like more of the same, a big holding pattern, and a good time for a lot of nothing. It’s too early for spring, the holidays are over. The […]

Susi Stone As a writer, (ok, it’s a blog; not a novel or a screenplay, but still) sometimes I face a little writer’s block. But this topic flowed effortlessly because I am surrounded by it. It flows from every corner of the property. It sputters up through the ground. It flows off the hillsides, under […]

Susi Stone My bad. I am guilty of trying too hard to make Christmas perfect. For years, I went to the limit for my children, my husband, my aging parents, my guests; plagued with the lasting impact of letting anyone down. For years, I stressed about the perfect decor, meals, gifts, and parties. I stressed […]

2020 feels like the year of the “dark before the dawn.” Today, Monday, December 21, 2020, is the winter solstice,  the shortest, darkest day of the year.  This twice-yearly occurrence happens when one of the Earth’s poles has its maximum tilt away from the Sun, once in each hemisphere, and signals the start of the […]

  As the months of social distancing tick on, and the “new normal” sets in, one element of my life has proven to be more valuable than I ever imagined. It is my growing awareness of the   importance of belonging to my tribe.    I actually have a few tribes that I hold very dear […]

  When we first contemplated the idea of moving up a mile-long driveway, deep in the woods, without a neighbor in sight, waves of loneliness and fears of isolation lapped onto the shores of my mind with unrelenting regularity.   I have swum in the cold, dark ocean of loneliness and isolation before. For 20 […]

a spring rampage   Where does inspiration come from? For me, it’s the seasons, the land, and my local market.  My husband also has a big say in what looks good so we share meal planning.  He chooses the main course and I curate and cook the meal. Today he came home with beautiful fresh […]

The Gold Standard   The builder of the Cornwall Castle, Charlotte Martin’s, first foray into architecture was Turtle Bay Gardens, a series of 19 brownstones in New York that she bought in 1918 to turn into an enclave for New York’s artistic and literary set. Her creation still stands today along East 49th street, and […]